making your own marine plywood out of home depot plywood??

[bobbo268]

Re: making your own marine plywood out of home depot plywood??

now here's a question that you may answer by saying "man this guy is lazy", but i think some people think about it, including me (i'll be honest), but here goes... My floor seems perfectly solid, top and bottom, my carpet is just ugly, not even terrible. If i pull the carpet and the floor seems perfectly fine, would I not be perfectly fine just recarpting the good wood? or at least putting another couple layers of spar urethane on the top side? (again, this is a boat that from now on, will be used once a week for a couple hours, otherwise its on its trailer in my driveway always covered.....)

don't mean to sound lazy but usually the only stupid questions are the ones unasked....

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: making your own marine plywood out of home depot plywood??

If the wood has not been water saturated and in fact is solid an sound there is no reason you can't apply your choice of sealer to it and install new carpet. With proper care and maintenance it will last a long time IMHO

 

[jigngrub]

Re: making your own marine plywood out of home depot plywood??

Meh, it all depends on how much work you want to do and what kind of job you want when you're finished.

There's nothing wrong with reusing your old plywood if it's still good, but removing the old glue and carpet backing that's stuck to it is a job. You can figure an hour or more per sheet with a belt sander and a 30 grit belt. Pulling the old carpet up isn't bad, just grab a corner and start pulling.

If your old decking is wet, you'll need to let it dry out after sanding or the urethane won't penetrate and bond well... but if your boat is always covered it should be pretty dry.

I reused the decking on my boat because it is a high grade of plywood and was still in real good shape, this is what it looked like when I pulled the carpet off:

You can see the old glue and carpet backing stuck to it.

This is what it looked like after I sanded it off and put 2 coats of epoxy resin on it:


... and this is what it looked like after the fourth coat of epoxy resin:

Epoxy resin is the ultimate sealer, it's like a sheet of Lexan covering your decking.... and it's not as expensive as some people think if you buy it from the right place. I buy my epoxy resin from USComposites:
Epoxy :?Epoxy Resins and Hardeners

The 2 gallon kit of the 635 3:1 or 4:1 should be plenty to do all the decking on your boat and it'll help make your old wood last even longer.

Going with marine vinyl or a paint on finish like Tuff Coat or Durabak, will keep your boat and plywood looking nicer for a lot longer than carpet will... which means you won't have to fool with redoing your boat for a long time, and that should appeal to everyones lazy side.:watermelon:

It's your boat and you can redo it any way you want, but spending a little more time on it now and using quality materials will mean more time for other things later.

 

[bobbo268]

Re: making your own marine plywood out of home depot plywood??

that is basically what mine looks like... just took the whole boat apart, did about half the carpet.... now i look at it and say "what did i get myself into?" I think the hardest part will be putting the new siding in without breaking off the channels the old one was in (but thats for next weekend)....

So do you just paint on the epoxy resin with a brush or roller? And what is drying time like? Also, If you were reusing the wood, why not Leave the wood on the boat and put the epoxy resin on... Unless you did both sides. I guess it would be the lazy way to go and just leave it on the boat and just do the top.... i'll have to see once i'm done sanding...'


and jigngrub, any pics of the completed project?

 

[jigngrub]

Re: making your own marine plywood out of home depot plywood??

These are the simple tools I use for applying epoxy:


The red solo plastic cups are for mixing, the black wallpaper tool (Home Depot $5) is for spreading the resin around ond the wood... it doesn't waste epoxy like rollers do but spreads the material quickly, the chip brush is for back brushing after the resin is all spread out... it evens everything out.

The cups and brushes are disposable because it takes more time to clean them up than they're worth, but the black spreader cleans up easily with mineral spirits.

The thing about working with epoxy is to mix small batches and work fairly quickly, in mass (in the cup) the epoxy has about a 15 or 20 minute pot life... but when it gets all spread out and thin it takes a lot longer to set and cure. Which brings us to the removal of the plywood from the boat.

Wood coated with epoxy should't be left outside overnight if it hasn't cured (about 24 hrs.) the cooler temps and high humidity/dew doesn't work well with uncured epoxy and can make for a sticky mess. Bringing the newly coated wood inside for the night works much better.

The learning curve on using epoxy is a quick one and I actually enjoy using it. I keep some around the house all the time for whatever projects pop up. I actually used this epoxy to seal all of my exterior wood door frames on my house, I also used it to restore some old wooden boat paddles I had laying around. You can buy powder fillers for it to make epoxy adhesives and fillers, I actually fixed the beater brush on my upright vacuum cleaner with this stuff... and I have a quart or more down in the garage waiting for the next project to pop up.

 

[Auger01]

Re: making your own marine plywood out of home depot plywood??

Yup epoxy is the permanent waterproof solution. Keep it out of thesun and it will last forever. Unless you recoat varnish and paint every few years, they only delay the rot.

 

[icyveins]

Re: making your own marine plywood out of home depot plywood??

You paid $2.52 per s.f for your vinyl and $2.06 per s.f for your plywood.

You can get Nautolex marine vinyl for $1.05 a s.f @ Defender:
Nautolex Marine Vinyl Flooring
If you want to compare it to carpet prices it's only $9.50 a square yard.

I shopped it out, trust me I didnt want to drop that kind of money for the flooring. my boat is 8 ft wide and not many places had it 96"wide. I always found it 72". and nobody really had the colors I liked.

 

[bobbo268]

Re: making your own marine plywood out of home depot plywood??

post some pics of the completed project with those floors if you can....

Here is my floor so far. Honestly when i started I thought "jigngrub said 1 hour per sheet, he must be nuts, this is going fast..." then 15 minutes in i thought "an hour per sheet sure would be nice!" haha, I think it took me about 1.5 to 2 hours for the half so i ended up making pretty good time. Used an orbital with 60 grit (the lowest grit home depot had)... the plywood looks good to me so far:

 

[bobbo268]

Re: making your own marine plywood out of home depot plywood??

if i'm going to use the spar urethane, and need to use some floor filler, do i urethane first then filler or visa-versa? (i would assume filler first but not sure how the urethane soaks up (or lack thereof) into the filler. My other thread is starting to cross over topics, but i have been thinking about vinyl floor now (seems everyone is against carpet, though i love laying on the floor i do fear fish blood and guts), but not sure how these waves will feel through the vinyl, or if i just cake it with filler how it will last.....

 

[kfa4303]

Re: making your own marine plywood out of home depot plywood??

Hey bobbo looks like you're making good progress. You generally want to fill the holes first, then cover the wood and sealant. While you probably could get away with using regular wood filler, I would use an epoxy of some sort. JB Weld would work and/or West System 610. They're both 2-part epoxies that should be waterproof and quite stable. The JB is kind of an ugly grey color, but if you're going to cover it that won't matter much. As for the covering itself, lots of folks like the marine vinyl because it hoses down nicely, comes in all kinds of cool designs and colors to match any boat, and lasts a long time. It also tends to hold fewer hidden old hooks, dirt and guts. I think it mostly just comes down to time, money and preference. As long as the covering is easy to clean while still having a bit of grip, you'll be fine. My decks are just painted. They work fine, but they get pretty slick when they get wet, so I need add some non-slip as a top coat, or something. Line-X actually makes a spray-on, marine, non-slip paint. It's kinda pricey, but it apparently lasts forever and comes in a million colors. Some folks even use it on the bottom of their hulls for an extra layer of protection.

 

[bobbo268]

Re: making your own marine plywood out of home depot plywood??

so to touch up some of the rough spots, what type of filler / joint compound can i use to fill it that will work ok with the spar urethane? JB weld is like metal and costs way to much to use sparingly as a filler

 

[kfa4303]

Re: making your own marine plywood out of home depot plywood??

Oh, I see how deep the waves are now. In that case, you'd have to use a product like marine-tex which is a spreadable epoxy, but it's also pretty pricey. I guess you could cut a sheet of 1/8 ply to fit, then glue and screw it on top of the current sheet, then seal and cover it with carpet or vinyl.

 

[bobbo268]

Re: making your own marine plywood out of home depot plywood??

i think between the carpet and glue they should be unable to be noticed, i hope. I'll sand it some more before i urethane it and see if that helps a bit. The wood looks pretty good after 17 years of being probably left outside so i hate to replace it if i don't ABSOLUTELY have to

 

[kfa4303]

Re: making your own marine plywood out of home depot plywood??

yeah, I think that's will be fine. A little wavyness won't hurt anything.

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: making your own marine plywood out of home depot plywood??

I'd mix up some PB to fill that wavy plywood and smooth it out with a bondo spreader. Cheap and would work great.

 

[jigngrub]

Re: making your own marine plywood out of home depot plywood??

Yeah, that's the mechanical sanding "wavy gravy".

Since you're going with the spar I can't recommend a good filler other than PB or epoxy filler that won't break loose on a plywood deck.

If you were going with epoxy you could get a couple quarts of SM fairing compound filler and mix up your own filler with the epoxy resin, that's how I got my decking fairly flat after mechanical sanding. you can make the SM fairing any consistancy you want from thick peanut butter down to a thin self leveling filler.

EDIT

You might try this stuff for a filler:
http://www.autozone.com/autozone/ac...dy-filler/_/N-25u5?itemIdentifier=167019_0_0_
I've never used it so I don't know about the workability of it, but it sounds like about what you need from the product description.

I'd lay that filler down with one of these, they're handy and cheap tools and it's what I used to fair/fill my decking with:
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Workforce-5-Way-Tool-07531/202573860

The 10" wide blade makes quick work of spreading over large areas and the tool cleans up easily with mineral spirits.

 

[fishrdan]

Re: making your own marine plywood out of home depot plywood??

edit, didn't see newer posts.........

 

[Gibbles]

Re: making your own marine plywood out of home depot plywood??

I just use a scraper, sometimes cardboard and pour my epoxy on the wood and then spread it around.

And I used epoxy to fix up some old wood (wood was in overall good cond, and and oddball size), it had rotted a little in some of the ends/corners, but it had fully dried out.

it sucked the epoxy up like a sponge, after a few coats i felt it was stronger than new.

IMO; if the decking is ok, rip the carpet up and hit the deck with a palm sander to clean up, then seal, sand again and put a few more coats down before new carpet or what ever.

And I put carpet in my first build, loved it for the first 2 seasons, but spilled coke, beer, fish blood/parts...
my current build I put nautolex in...
but I understand the little one worries...

 

[bobbo268]

Re: making your own marine plywood out of home depot plywood??

i ended up using spar urethane. this is with 3 coats so far (this 3rd coat is still wet). The first coat got sucked up, the second was about 40% sucked up, so once this dries i'll see how much got sucked up. if it doesn't look like a sheet of glass i'll do a 4th coat, let it sit for 3 days indoors, and throw down the carpet. I'm like my father, he has a an 18 year old boat and the seats look new, carpet looks as new as a 18 year old carpet could look, but it gets cleaned asap, and after every outing, always covered, etc... i think i'll scotchgard the carpet before putting the rails back on. The seats are getting reupholstered so i won't have those back until february or march, but the new siding goes in as well as the new decals. Once the seats are done, the bimini top and boot will be re-done to match.

I figured i could have bought a boat already updated for what i paid for the boat and the upgrades, but i guess you have to look at the fact that it is 100% the way I want it, and pretty much brand new.

 

[jigngrub]

Re: making your own marine plywood out of home depot plywood??

Urethane looks real good Bob.

I'm a bit OCD myself and that was the primary reason behind my previous suggestions.

Just a heads up on your carpet installation:
Read the adhesive directions and follow them to the "T" paying close attention to the minimum working temperature (it's 65*F on all the ones I've ever used) and the cure time at that temp.

The adhesive instructions will also mention using a 150 lb. flooring roller to roll your carpet in with, I strongly recommend renting one of these for a long lasting and professional looking installation. I'd normally suggest buying a hand roller with a thinner lighter weight carpet, but with that plush 28 oz. you're going to need the 150 pounder.

These are just suggestions and you can build your boat any way you want, but I learned the hard way that carpet fails from not following instructions aren't pretty: