New cabin floor in my 36 Convertible

Next big upgrade is the cabin floor. The original 20 year old carpet is very worn, dirty and I am assuming one reason for the constant musty smell in the cabin. I wanted to do a laminate teal and holly floor but was out voted by my wife! She has picked out a nice 100% waterproof vinyl plank floor. It’s a light wood color and resembles real wood with a nice texture.

So far I have about half the carpet removed. They did not install this with the thought of anyone ever taking it out. The padding is glued to the boat then the carpet glued and stapled. It has been very labor intensive. I am not even done with removal and I have already encountered a few issues that will prove to be challenges when install time comes. I will continue to updated with pictures along the way.

and I fir the life of me can not figure out why my phone insists on uploading some pictures sideways

I will say this has become much more than I anticipated. I am just pulling and ripping the carpet. Goes fine until you find a spot the went crazy with the glue. All the edges are stapled and you can tell the staple guy was not paying for the staples!

I do not plan on sanding the floor as it does not seem to be needed. The planks my wife picked out have a decent underlayment bullt in that should absorb any of those imperfections. In the main cabin I do have to level the floor out in a few areas because of overlapping fiberglass onto the subfloor. I am gluing the planks down with an adhesive I found at Home Depot for vinyl planks. I will have to get the name later. My hope is to be able to cut the edges of the hatches smooth enough that no trim pieces are needed. I will have to find a suitable stair nose trim piece though. I just have not found one I’m happy with.

There are also areas where the carpet ran up the walls and the sides if the stairs that I still need to come up with a solution.

the hatches over the engines are too small once the carpet was removed. Initially I was going to fill the gaps with strips. I have changed my mind and built new hatch covers. That has slowed my project down significantly. I also used Zinzer over some of the subfloor that appears to have had water/mold in the past. I covered the hatches and will be covering the Zinzer with RedGuard to make sure it remains water proof.

that is my progress so far! I will continue to update!

They are interlocking planks and designed as a “floating” floor. Obviously not going to work so I’m gluing

Finally done.....well almost. Still have some trim and detail work left.

This project was my wife’s number one on the list when we bought the boat. I found every reason I could to put it off knowing how terrible it was going to be and it lived up to all my expectations. I am so much happier with the carpet out but it was no “weekend project” by any means.

If anyone is thinking of taking this on feel free to contact me. I have learned a lot, made some mistakes and would do somethings differently that can’t be changed now. I’d be Be happy to help out!

I have no idea how to make the pictures straight but here are some in progress pics

Some final pics. The hatches in the salon really proved to be a challenge. Knowing what I know now I wish I could re-do the salon floor.

Could someone please tell me why my pictures always post sideways, or tell me what I can do differently

they are all attached to the floor and to each other. I removed the pull out bed mechanism first. Once that was out it was just searching for where screws were. I do not remember if they were attached to the walls anywhere. Prob not what you want to do but removing the bed made things a lot easier. Honestly I had a hard time putting it back seeing how much potential storage could be there!