Flooring, Accessory Addition Part 3

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   MY HARDWOOD SOLE/  No more cabin carpet for my boat/ Accessory Addition Part 3

One of the trendy areas to make a change has been removing the carpet from the salon or cabin floor and replacing the carpet with hardwood flooring. I have seen this done in various makes and models over the last few years from small cabin cruisers to large salon yachts. Installations that have taken weeks by highly qualified installers to do it yourself and every thing in between. Some floors are beautiful and some have destroyed the interior appeal of the boat, but they all have the same things in common. Trying to make a product fit an application that the boat was never intended to have.

I am sure that like other accessories and modifications we make to our boats that boaters feal are either upgrading or adding a finish that the manufacturer was to cheap to install. After working at the product development level I can assure you both these answers are probably wrong. There are technical reasons why boat builders did not have hardwood floors in your boat. As a matter of fact there were many boats that were built with sections of wood floors in the galley area, and the wood floor section was nothing like the wood floors that installers are putting in the boats on an aftermarket level. Those small sections of floor were manufactured as a component and tied to the cabin floor with more than a pin nailer, and even with a stable backing and engineered installation methods quite a few were replaced at considerable cost and labor. So why not hardwood and what is the difference between a boat builders wood floor and aftermarket upgrade floors boaters have installed.

First lets think about wood floors in a salon style boat were hardwood floors make the most amount  of sense to install. The floor in this type of boat is generally well up from the bilges as the engine compartment is below the deck are you are covering up. But even at that there are factors that must be considered before you start to pull that carpet out.

Things to consider:

• Are there any sources of water higher than the floor area you are considering replacing (fridge, a/c unit, sinks)
• What do the access hatches in the floor look like (are there one two three or more and how much do they weigh)
• What is your plan for hatch pulls as there is the concern of emergency access to the motors
• What type of furnishings do you have and will they slide around on your new floor uncontrollably
• Does the product you are putting down require an air gap below it
• How do you plan to trim the hatch edges to look professional
• Do you have a traffic line through the cabin that will be continually worn back and forth
• Is there more wood trim in this area that should be considered (the last thing you want to do is introduce 6 different wood colors and types in a single area)
• Where are you going to make the transitions to other flooring that is in the boat
• At the boat factories that I worked at we were never allowed to use nails in the construction of a boat so how are you going to tie down the floor?

In a cruiser style boat of any size you are replacing carpet in a lower cabin floor area that is can flood particularly the back sunken mid cabin step down area in larger cruisers. There are all kinds of water sources, pumps and waterlines that run well above this area. In some cases there is a water holding tank mounted under the rear seat in the mid cabin, right on the same floor your are planning to have covered with wood. Some models don't even have a bilge area to speak of under the sunken rear floor. Water leaks that start at the rub rail and deck hardware can and quite often do find there way to the cabin floor. The shower in a stand up head only has a line of caulking stopping shower water from spilling over onto the main cabin floor. These are reasons why the manufacturers put carpet in this area. The carpet is mold resistant and can be dried out in the case of soaking the floor. If you install convention wood flooring in the cabin it will swell, the edge boards will lift and the floor will be a constant maintenance issue. This is not to over look the fact that most cabin doors open in a fashion that will let rain in. There is a product that I have seen installed in a few Sundancer's which is a plastic snap together flooring, it looks like hardwood, this stuff can get wet. It is easier to install and wont swell up. The issues with this product are still the same, hatches edges and transitions (in most cases the carpet runs up walls and under cabinets that are not easy to figure out how to blend).

So what is the difference between the factory floor and the after market floor?

• The factory hard wood floors are components that are bonded to floor panels, these panels area designed in such a way that panels or pieces can be changed. 
•  There are no nails holding the floor in place it is all bonded down with materials that will not allow it to move around
• The materials are designed to prevent swelling
• The hatches are made or eliminated from day one and not cut with gaps to provide room for carpet tucks
• The structural floor of the boat is finished to accept the wood floor panels, a carpeted floor is not finished the same way. It can have a very rough finish and will not be even it will have humps and bumps, as carpet hides a world of sins
• Components that finish against the floor are designed with the correct transitions in mind
• Woods are selected and finished to keep the aesthetic appeal of the cabin
• Teak and holy floors are oiled and protected in such a way that water does as little damage as possible

Under certain circumstances upgrades are a nice option and add a level of  finish that is appropriate to the boat. In in other cases it is just not a great idea and can detract from the boat . This is true when the materials don't match and the fit and finish are sloppy. For a job like floors and particularly wood  to look right all the transitions from one material to the other must make sense.

On occasion even the factory gets this wrong a good example of this was the coin dot floor that would continually lift and would not accept corners very well.

Artificial WOOD Flooring

When considering wood floors be sure you take the design and systems of your boat into account or you could end up with hatches that are to heavy to lift, hard wood pieces falling off or swelling that will create all kinds of issues. If you must have a wood floor look at the alternatives that are available that will not be effected by mold, mildew and moisture  the three M's that all boats are susceptible to.

                                                                                                               Author BW

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