Ideas on sole flooring

We've worked our way through most of these in the last 30 years.

Had a small area of Amtico in the heads on our Trapper 30, we have the remains on the companionway step on Blush where it has lasted almost 20 years. If you want holly and teak you may need to get the holly strips custom cut. It will scratch over time.

Our X332 was chartered and the light mahogany flooring wasn't up to it so we made a replacement using old 332 boards covered in the hard plastic laminate. Think it came from Kayospruce. We cut the laminate slightly larger than the boards, glued it on and sanded it down to fit.

Blush had Altro (the sparkly stuff used in public loos and showers) when we got her because she was an out and out racer. Very cold on the feet. It was replaced with holly and teak veneered ply from Bamptons varnished with a matt flooring varnish. Very non-slip and hasn't needed a re-varnish yet (nearly 20 years including a year living onboard). The area at the bottom of the companionway now has a piece of carpet and we do add a doormat when the boat is ashore.
 
Thanks for your input folks, very much appreciated.

I was going to us the original carpet tiles I have as they have some sort of plastic backing and they are commercial grade, great for noise suppression, hard wearing and look great but I can't cut them spot on so if stuck to each panel, they don't butt up snugly so looks awful. I will probably make four larger panels than the 12 or so current panels but the weight of the carpet tiles plus bigger boards will make them unmanageable.

I spoke to Robbins Timber yesterday who stock a 1mm thick, teak and holly HPL, I originally thought it was veneer. A 3m x 1.3m piece is £160+VAT so I plan to cut some new, larger plywood panels, stick the HPL to it and use 10mm aluminum T section where the new panels butt up against each other to neaten up the joins. I plan to have the boards in one piece running aft to fwd so the T section will only run with the strips on the HPL and not across so hopefully, shouldn't distract from the overall effect of the teak and holly. If it works out as I hope, I'll probably hinge the two main panels and put rams on to allow easy access for daily maintenance.

Thanks again for your input and sharing of ideas.

Rob
 
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harvey38 said:
Thanks for you input folks, very much appreciated.

I was going to us the original carpet tiles I have as they have some sort of plastic backing and they are commercial grade, great for noise suppression, hard wearing and look great but I can't cut them spot on so if stuck to each panel, they don't butt up snugly so looks awful. I will probably make four larger panels than the 12 or so current panels but the weight of the carpet tiles plus bigger boards will make them unmanageable.

I spoke to Robbins Timber yesterday who stock a 1mm thick, teak and holly HPL, I originally thought it was veneer. A 3m x 1.3m piece is £160+VAT so I plan to cut some new, larger plywood panels, stick the HPL to it and use 10mm aluminum T section where the new panels butt up against each other to neaten up the joins. I plan to have the boards in one piece running aft to fwd so the T section will only run with the strips on the HPL and not across so hopefully, shouldn't distract from the overall effect of the teak and holly. If it works out as I hope, I'll probably hinge the two main panels and put rams on to allow easy access for daily maintenance.

Thanks again for your input and sharing of ideas.

Rob
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Don't forget that when you glue plastic laminate like Formica to plywood you need to line the back with something similar, just cheap stuff will do, to prevent it from warping. Our sole boards are laminate surfaced, been there for 30 years now. All are lined except for one, which has warped. One year I left my anchor chain in a drum on it, suitably supported, but it did not straighten. Other than that they have been brilliant, still look like new.
 
vyv_cox said:
Don't forget that when you glue plastic laminate like Formica to plywood you need to line the back with something similar, just cheap stuff will do, to prevent it from warping. Our sole boards are laminate surfaced, been there for 30 years now. All are lined except for one, which has warped. One year I left my anchor chain in a drum on it, suitably supported, but it did not straighten. Other than that they have been brilliant, still look like new.
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Is this the case with thin ply or thick ply or all ply?. Our floorboards are 1 inch thick
 
geem said:
Is this the case with thin ply or thick ply or all ply?. Our floorboards are 1 inch thick
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Even with thick marine ply if there is the chance of long term exposure to damp conditions then it is if not well sealed likely to either delaminate or warp. It will warp especially if one side has been well sealed and the other hasn't.
 
Fr J Hackett said:
Even with thick marine ply if there is the chance of long term exposure to damp conditions then it is if not well sealed likely to either delaminate or warp. It will warp especially if one side has been well sealed and the other hasn't.
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My 42 year old floorboards have seem some action. No signs of any warping but they are Bruynzeel ply. Probably some of the best quality hardwood marine ply ever made.
The top and bottom are both varnished but the ends are unsealed. No rot, no delamination. No with an extra 7mm of teak on top to replace thr original 4mm worn out veneer
 
vyv_cox said:
Don't forget that when you glue plastic laminate like Formica to plywood you need to line the back with something similar, just cheap stuff will do, to prevent it from warping. Our sole boards are laminate surfaced, been there for 30 years now. All are lined except for one, which has warped. One year I left my anchor chain in a drum on it, suitably supported, but it did not straighten. Other than that they have been brilliant, still look like new.
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Hi Vyv, sorry, I don't understand, what do I need to line and with what?

Cheers
Rob
 
geem said:
My 42 year old floorboards have seem some action. No signs of any warping but they are Bruynzeel ply. Probably some of the best quality hardwood marine ply ever made.
The top and bottom are both varnished but the ends are unsealed. No rot, no delamination. No with an extra 7mm of teak on top to replace thr original 4mm worn out veneer
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It is specifically with laminates. My brother is a shopfitter joiner, he alerted me to this many years ago.
 
vyv_cox said:
If you are glueing a laminate on one side of plywood you need to balance it with similar stuff on the other. Any old cheap laminate will do.
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I had planned to coat the plywood liberally with PVA and they will be covered on the underside with soundproofing material so pretty well sealed and not in a damp environment, would I still need to put another laminate on the underside?
 
harvey38 said:
I had planned to coat the plywood liberally with PVA and they will be covered on the underside with soundproofing material so pretty well sealed and not in a damp environment, would I still need to put another laminate on the underside?
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I'm curious about this too; could it be that the laminate shrinks over time? I laminated mine with 2mm oak, and painted the back with Danboline - no noticeable warping after five years.
 
Lomax said:
I'm curious about this too; could it be that the laminate shrinks over time? I laminated mine with 2mm oak, and painted the back with Danboline - no noticeable warping after five years.
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From the look of my one board that does not have balancing it expands or the ply shrinks. I am talking about plastic laminate, Formica type, not wood. My sole boards are bone dry.
 
vyv_cox said:
From the look of my one board that does not have balancing it expands or the ply shrinks. I am talking about plastic laminate, Formica type, not wood. My sole boards are bone dry.
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Ok, so maybe what happens is that the laminate is completely impervious to moisture, while paint still allows the plywood to slowly dry out (and shrink)? In any case, this is useful to know for any future use of HPL - I was thinking of using it to line the bathroom walls.
 
Counter veneering is an tactic from the dawn of cabinetmaking, they put a cheap veneer on the back and an expensive one on the front, the idea being to balance both sides of the panel; It's why plywood is generally available in odd number of ply.

It's good practice but does not mean a heavy sheet will automatically deform if you only do one side. A relatively small sheet of heavy plywood is unlikely to warp but it is a matter of fine judgement the thinner, and bigger, it gets.

.
 
We're about to redo 5mm ply headlining panels with white Formica laminate. Our local supplier sells what they call 'backing' or 'lining' laminate (cheap) to go on the underside. At 5mm given the large size of these panels, this thread is a helpful reminder to plan for this. With thick sole boards (ours are 18mm) it wouldn't have occurred to me as an issue as it's so common to lay laminate floors on ply sheet in various applications. It would be a shame if it went wrong and warped, however.
 
vyv_cox said:
From the look of my one board that does not have balancing it expands or the ply shrinks. I am talking about plastic laminate, Formica type, not wood. My sole boards are bone dry.
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It will happen if you add an extra veneer of wood to just one side if the grain is the wrong way. Top and bottom veneers must have the grain in the same direction, hence plywood always has odd number of veneers. If you add just one wood veneer to one side with the grain in the same direction as the veneer you bond it to you should be ok.

Www.solocoastalsailing.co.uk
 
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