Crestliner floor needs help!

[Reef Runner]

OK gentlemen I need some help.

I have a 1998 sportfish 1850 with some floor problems. The back platform on the live well side has completely rotted out. Also the front platform where the seats fold in has gone to crap. So I thought I would give it a try.

1st.... Is there such a thing as Marine treated plywood or can I just use Green treated?

2nd....Do you glue the carpet to the wood?

3rd...If I can save the old carpet, can I use it?

I could use all the help I can get. I am not much at this but I better learn if I want to fish as much as I do.

Thanks for all the help

[FISHER ED]

You should be able to find a marine grade plywood at any good lumberyard. It I think it uses different resins to make it weatherproof instead of the chemical green treat.

The carpets are usually glued to the wood. I acidentally loosened some of mine up when I spilled gas on it so maybe some kind of solvent can help you break the adhesive loose. If so, just let it dry off completely and buy some spray glue to put it back down.

If you do need new carpet, you can go to a Crestliner dealer and get some, if they still have the color available. I bought a large chunk for my 98 Fishhawk a couple years ago just incase I ever need to do a patch someplace. Might be able to call Crestliner direct to see what they have for crap laying around.

Once you get the old pieces of wood out it should be an easy fix. Just keep in mind that these floros are sometimes like puzzels. You may have to take a lot of other pieces off to get to the piece that needs replacing. Good luck, Spring is on it's way.

[JollyT]

You probably don't need marine grade plywood. In marine grade they make sure all the plys inside don't have any voids and use waterproof glue. Marine grade is mostly for building plywood boats. A B/C grade exterior plywood would probably be enough, just make sure you put a waterproof coating on the surface if you don't want it to rot. This would go for marine or treated also if you decide to use them. You need to waterproof all of them or eventually water will swell a seperate the plys.

[Steve Bakken]

If you go with marine grade, you will pay out the nose for the stuff. Consider it overkill. We've never used anything other than BC and in the 20+ years that we've been doing it, we haven't had one rot back out yet. Fiberglass resin, and/or a good quality carpet glue will prevent water from soaking into the wood. Also, you may want to put replacement carpet into the budget. Most of the time when we remove the carpet, it tears apart the rubber underlay. The pulling also stretches the carpet and you will likely have wrinkles when you lay it back down unless you're doing an extremely small area.

[Norsk Fisker]

Steve, Do you also suggest fabric on the plywood edges or just resin?

[Steve Bakken]

We usually wrap the carpet around the edges if the design of the boat permits, which gives it the glue and protection it needs. Otherwise, we'll treat it with resin before installation if needed.

[Giant_Jackpot]

Hey Reef,

Are you the original owner of the boat? I ask because one of my concerns when I bought my Fish Hawk in 2000 was the floor. The dealer told me that he has seen cases where the factory has replaced the floors on some older boats free of charge. It might be worth calling the factory before you dig into it. Last summer I started smelling gas when I opened up either of the battery compartment covers in the back. I called the factory and they told me to bring it to the dealer. The dealer claimed they could find nothing wrong so the factory told me to bring it over. I took it to them and they pressure tested the tank but found no obvious problem. But to make sure, they replaced all of the hoses and the filler neck/cap. All of this was no charge to me. You can’t beat that for service.

[3pronghook]

Factory is in Little Falls. Friend of mine had similiar issues with a used 1750 Fishhawk he bought. He called the factory and they cut and covered new panels for him. He had to remove old panels and reinstall the new ones. But there was no charge from the factory.

[Polar Bear]

Screwed down 1/2" treated plywood right over the old floor on my 16' fiberglass boat 8 years ago. Covered it with carpet and haven't had a problem yet. One thing though: make sure you use exterior carpet glue (solvent based). The interior stuff is water based.

Polar Bear