chopper515

So I decided I was done with the carpet and I’m going with a 1-piece Deckadence type floor. I plan to template it myself with 6-mil plastic and cut it myself. More on this later, but I plan to patch the floor with bondo and paint it with herculiner. I researched the various suppliers and obtained samples from the following companies. I recommend that everyone order up samples for yourself. I even paid $14 for a Deckadence sample for a good baseline for what I’m looking for. Deckadence https://marineflooring.net/wp-content/uploads/DECKadence_social-2.png https://marineflooring.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/cropped-Untitled-design-34-180x180.png Synthetic Boat Carpet - DECKadence Marine Flooring MARINEFLOORING.NET Synthetic Boat Carpet - #1 performance boat deck covering in the world - Durable, Easy DIY Install, Effortless to Clean, No Adhesives, No Snaps Pros - perfect softness, backing to prevent sliding, 6’ width so no seaming necessary. Cons - price - $820 for my boat. The Luna Silver color has a bit of blue-ish tint. I’m looking for more grey Aqua-Deck & Aqua-Soft http://www.commercialmatsandrubber.com//img/favicon.png Boat Deck Spaghetti Matting | PVC Marine Flooring WWW.COMMERCIALMATSANDRUBBER.COM Aqua-Deck - The vinyl ropes are thicker than deckadence and it’s only ⅜” thick making it feel much harder. Not for me. Aqua-Soft - ⅝” thick and has the backing but it just didn’t feel as soft as Deckadence. These only come in 4’ wide roles so I’d have to seam it. Cost for my boat with 1 seam under the drivers seat (running front to back) would be $640 for a 4’x16’ roll. If I seamed it across bow walkway, I could get by with a 4’x12’ roll for $480 but I don’t want that seam right across the walkway Vinyl Mesh Pool Mats https://www.americanfloormats.com/vinyl-mesh-pool-mats/ This one isn’t too bad for the price of $350 for my boat. ⅜” thick x 4’ rolls with no backing and the same seaming plan as Aqua-Deck/Soft. They only gave me a really small sample but it doesn’t feel too bad. I emailed them and they’re sending me a larger sample. They also have a PREMIUM mat but it’s more expensive and I really didn’t like the samples. The weave density (I think I just made that term up) was too open/loose. VinLoop http://www.MattingExperts.com/v/vspfiles/photos/MTG140-2T.jpg VinLoop Matting WWW.MATTINGEXPERTS.COM VinLoop Matting, spaghetti loop mats, loop mats, circle mats This one appears to be the most budget friendly at $250 shipped for a 4’x16’ roll. Again, same seaming plan as shown above. The samples didn’t come in until after I already committed to the Wakulla Mat and I didn’t take photos. I remember not being too impressed. I think it was a stiffer material. I’ll try to get some photos up later. Wakulla Mat https://static.wixstatic.com/media/b21e70_e8236bd6f57f4b95a656a662c096385c~mv2.png https://static.wixstatic.com/media/b21e70_6880495f7c9d464c891767ff9f885e81~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_32%2Ch_32%2Clg_1%2Cusm_0.66_1.00_0.01/b21e70_6880495f7c9d464c891767ff9f885e81~mv2.png PVC loop mat | Wakulla Spaghtti Mat | United States WWW.WAKULLAMAT.COM Wakulla spaghetti mat is made from durable extruded vinyl in a loop pattern allowing water to drain through and evaporate quickly. Mildew and fade resistant. Anti-slippery and anti-fatigue. Use as lining for... I think I found a winner! I stumbled across this one and it’s local here in St. Louis. I stopped by their shop and they have 6’ rolls of a ½” grey material that feels almost identical to the deckadence but without the backing (which I didn’t think I needed anyway, the stuff is pretty grippy by itself). They’re giving me a 6’x11’ sheet for $400 so I’ll have NO SEAMS and plenty of leftovers. They can also do a Tige logo for $150. Their logos aren’t painted on, they actually CNC cut out the logo and then inlay the logo with the same material in a different color (See photo). This 6’x1/2” material isn’t listed on their website but they definitely have it. Their Website only shows 9/16” material in 6’ rolls but the 9/16” material is a little stiffer and I preferred the ½”. If anyone contacts them, let them know Matt with the Tige sent you. Floor Prep: Moving on to my progress. The carpet came out super easy. The glue was almost non-existent. My boat had, what appears to be, a thin layer of fiberglass over the wood. It’s very smooth and was very much intact around the drivers seat but was flaking around the edges of the wrap around seating. The wood floor is about 3/16” lower than the finished white gelled fiberglass around the edges and in the bow. Since I’m doing a 1-piece mat and I want the mat to go all the way to the edges, I opted to use Bondo Glass to taper the floor up so you won’t feel this sharp edge under the mat. I needed to bondo patch this area anyway, so I just used a little extra and thickened and tapered the edge. I finished it up with Bondo High Bond Filler to smooth it out. I’m filling the dip in the floor under the helm with Bondo Glass and bits of wood for filler material. I don’t have any pictures, but I also bolted a ¾” x ⅛” aluminum angle to the front of the gas tank cover to help keep the panel from sagging which worked out well. I ordered grey Herculiner from amazon which I’ll use to coat and seal the floor. I’m impressed with how well the Herculiner worked. It sealed everything up and created a great substrate for the wakulla mat material. Templating: Deckadence has a youtube video on templating with 6-mil plastic so I follow their advice. There was a bit of a learning curve here but overall not too bad. I just wish the plastic didn’t have creases. I suggest overlaying the plastic on the torn-out carpet and cutting the plastic very closely in shape to limit the amount of additional plastic you're dealing with while crawling around in the boat. I did this but still had to trim down the plastic while in the boat to make it easier to wrap around the radiused corners. Cutting: I laid the wakulla mat upside down on the floor and laid the plastic upside down on top of it. I taped it down and traced it with a sharpie. I used a large snap blade utility knife to cut it. I recommend using at least 4 or 5 blades to ensure it’s constantly razor sharp. I cut it with a 30-45 degree angle leaving the top proud in order to contour to the rolled edges of the boat. For the seat post I simply cut a small X and when I put the mat in the boat I pushed it over the post and trimmed out the excess. I’ll have to remove the seat to remove the mat but it’s a cleaner look than cutting around the base. Results: I think it turned out pretty good. I haven’t taken the boat out yet but it feels really good under the feet. Kneeling on it sucks but I was aware of that from other reviews of Deckadence. The only change I need to make is I’m going to add anti-slip material to the bottom of the bow section. It moves around quite a bit on the slippery gel coat.. I’m getting an anti-slip rug pad from amazon and wakulla mats recommended HH-66 vinyl cement to attach it. I’ll report the results when completed.