Marine Vinyl Deck Covering Project

I started pulling out the carpet from the Bayliner. Today I was able to get an hour or so in on the boat, and with my son's help, we pulled the lounge seats, removed both upholstered side panels, and removed as much of the carpet as I had planned to replace.

One thing I realized is that the carpet came out in nice big pieces without tearing or ripping, same as it was glued in. I quickly realized that is a BIG help, because the old carpet pieces are perfect templates for cutting their replacement pieces from the Deco Dot vinyl. So we carefully removed all the pieces, including seat bases, flotation boxes, and some hull pieces. They were marked "Port" or "STARBOARD" and rolled up and saved. These old pieces will save me hours of making templates from craft paper.

Hope this helps someone else who is replacing carpet.

Also stopped at Lowes and picked up Stainless Steel staples labeled "Suitable for Marine Use". ($16 for a small 3x4" box!!!) Be careful when buying stainless staples, because there were others labeled "Not for Marine Use".

Will post some pics as the project progresses.

Re: Marine Vinyl Deck Covering Project

Got an hour in on the boat after work today. Installed two deck plates and took some pics.

Last fall when i started removing the carpet, I found that the plugs in holes that the flotation foam is injected through were cracked and breaking free of the plywood deck.



So I was afraid water had been soaking through the carpet and soaking the foam. Decided to install a deck plate on each side where these plugs are rather than try to fill them again. This will also give me visual access to the flotation foam and see if any water is getting where its not supposed to. These are 4" deck plates, and seal water tight with just two turns. Seeing as the deck is getting prepped for the vinyl, I thought it was a good time to install the deck plates.

Here a little more foam needs to be scraped out to expose the hull.



This is what the other side looked like when I pried the plywood disk out. Notice that the foam is dry as a bone. Just as it should be. (thank goodness!!!)



And this is what the deck plates look like. They are nice and smooth with no sharp edges to hurt your feet when stepped on.



You may be wondering why I put in the deck plates instead of just filling in the holes. Well, it was easy, fun, and I really wanted to be sure the foam wasn't water saturated. But mostly, just because I could

Just have to scrub and sand the plywood and the vinyl can start going down.

Re: Marine Vinyl Deck Covering Project

Here you see the lounge seat box, and additional storage shelf to the right, and foam box to the rear, all pretty much showing either the white gel coat or poly resin that is covering the ply. Notice how little glue there is. Most of the glue peeled off with the carpet! Woo Hoo! Much less scraping of glue.



This seat base is covered with glue. Don't know why it stayed on the seat base, but it did. Peels off easy with fingers, but that will take a long time. Will try using simple "pull" style scrapers.

Re: Marine Vinyl Deck Covering Project

Spent the whole day on the boat. This install is taking sooo long, its killing me! Sanded down the floor, filled various screw holes (where did they come form???) sanded corners nice and sharp so the vinyl would look good, filled knot holes in the ply, etc. Used thickened poly resin as a filler, it worked well, and I mixed it a little hot to speed up the process.

After about 6 hours, I had managed to install just 3 pieces, but it looks better than I thought. Prep makes a big difference in how it looks.





By sundown, about 1/3 of the deck was done. The deck is small, but odd shape, and the vinyl has to be cut and seamed. Hopefully, it will be finished tomorrow.

Re: Marine Vinyl Deck Covering Project

mark, looks good. is that deco dot kind of tacky feeling? would it make a good non skid dash application?

Re: Marine Vinyl Deck Covering Project

83mulligan said:

mark, looks good. is that deco dot kind of tacky feeling? would it make a good non skid dash application?

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A non-skid DASH? Well, Deco Dot is non-skid, because its covered in little tiny bumps that bare feet can grip well even when wet, but its not sticky. You want stuff to not slide off the dash?

Re: Marine Vinyl Deck Covering Project

yeah, mine is gelcoat. anything up there slides all over. looking for something that looks nice, allows things to be set up there without traveling all over the place.

Re: Marine Vinyl Deck Covering Project

No photo's in this update. Just wanted to rant about how long this is taking me. If I knew how long it would take, I would have just painted the floor with oil base paint and called it done.

The problems I run into are:

- Its a little boat, so I can't just lay down or spread out on the deck to work. I always find myself in that crouched down position with my butt on my heels, or kneeling. BTW, I have a permanent injury to my right foot that limits my ankle movement to just a few degrees (15 or so) and my toes don't bend at all. Makes crouching difficult.

- Its a little boat with a modified deck. I dropped the floor between the seats to get 3 more inches of headroom. Good idea for headroom. Bad idea for quick install of vinyl.

- It takes about an hour to get one piece of vinyl installed to where the glue is setting enough that it holds the vinyl in place. The job totals 16 pieces. I have three left to go.

- Details take time. Lots of time. Making a clean butt joint seem only 3 inches long takes 20 minutes of fussing to be sure the glue will hold things where you want.

- I spend too much time washing glue off my hands, off the tools, and off the vinyl. Everything has to be clean all the time. If you get one little spot of glue on your finger, it will transfer all over, and when it cures, it won't come off. Got to keep multiple wet rags and buckets of clean soapy water within reach. Glad I went with a water wash-up glue, otherwise I would have used a gallon or two of acetone already!!!

I'm leaving for vacation this coming Saturday, and tonight I'm doing a brake job on the tow vehicle, then that leaves 3 evenings to finish installing the vinyl, AND re-install the seats, side panels, bulk head, etc.

I'm exhausted and getting very little sleep. Should have started this a few weeks ago, just had no idea how tedious a job it turned out to be. Its no longer a fun job, its a chore, and the looming vacation deadline doesn't help.

The upside is it really looks great, and will probably out last me with a little care and maint.

Re: Marine Vinyl Deck Covering Project

I just saw in the carpet thread that you posted that you're using the Roberts adhesive. I think that was a good choice as it's very strong. As you said, this upgrade should outlast you. Looking forward to more pics. I installed Nautolex in my boat and was initially pretty bummed about the number of air bubbles I had that I was unable to work out. However after a couple days in the sun they seem to have pretty much gone away.

Re: Marine Vinyl Deck Covering Project

ezmobee said:

I just saw in the carpet thread that you posted that you're using the Roberts adhesive. I think that was a good choice as it's very strong. As you said, this upgrade should outlast you. Looking forward to more pics. I installed Nautolex in my boat and was initially pretty bummed about the number of air bubbles I had that I was unable to work out. However after a couple days in the sun they seem to have pretty much gone away.

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The Roberts adhesive is working well. I chose it because the label lists "vinyl tile on steel" as one of the acceptable applications. I was worried about cure when the adhesive is used between two non-porous and non-breathable materials. I think vinyl on steel is sort of like vinyl on gel coat. Not all the deck is gel coated, or resin coated, but 80% is. There were two spots where the skim coat of gel wore off even under the carpet.

I noticed that even after 24 hours, the vinyl can still be peeled back. The Roberts has cured quite a bit, but not fully. Sort of like a "chewing gum you stepped in on the sidewalk". Applying the roller puts it right back down. Where the vinyl is over a solid fiberglass surface, its takes about 4 days to start to set up like that. Carpet is probably a much faster cure and easier to deal with than the vinyl due to its breathable quality.

Glad to hear the bubbles went away in the sun. I keep rolling out the air bubbles as I find them. Seeing as this application is curing so slow, the vinyl will stick after a day or so when a bubble is found and rolled out.

Re: Marine Vinyl Deck Covering Project

I ran out of nautolex adhesive and ended up using the Roberts for a small amount of vinyl I installed in my gunwhale storage area. No issues. You are definitely right that it cures faster with carpet. After just an overnight it was on there permanently. In fact, my hatches ended up being just a little too big. I figured no big deal, I'll just peel the carpet back a bit and trim them. WRONG tried to peel it back and the carpet ripped apart and the adhesive didn't budge. I ended up having to make 3 new hatches. That sucked but at least the ahesive is good!

Re: Marine Vinyl Deck Covering Project

Here are the latest pics.....

Seats are in, and the bulkhead supporting the dash was cut down to about 4" wide. Instead of two bolts horizontal near the bottom, I went with two bolts vertical. Made it much more rigid. The dash is actually more rigid than with the old full size panel. And the cuddy is more open and airy. Its dark because there is a tarp covering the hatch. There are some backing filaments sticking out at the overlaps. Will have to trim them off with a razor blade.



Aft View. Note the "wrinkle" in the Deco Dot in the recessed floor area. That is actually what I thought to be a sag in the factory fiberglass covering the stringer. Went to grind it off thinking it was an air bubble, turns out its solid glass. Looks like the chopper gun operator paused there and made this big ridge. So I left it. There is another one on the other side. This is one of those times I decided not to sweat the details.


The last part of the project is to enclose the fuel tank and make access doors on each side of the splashwell for access to storage, battery, water separator, etc. The trim around the splashwell turned out well. Used all new stainless hardware to mount these trim pieces. Also screwed down the inspection deck plates and sealed with 4200. Word of caution, 4200 does not clean up from vinyl well.


BTW, I went to take these photos and the floor was a mess. Saw dust, mud from my shoes, sand, soda and crackers were all over the place. I grabbed the shop vac, and got up all the loose stuff, and then a once over with some windex and a damp rag and all the "stains" came right off. Cool. Although this was not the most meticulous project I've done (it was taking so long, I started to rush and cut corners), it came out well, and should last.

Re: Marine Vinyl Deck Covering Project

Mark, really nice looking work you did there.

Re: Marine Vinyl Deck Covering Project

83mulligan said:

Mark, really nice looking work you did there.

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Thanks Steve. I've been watching your project. Looking pretty good too!

apattemibrapy said:

Im painting a little jon for duck hunting and Im looking for grey, brown, and tan marine paint. Anyone know of a local place Anchorage to buy some paint? I probably will need a gallon of the grey and a few quarts of the brown and tan. Any help would be appriciated.

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Welcome to iboats! You will get a better response by starting a new thread rather than posting in the middle of an unrelated topic. There are members here from the world over, there is probably someone here who can help.