Removing Foam from Bench Seats

[hopper33]

Greetings:

I am adding upgrade/updating my jon boat, and now that I am done sealing up rivets, etc, it is time to move onto the sub floor. While cleaning up the floor it is clear that I had/have mice in the bench seats foam. I am not sure if I can get rid of them with the foam still there. I thought about sealing off the area, but then might get some dead smell (which isn't usually horrible with mice for very long), but I wonder if it is more practical to remove the foam and convert into storage.

How much structural integrity would I lose by removing all of the bench foam? There are two benches. I am using expanding foam in the subfloor, so foam in general will not be lax, but I hunt with some big boys, and do not want to have the bench cave-in because the foam is out.

Thank you for any insight!

 

[LDUBS]

I am going to guess that the foam in the seat boxes is more about floatation than structural.

 

[David Atkins]

The foam was installed for flotation and to follow USCG regs for flotation; only issue is most if not all manufacturers used foam that collects / holds water - Tracker is best known for using water holding foam (I had done several tracker jon boats and they all held water in the seat foam. There are better alternatives to poured in foam out there. Pull the foam and get rid of the mice, lol

 

[FuzzyGrub]

They need to make a flavor of styrofoam that mice hate!

 

[airshot]

They need to make a flavor of styrofoam that mice hate!

Peppermint...they run away from it...

 

[MoparMark]

Peppermint...they run away from it...

Be very carefully of the foam you use beneath the floor. Some foams mix with gasoline and become a substance similar to napalm.

 

[thill]

Just put some sticky traps in the boat, and you will catch the mice. Maybe a dab of peanut butter in the middle will help entice them faster.

I wouldn't tear my boat up because of a couple of mice, but that's just me

 

[thill]

Be very carefully of the foam you use beneath the floor. Some foams mix with gasoline and become a substance similar to napalm.

If you have enough gasoline in your boat to reach up under your bench seats, you have a MUCH bigger problem than the foam!

 

[FuzzyGrub]

The mice piss smell might be around allot longer than the mice. Back a number of years ago, a mouse was watching us fish from our old StarCraft. Never knew if that mouse made it to the bank or gobbled up by a Muskie or the like.

 

[TFBJR]

Mouse piss stinks. They piss every step they take. Dig the foam out. Get some sheet foam, cut it to size and layer it up there glueing it with 50 year caulking. Just a little bit goes a long way.That job doesn't need to look perfect unless you're like me where a 1 hour job takes all day, and yes I loose sleep over stuff like that.

 

[Still Afloat]

You could replace the foam and cap off the bottom of the seats with aluminum sheet to keep the mice out.

 

[Still Afloat]

This stuff isn’t cheap but, it works. Scented drier sheets also repel mice.
I also place some sticky traps and bait around the shop.

The Camaro which is in storage all winter has a bag of rodent repellent in the back seat and another in the trunk. The mice get into the car through a couple of air vents that Chevrolet provided for them. No problems since I started using this stuff.

 

[BillC]

If you take the straps off the boat when in storage its hard for mice to get in. I keep traps on the bottom in the back wired so the mice can’t drag them out of reach. But since I started taking the straps off I don’t have problems.