Aluminum flooring?

[redneck joe]

Thinking seriously about putting in an aluminum floor in the lone star. I've been poking around the interweb and there seems to be three different grades - 3003, 6061 and 5052. Any of them going to be the better application? Follow up question, how thick will i need?

 

[444]

If this helps at all, in the semi truck/trailer industry, we use 3003 H22 aluminum tread plate as trailer flooring, 1/8 thick.

 

[ondarvr]

It's not going to make much of a difference if you're just using it as a floor.

 

[redneck joe]

cool I saw on another website the 3003 is dull and the 5052 is shiny no 3003 it is and was expecting to have to go to at least 3/16 or even 1/4"


now if I can just find a 5' x 11' i can do the floor in one piece.

 

[ondarvr]

We've used various thicknesses depending on the support structure under it. Dull is nice, but they all go dull after a period of time, just depends on the amount of use.

 

[redneck joe]

what is your best guess? Lots of foam underneath now. About 12 - 18"

 

[redneck joe]

And max 60" wide

 

[ondarvr]

The more braces the thinner the floor material. We would normally put 2-3 supports (front to back) between each rib. Lay the sheet down and see how much flex there is and put in the number of supports needed until you like it. Some people don't care if there's a little flex, others want zero, people tend to notice even a small amount of flex when testing it, then never notice it when on the water.

 

[redneck joe]

Cool i was thinking about supports just right there in the middle for the walkway and a few in back.