Re: soft floor advice needed!
So first are those meter tests even that accurate? And can the floor be soft and the stringers not actualy be rotten? any advice would be helpful. Thanks
I've read how moisture meters work, and IMO they're not all that reliable. The true test is to take a sample, weigh it on a lab scale, heat it to drive off the moisture, and re-weigh.
If you buy that boat you should be prepared for the worst - deck, stringers, AND transom. I guess I'm more on the skeptical side than some of the other replies so far, I'm rebuilding my third boat right now and on all 3 the seller swore up and down that everything was perfectly fine except for a little soft spot. The first one I was naive and didn't know any better, a year later I had to shut the boat down for the summer because I found that the transom was bad (and stringers, but somehow the foam was good). The next boats I knew going in what to expect, and sure enough each turned into all out rebuild projects.
IMO I'd stay away from that boat unless you're fully prepared to do a rebuild. Sure, you MIGHT get lucky and just have to replace a portion of the deck, but knowing how boats are constructed I can say that moisture has a bad habit of spreading like cancer from one part to anything touching it. I also know that a large portion of people selling boats are either overly optimistic about the integrity of their boat, or else are downright liars.
