Removing Rotted Wood Fiberglass Boat Floor

The most common material used for boat flooring is bc plywood and it is also used for fiberglass boats in particular.

Removing rotted wood fiberglass boat floor.

Some parts will be super easy if they re really rotten. Make sure to. Replacing a rotten boat deck is a fairly common task and it s a lot easier than you might think. You cannot repair the boat floor while rotten wood remains as it will only continue to rot.

In the smaller fiberglass boats the wood for the engine mounts is usually part of the stringer assembly and encased in fiberglass. Start removing the old damaged material using an electric saw to cut it. Once you are confident that the rotten sections have been removed you can start to repair the floor as needed. Other repairs require removing fixtures or carpets that prevent access to the damaged floor in a boat.

To repair the wood would mean removing the engine cutting the top off the stringer replacing the wood and then re glassing the top of the stringer back in place. But if you buy a fixer upper or have an older boat you love and don t want to part with there s a fair chance you ll need to replace part or all of the rotten boat. At this point the fiberglass transom had bits of leftover wood 4 so i used a grinder to grind it all down to bare fiberglass then used a belt sander to create the flattest possible surface. A lot of work.

Hopefully when you bought your boat you gave it a thorough pre purchase inspection and didn t get any nasty surprises. If you have the means and resources to remove a piece of the boat floor and replace it then that is the best thing you can do for the boat. I started using a chisel hammer and crowbar to remove small pieces at a time. If the stringers and bulkheads are rotten get them replaced with fiberglass ones.