soft floor question

[Troutkiller2006]

boat in question is a 87 center console with severe rot every where. ive done some transoms and stringers but never floors. not the work im afraid of as much as the cost. that floor is gonna eat up a lot of glass and resin and that stuff aint cheap!

so if you guys could please give me a heads up of whats involved in redoing the floor it would be real hepful. kinda hoping that since its a liner boat and not a rolled gunnel that maybe there is no wood in the floor and its just the stringers and braces underneath that are rotten making it weak. that would be awesome but i know better!

thanks in advance

[smokeonthewater]

Eh nope it's a wood floor and the stringers are almost certainly also rotten... Good chance the transom is at least starting to go... Drill test holes from the inside...

Sadly you are absolutely right... The cost of materials can easily exceed the value of a hull.

[Troutkiller2006]

the stringes and transom are dust, literally. no need to drill any holes. the po installed a hatch in the deck just forward of the console and lined it with aluminium. not a good idea or a good job. i suspect that caused the rot.

whats got me interested in doing this is 1) the hull looks near immaculate! its all there, gel coat is still shiny and hardly a scratch on the boat! 2) the hull is free. and 4) myboy is almost ten and every time i go fishing with a friend he asks if he can go. of course i cant invite him along when i was invited myself. cant just show up like, "i brought a case of bud and a small child".

i have a 25 foot chaparral and i take my kid out regularly on it but cant really do any inshore fishing on it. its good for snapper fishing and running out to deeper water but that stuff is seasonal and expensive to do. nothing sounds better to me than going fishing with my kid! and now that he is finally showing some real interest in it i need to put him on the fish so he doesnt lose interest. i need a small center console. and since im poor, an old fixer upper is the only way im gonna be able to pull it off right now. and i cant think of one better than a v20!

so please, anyone who might know, tell me what i would be getting into with this floor. lids gotta come off to do the stringers, im guessing to come at it from underneath?

[SkunkBoat]

Best way- Cap off, flip it and fix it. Then you also have access to stringers and transom.

The other way is cut the deck out, flip & fix, patch it back in. Easier removal & handling than cap off but not as clean end result. No access to inside transom either.

Both of these ways save the original skin of the deck.

Some guys have trashed the deck and made a new one entirely. Then you have to glass a new skin and make hatches yourself.

[Troutkiller2006]

thanks skunk. after looking around the forum for as long as i have, i was hoping you would chime in. was hoping for more replies too but it that time of the year, most peeps are out enjoying there boats or working on them.

if i do this i will definitely be removing the liner to get at everything. ive also given some thought to seacast for the stringers. my biggest concern with that stuff is weight. ive read that it is very heavy and that it is lighter than wood. would definitely be a lot easier. ill have to do some cost analysis and give it some consideration.

any idea where i can find some good reading on the floor repair procedures or some guidance? what materials to use and maybe a lay up schedule would be a great help! i like to learn as much as possible before doing or even considering such a project.

i did have an idea earlier, maybe my dumbest ever lol! what if after the transom and stringers are sorted out i didnt even replace the rotten wood in the floor? since corsa and the like are too expensive for my budget, what if i cut out the rotten wood and instead of replacing it and glassing it in i just glued the correct thickness foam board to the underside of the deck so that it reaches the stringers properly and then filled all the voids underneath with foam? i could screw some generic plywood down on top of the deck to keep it from bulging and heaving and fill her up!

[smokeonthewater]

Seacast and the like ARE heavy, but they also ARE very slightly lighter than wood and glass.

A wood deck would be CHEAPER than foam filling... Closed cell expanding foam is $$$

There is no way you can keep the deck from exploding from expanding foam other than cutting plenty of good size escape holes for it to over flow from as it expands.

[smokeonthewater]

Oh and you aren't getting much action because you haven't asked many specific questions...
For the most part you have asked for someone to write you a book with all the details of your project.... You gotta do the leg work and we can help you out when you get stuck...

My V-20 had the stringers n deck replaced by a former member here before I got it..
He went by kamikaze iirc so you could search for his posts here.

[Destroyer]

Originally Posted by Troutkiller2006

thanks skunk. after looking around the forum for as long as i have, i was hoping you would chime in. was hoping for more replies too but it that time of the year, most peeps are out enjoying there boats or working on them.

if i do this i will definitely be removing the liner to get at everything. ive also given some thought to seacast for the stringers. my biggest concern with that stuff is weight. ive read that it is very heavy and that it is lighter than wood. would definitely be a lot easier. ill have to do some cost analysis and give it some consideration.

any idea where i can find some good reading on the floor repair procedures or some guidance? what materials to use and maybe a lay up schedule would be a great help! i like to learn as much as possible before doing or even considering such a project.

i did have an idea earlier, maybe my dumbest ever lol! what if after the transom and stringers are sorted out i didnt even replace the rotten wood in the floor? since corsa and the like are too expensive for my budget, what if i cut out the rotten wood and instead of replacing it and glassing it in i just glued the correct thickness foam board to the underside of the deck so that it reaches the stringers properly and then filled all the voids underneath with foam? i could screw some generic plywood down on top of the deck to keep it from bulging and heaving and fill her up!

Ok, now you're starting to think out of the box, and that's good.

I'm sure that others besides me have redone their floor, but here's what I did. The story: The previous owner never vented under the floor, especially in the winter months with the boat covered.. so the floor rotted out but the stringers were still fine. Thank God he sold the boat to me before they did. The fix: Cut out the floor leaving a 2" border around the seats and in from the hull at the transom. Take out the floor, turn it over, pry, scrape, remove and clean all of the rotted wood off the underside of the floor. Then glue (Liquid Nails or equivalent) and Stainless screw irregular pieces of plywood to the underside. (Use irregular pieces so they don't make a continuous joint line like a box shape would). Then SEAL (something Wellcraft never did) the wood. I used fiberglass, but I don't see why you couldn't just use a good brand of wood sealer or epoxy. (Note: I had to remove all the old foam in the voids as it was waterlogged). Then I made a shelf out of scrap plywood and glued and screwed it to the underside of the 2" border that I left when I cut out the deck. Foamed the voids over the top so they would meet the bottom of my new deck. (Let the stringers be your guide for that part, and you'll have to cut and scrape the foam to properly shape it before you put your deck back onto it. But it's soft, and, while messy, it goes pretty quickly). Then I put the floor back onto the shelf, with glue and screws, and finally I covered the entire deck in U-Pol Raptor Truck bed liner (like Rhinoliner). I used the liner material because it's tough, has a nice soft rubbery feel to it on bare feet, is a great non-skid, cleans up easily and, because of it's thickness when applying, it filled all the joint lines and screw heads, making them completely invisible.
So your comment about filling the voids to the bottom of the deck is valid. I did it and my deck is solid as a rock.

[SkunkBoat]

Originally Posted by Troutkiller2006

ive also given some thought to seacast for the stringers. my biggest concern with that stuff is weight. ive read that it is very heavy and that it is lighter than wood. would definitely be a lot easier. ill have to do some cost analysis and give it some consideration.

Consider CarbonCore pourable compound(aka Arjay/Nidacore). It flows much better than Seacast. I haven't calculated how many buckets are needed but it will be a lot. The full Transom was 3 buckets.
Whatever you do will be $$$$$.
Since Carbon Core is self-leveling, it can be used to pour a deck. I saw a video once that showed that...

[phatdaddy]

You can spend as much or as little as you want. I did like D did except, my hull had no foam to contend with. You don't have to foam it back in, so don't. Repair stringers and transom with skunks pour method , then replace deck with Ds methoud,.