How important is glassing over a new floor?

[Rodg98133]

I am nearing the of renovating my old speedboat. I have put some new floorboards in and was going to glass over the top of them but have been looking and to get someone else to do it will cost me £200 or if i do it myself will cost me around £60 in materials but then i havnt got a garage big enough to fit the boat in to do it and its obviously too cold outside to do it.

I was wondering whether i can just paint the floorboard with some external fence paint to protect it and then ive got some old lino that i was going to lay over and then silicone round the edges and then carpet on top of that? Apart from the obvious wood rotting (which i can get play for £10 a sheet so even if i have to replace every season its still cheaper) are there any other issues with doing it this way?

The boat is always covered up when at home and only really gets used in sunny weather anyway so its not going to get soaking inside anway.

 

[oldsaltoz]

If it is not properly sealed, you may have to do the whole project all over again, a coat of paint will be good enough and may complicate things later when you do the proper sealing.

Have you considered using some form of heating like lamps and a covering of some sort?, you only need them on for 24 hours to get the initial cure started.

Just make sure it's warm to the touch before you start and that it's DRY.

Good luck and fair winds.

 

[Rodg98133]

What exactly am i trying to seal it from? If its the water getting into the bilge then surely the ski hatch that was on the boat before let more water in than a bit leaking around the edges? What damage am i likely to do if its not sealed? As said before if its just the floorboards then thats not an issue. I will probably end up getting rid angld getting something bigger before the years out anyway lol. I just cant warrant spending another £200 on it when its only worth a couple of hundred quid anyway.

 

[William_H]

I would tend to agree with OP that paint should be fine for the floor boards if you can maintain them dry between outings. I would make the carpet removable to encourage drying of the floor wood. Glassing plywood is not very successful and especially not if you use polyester resin. (Epoxy is better.) olewill