Ordering carpet. Few questions before I do.

[Dowellz]

Im nearly ready for carpet and right now a online retailer is offering 20% off carpet orders. So figured may as well take advantage.

Question is ive read you want to keep all your pieces facing the same direction, like hatch doors and surrounding flooring. Does this apply to vertical pieces? Like the panel that will go verticly from my main deck to the casting deck, could this piece been turned and not notice? Thanks guys for any info.

Here's a pic for you guys. Got the primer on this week!

 

[Johnny]

as long as it is "aesthetically pleasing" to the eye is the rule in everything.

I have worked with sooooooo many architects, designers and decorators.
it is rediculous how they want everything to "match" . . . . drives me nuts.

Just take your time, plan your cuts and it will look great to any fish you sling on it.
if you want to mix it up and be different, you can mis-match the designs any way
you want !!! there is no "law of physics" involved.

your boat = your call

 

[Dowellz]

This is why I ask, I don't want my boat to look like the photo below. I'm spending a lot of money on this boat, I want it to look perfessional grade when I'm done. Thanks for any input guys.

 

[Johnny]

I understand completely !!
there are literally hundreds and hundreds of very good carpet projects on this forum.
just use the search feature and look at how other members have done their projects.
the adhesive you choose will play a big role in how it will look next year.

 

[nytebyte]

Carpet is directional so it all has to run the same direction or it will show a shade variation. You can run you hand across and it will lay down one way and stand up the other.

 

[Tman]

A good quality carpet isn't directional. If you get a good marine grade carpet without a pattern you will be fine.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

 

[nytebyte]

I have done carpet for 45 years-it all is directional

 

[LDUBS]

My two cents -- For best look, I would plan on running the nap in the same direction.

 

[Dowellz]

I'm looking at 30-35' of carpet then. I'll have to do some math and see if it makes more sense to order wider carpet. I'll draw up some plans and get some more input from you guys.

 

[water bouy]

If you want it to look really good you might try vinyl.

https://www.cabelas.com/product/boating/carpet-floor-coverings/vinyl|/pc/104794380/c/104711580/sc/104672880/dorsett-marine-vinyl-floor/1316443.uts?destination=%2Fcategory%2FVinyl%2F104672880.uts

 

[Dowellz]

Thought about it, but it's nearly double the cost of the carpet I'm looking at. Boat carpet buys is running a 20% off sale right now. $7.99 for 20oz carpet. Stuff look amazing in the pictures and videos I've seen.

 

[DPI]

Make sure the width of the carpet is wide enough to cover the vertical pieces in the direction you want to cover them in. I made a big mistake of not measuring the widest point of my boat which was 6'6" and I ordered the 6' wide carpet instead of the 8.5' carpet. Oh, and I used 40' of carpet on my tracker pro 175. I used the gunmetal grey.

I also used very sharp upholstery shears to cut 99% of the carpet. There is much less fraying with the shears vs a razor blade / utility knife. Also, the most frustating and time consuming part was not having enough clamps for the adhesive boatcarpetbuys sells. It seems like decent adhesive, but you have to clamp the carpet for several hours for it to cure and I usually waited at least overnight.

I bought 15 spring clamps from harbor freight and I still didn't have enough to make good time. This was my biggest limiting factor. It takes many clamps per piece to get good adhesion. If you use contact cement as some suggest you may not have this issue. I also bought about 15 yard sticks from lowes. These make great support for the clamps. These help spread the load of the clamps, they're cheap and you can cut them to the length you need for inside corner clamping.
These are the clamps I used. https://m.harborfreight.com/2-12-in-nylon-spring-clamp-69290.html
The very wide clamps come in handy too.

This is what it looks like when you make a mistake of running the pattern the opposite direction. I fixed it by reversing the way the hatch opens as was my original plan. You can definitely see how the direction makes a difference with the color. These pictures were taken for opposite sides of the boat and after I reversed the hatch opening.

 

[DPI]

This is how I used the yard sticks. They are less than a dollar at lowes and they make a big difference with they way the finished product looks. I went a little over board with the clamps, but that was my last piece to cover.