Saloon sole board maintenance

[MagicalArmchair]

With four kids, the sole boards get quite a hammering (sometime literally, with toy cars  ). What do you do to maintain these? Do you reapply varnish or the like?

[symphony2]

They are laminated, somewhat like Formica, so no varnishing. Actually quite difficult to dent or permanently damage.

[Jake]

After having a glossy, varnished cabin sole in our last boat, the wife is not really fond of the laminate look in our Bav 44.  It has a few stains on it, but my plan is to upgrade to a newer synthetic teak.  Not sure if I should peel the top layer of laminate off or glue the new stuff on top.

Jake

[MagicalArmchair]

Thanks both, my boards have a few knocks from the ‘crew’ already after only two seasons. We did spend over a month on board this year, so that’s not so bad I guess. I’ll wait for them to all grow up and then look out for your guide to applying synthetic teak Jake to put the sole right! 

[symphony2]

Robbins Timber do replacement laminate about £140 for an 8*4 sheet. If you go the fake teak route the plastic is much thicker and suspect it would be a challenge to cut and lay it on all the different boards.

[Yngmar]

The synthetic flooring is pretty sturdy. There's no varnishing it. If your kids are the destructive sort, consider covering it with something protective until you can send them off to find a job and buy their own boat! 

While I'm not generally fond of carpet on boats, it might be worth it as cheap floor protection that is easy to cut to shape.

[Jake]

For installing the synthetic teak, aligning the wood pattern would be key to a nice looking job.  I was thinking about removing each piece separately, then gluing on the synthetic teak, and trimming it with a router.  That would give me a nice finished edge.  Aligning everything is the hard part.  Once you put the stuff back down you don't want to see any crooked lines.  That would drive my wife nuts.

Carpet on a boat Yngmar?  A couple of throw rugs, sure, but not carpet.  A recipe for a nice moldy smelling boat.

Jake

[tiger79]

Carpet on a boat Yngmar?  A couple of throw rugs, sure, but not carpet.  A recipe for a nice moldy smelling boat.

My old Hallberg-Rassy was carpeted.  It didn't smell mouldy, but then I only had it for about 20 years.