Marine Carpet vs Textured Vinyl flooring

[Neverquit]

Carpet versus Vinyl

Still going through the new to me boat (85 Holiday 18)

For 30+ years old the interior has held up extremely good.

No rips or cracks anywhere on the seats or side panels and color not faded.

The floor carpet, I am sure a good cleaning would do it wonders but for what it will take I figure now is the time to replace it.

So who has the factory marine carpet and who has put in the textured vinyl flooring?

What do you like or dislike about it?

One side of my mind says with mud and fish slime it would be a lot easier to keep the textured vinyl clean.

The other side of my my mind is thinking the vinyl might be hot on the feet and possibly more slippery than carpet after a few fish flop around.

Thoughts?

 

[Neverquit]

Thinking I am going to replace the flooring while I have the time to do it.

85 Holiday 18 still has factory carpet.

Pro's and Con's Vinyl vs carpet.

Help me decide which to go with.

Boat will see more muddy boots and fish slime than bare feet and bikini's.

 

[No-AH]

I've had both types of floor covering in my boats. At first I was skeptical with the thought of going vinyl too. When I was at that stage of the redo, I chose the marine grade Nautolex brand as it's worth every penny. I fish a lot and I was tired or prying hooks from the carpeting. Very easy to clean and so nice bare feet!

 

[dingbat]

First boat had carpet. Blood stains, dried squid, floor rot, yuk

Later boats had non-skid. No mess. No fuss. Just hose it down to wash the yuk out the cockpit drains.

Use Woody Wax on the non-skid twice a year to keep it looking like new

 

[Watermann]

For me it's really an easy choice, for instance in homes where there's a wet environment do you want carpet around your toilet, kitchen sink or washer - dryer? I imagine not so why on earth put it in a boat?

I used the Nautolex vinyl deck covering in my last 2 Starcraft boats and have zero issues with it. I swab my decks with superclean and water to get them cleaned up. Using a garden hose to wash dirt and crud into all the cracks and crevices is a bad idea and will saturate everything far beyond what water the boat will encounter normally. Remember, water for all it's life giving properties will if given enough time destroy everything it comes in contact with, even rock.

 

[59Thompson]

Have seen a combination, and it can always be added later. The owner put down 1 piece of Nautolex seamlessly making the floor water resistant if not proof, then added some male snaps on the floor around the edges and near seats and then had some marine carpeting made up with bound edges and the female snaps so that it could be snapped in and out for the barefoot set when skiing, tubing or not fishing. Seems a good compromise and plan to do mine that way this summer when I get my foam, plywood and Nautolex in. Could even just drop in the rubber non-slip based outdoor rugs as a quick and easy when carpet is desired.

 

[Neverquit]

Thanks for the feedback/encouragement.

The Nautolex material is what I was looking at using.

Thinking of using the Gray Shark color for the floor and maybe the Nautolex black on top of the bow, stern and full wrap around the gunwales.

Leaning towards blacking out the top including windshield trim then spraying the rest of the boat an off white/cream color and adding some of the graphics used on the newer Starcraft Aurora.

Is the Nautolex flexible enough to wrap around the gunwales and stay put with enough glue?

 

[Watermann]

Yes and no on the vinyl doing what you want. You can use it on the lower side of the gunnels but the tag end that goes under will have to be mechanically secured or it will let go and curl sooner or later. Painting the inside portion of the gunnel and using the vinyl on top is what most guys end up doing.

 

[Monmouth00]

I had carpet before I re-did my Starcraft. I put in Nautolex on the floor and carpet on the benches during the rebuild.

I can say that I'm happy with the Nautolex on the floor because it's super easy to clean, and having a somewhat clumsy 9 year old on board most of the time, I'm not struggling to pull hooks out of the pile.

As for the carpet on the benches, my boat sits under a cover, outside. At the end of the season, I pulled the cover off to winterize. I found tons of mold on my gunnels and on my console. My cover is propped up high, and has vents, but the mold persists. If the flat surfaces are covered with that much mold, I can't even imagine what's trapped in the carpet pile. Gross. The bench tops are bad enough, I couldn't even imagine how skeeved out I would be knowing it's all over the boat.

Just my take. Good luck!

 

[bchaney]

"Boat will see more muddy boots and fish slime than bare feet and bikini's."

This says vinyl to me.

 

[gm280]

Bottom line is people will use what the think best suits their needs. There is no one size fits all when it comes to flooring on a boat. So select your choice and happy boating. JMHO!

 

[ab59]

I put new 20 oz carpet in my boat because of the 115* days here in the summer but I already wish that I would have gone with at least vinyl on the deck. In the last boat I built , a ski barge, it had all fiberglass and gel cote decks and I could just turn a water hose on the deck and wash it down at the end of the day . Blood, guts, scales and all, right out the drains . Cant do that with carpet.

 

[Doh]

Not only Blood/Guts/Scales, but Sand also. Vinyl is So Much easier to keep up.

Frigging Carpet even turns into Grass/Moss growing base.