05-04-2007, 06:21 PM
Hey, let me throw in another idea for you here. I had an older 17.5' open bow boat and the original textured vinyl flooring had holes through it in the walking paths. I was looking around for a good way to recover the floor, either with vinyl or carpet. I walked into Costco and they had rolls of outdoor grade UV and oil resistant carpet for really cheap. They didn't have a lot of colors, I think blue, green, and grey. I bought a roll of grey. I think it was $26. Took it home, peeled out the old flooring, cleaned the floor up, had some carpet glue, and glued down the new carpet, cutting the edges as I went. The boat had some boards that run along the floor that I took out before carpeting so I could put them back on later, covering the edge of the carpet.
Anyway, when it was all said and done it ended up looking great. I put in a set of new back-to-back seats and the boat looked 20 years newer. That carpet still looked great 2 years later when I sold the boat despite the fact that it often sat uncovered in the weather and 2 cycle oil and or a bit of gas ended up on the carpet from time to time.
The roll of carpet was almost perfect for the space I needed, with almost no waste at all. However, you will need to measure the inside dimensions of your boat to see if it would work for you.
I would use that stuff again in a heart beat.
The idea of vinyl sounds nice except for the fact that it could become extremely slick very fast. I can't imagine having a wet, slippery floor AND have the boat rocking at the same time I'm trying to wrestle in a fish, etc. My luck I would end up on my butt and watching my pole fall out of the boat.
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Anyway, when it was all said and done it ended up looking great. I put in a set of new back-to-back seats and the boat looked 20 years newer. That carpet still looked great 2 years later when I sold the boat despite the fact that it often sat uncovered in the weather and 2 cycle oil and or a bit of gas ended up on the carpet from time to time.
The roll of carpet was almost perfect for the space I needed, with almost no waste at all. However, you will need to measure the inside dimensions of your boat to see if it would work for you.
I would use that stuff again in a heart beat.
The idea of vinyl sounds nice except for the fact that it could become extremely slick very fast. I can't imagine having a wet, slippery floor AND have the boat rocking at the same time I'm trying to wrestle in a fish, etc. My luck I would end up on my butt and watching my pole fall out of the boat.
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