Rotten floor

[Hawk109]

Hi everyone. I recently traded for a 1989 bayliner capri open bow 1900. The man said it drove and floats good and that it does. Took her on Lake Erie Saturday and caught 96 fish between 4 people in 4 hours. I knew the floor was rotten and it does need fixed. The floors are only rotten in the area between the seats. Basically back of front seats to where the windshield is. The stringers are solid as a rock. I am a roofer so I have done my fair share of wood repair in the past 18 years and want to do it myself. My question is since the stringers are good can i just patch in the bad wood? The one guy did a plywood overlay over the existing floor, so I was going to take that off , take off the carpet then possibly cut the bad plywood out and replace with new. I see all these people on here redoing the whole floor but was wondering if patching is good enough. Also I believe it rotted because someone put the wrong plug in the boat at one time and it was stuck. So rather then figuring a way to take it off they left it and bilge pumped what ever they could and left the water to evaporate. My guess is it evaporated and delaminated the wood then just roted it out. I got the plug out and drained everything. I am also going to replace the case thing that the plug goes into on the back of boat since I believe it to be taking in water. I will post pics of what I got from my cell phone so you guys can see. Thank you.

 

[Hawk109]

Re: Rotten floor

 

[glenn property of pam]

Re: Rotten floor

as a roofer you know that you have to cut until you find good wood and its the same for a boat. The problem is that the floor in places is cut into the fiberglass pockets of the stringers. In the pictures you can see where the cross brace for the floor is joined to the stringer and clearly rotted out. Im not going to say this is doom and gloom but if moisture got in to part of the stringer then it may have caused rot in the stringer itself. The stringer may be a solid piece of wood which may have reduced the travel of the moisture but you will not know until you are able to get to it.
The worst nightmare is a boat that's stored with the plug in and filled with water as the stringers are not really water-tight. I know that sounds weird but boats are built in a hurry so its common to get voids that will allow water under the stringer and into the foam on the other side and when that's under water for long periods its becomes saturated and needs to be replaced.

ok so where should you start.
I surgest that you should sample the stringers. you will need to cut holes in the floor as required to get to area's of intrest but that's no big deal as the floor is bad already. you will need a hole the other side of the stringer into the foam so you can core the foam with a piece of plastic pipe to check that the foam is dry. Drill into the stringer about 3/8 deep near the bottom with a 1/2" spade bit (make sure its the stringer and not the hull). Good wood is yellow and dry, kinda good wood is yellow and damp, bad wood is black. The transom near the bottom will also need to be tested. After testing fill holes with 3M 5200 sealer. If the stringers and transom are really good then you will only have to replace the floor.

 

[jigngrub]

Re: Rotten floor

Until you drill those stringers there's no way to tell if they're good or not.

Start taking the decking up and see just how far the rot goes, if it was double decked all of the decking below the top layer is probably rotten... but the only real way to tell is to take her apart. Then you can drill and check your stringers too.

 

[mrchev]

Re: Rotten floor

Welome to iboats, thats a good day fishing on Erie. until you drill small hole in the stringers to make sure they are good. i thought mine were ok till i drilled them. mine started off as the deck was rotten around the ski locker and has turned into a full resto deck,stringers,transom. your may not be the case, but make sure there is no other underling problems. would hate to put a new deck on a rotten stringers.In my signature is a link to my redo, when i pulled the floor i found that the foam in the rear was soaked. Keep in mind the only soft spot was the ski locker. when i drilled the stringer they were good in some spots and mor rotten at the rear were the floor felt the strongest. Not trying to scare you , just trying to give you a idea. you don't wont to be out on erie with a rotten boat, that water can get rough in a hurry as im sure you already know.