Question on cleaning a boat before restoration

[dlang123]

Just got my first boot. 18ft Pontoon used, wood deck, horrible tears in the seats.. and the prettiest bed of moss on the carpet. Thinking about taking all the furniture off, spraying the whole boat down with bleach/water mix, let it sit for a bit, then pressure washing it, and putting the furniture back on. Maybe try to do some upholstery work while I am at it.

Should I not remove the furniture? will it hurt anything? I really need to remove the sides too, cause lots of moss under them. Does this sound like a plan? Any other ideas? Any idea how long it takes to completely strip a pontoon? Doesn't look hard at all.

 

[jbcurt00]

I suspect the carpet will need to come off & you'll likely NEED to replace some (probably all) of the decking.

Moss doesn't typically grow on dry, structurally sound plywood under carpet. Or at least not a nice healthy blanket of moss on everything.

I'd be extremely surprised if you don't have plywood that needs to be replaced.

 

[Mud Puppy]

Wife's cousin just went down into Arkansas and got a 24 footer for next to nothing. Decking was solid, but it too was covered in small areas of brown (the original carpet color) and distracted from the dark green fluffy carpet (the moss covered part).

The problem was were the moss lived, the carpet below was totally dry rotted and not stuck to the decking any longer. I would agree with JB on the wet decking: you may get lucky after pulling it and it has a chance to dry, but be prepared for the worse.

The seating, if it is anything like his, will totally need redone. No pontoon boat experience other than what I noticed with this one. Good luck, and we will be waiting the outcome.

 

[dlang123]

This was a before and after, first pic is from the seller when he sold it
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I ripped all the furniture out (man that's some easy stuff to take out) and did a preliminary pressure wash just to see what I would be doing (replacing carpet/decking?). The deck still feels pretty solid, it's a 2007 boat that was for rental. Guessing it is still the original one.

Boy what a difference pressure washing makes, still need to pressure wash it once more with a shopvac going along with it, sucking up the dirty water as I go.

 

[dlang123]

I also decided against removing the walls for now... If I can get 1-2 years out of the wood decking that is here already, and just recover the seats for this season (i.e. within the next month) then I will consider this a total win for me.

 

[dlang123]

First time, I just pressure washed it and didn't get the dirty water shop vac'd up. Rained a few times before my cover got here, and then I covered it wet. Went out of town for a week, so 2 weeks later when I looked at it, was looking pretty bad again (plus I had missed a few spots).

So I poured a solution of about 30% bleach and water onto the deck, and spread it around, let it sit for at least 20 minutes or so, then pressure washed it again with the shop vac running sucking up the dirty water as I went. Got most of it up. Rinsed as much bleach off as I could into the shopvac. Took it out both weekends, the carpet is still looking pretty clean. Even cleaned the vinyl up some, too bad there were tons of rips in the seats that I have decided to just tape for now. I have one seat yanked off with the foam, and am waiting some time to redo the seat bottom (slight rot on one corner) and see what my skills are like redoing the vinyl.

That may turn out to be a winter project, after boating season, since I just got it and want to enjoy it already.