How To Fix Soft Spots On A Boat

If you walk on your gunkhole and find a soft spot on the floor, it is a sign that the flooring is damaged. In some cases, the harm spread underneath the boat flooring surface. A soft floor is not just a prophylactic hazard. It may likewise indicate that the boat could have structural water damage that you need to address immediately.

Small-scale floor impairment may be easy to fix. With a few tools and a little noesis, yous may be able to repair the boat floor on your ain. Withal, if there is extensive harm, you will probably want to rent an contained contractor at our boatyard to perform a professional gunkhole repair. Doing then will restore your gunkhole and keep your crew safe when you set sail.

Why Practise I Have a Soft Spot on My Boat Floor?

A soft spot on a boat floor can be difficult to diagnose as multiple factors contribute to a soft floor. Some of the most common causes of soft areas include

The foam beneath the deck condign compressed
Too much weight in an isolated flooring area
Water intrusion/leaks/pooling water
Mold or algae growth
Extreme temperatures (expansion and contraction)
Damage from a boating accident

Regardless of why you have a soft spot on the floor, you need to address information technology immediately. Neglecting the spot can cause it to go worse, costing you thousands of dollars in repairs.

How Practice I Place the Affected Area?

Since in that location are several possible causes of a soft flooring, pinpointing the actual crusade tin be tricky. You lot tin start by checking for structural stability beneath the surface. Use a hammer or other tool to tap around the affected area. If you lot hear a hollow sound, it may betoken the weakest indicate of the area and possible structural impairment or missing framework below the floor.

There are other ways you can identify a soft spot on the floor. There may be signs of water damage or mold. The area may be indented (sunk in). Sometimes a wobbly furniture may indicate that part of the flooring is soft. If you stride on the floor and it sinks in or makes noises, the expanse may be soft.

Repairing a gunkhole floor can be a major undertaking. However, if you accept the correct tools, yous can complete the job with less endeavor. Also, you'll practise a ameliorate job. Most boat floor repair projects require the following tools:

Acetone	Fiberglass cloth	Paintbrush
Automotive paste wax	Fiberglass mat	Paint roller
Common building studs	Gel Coat resin	Reciprocating saw
Countertop cloth	Grease pencil	Scissors
Drill	Hand grinder	Screws
Duct record	Pigsty saw (ane-inch)	Screwdriver
Epoxy resin and hardener	Mold release spray	Squeegee

Follow These Steps for a DIY Boat Floor Repair

Footstep 1: Mark the Weak Area

Tap the area around the soft spot with the butt-end of a screwdriver—a sharp sound is skillful, a hollow thud indicates a weak expanse. Marking the weak areas around the soft spot with a grease pencil, and include them in the perimeter of the hole you're going to cut in your deck. When yous've located all the weak areas and soft spots, use a drill and a 1-inch hole saw to make a hole into which you can insert the tip of a reciprocating saw. Use the saw to cut the soft spot and weak areas.

Step 2: Apply Acetone to Surface

Utilise a dewaxing agent such as acetone to the inside surface effectually the area y'all cut out. The limits should extend outward from the hole, 12 inches for each inch of deck thickness. Employ a hand grinder to grind a 12-to-one slope into the inside surface of the area you cut out so that for every inch of the thickness of the deck, you take 12 inches of slope.

Stride iii: Wax the Floor Pigsty Surface

Wax the surface around the outside of the hole with automotive paste wax. Cutting a sheet of countertop material that's a foot longer and wider than the pigsty, and paste-wax one side. Spray the paste-waxed side with mold-release spray and duct record it over the hole, with the waxed side to the deck.

Pace 4: Pre-Cut the Fiberglass

Pre-cut the fiberglass matting and fabric that you volition apply to make full the hole. Begin with two layers of one i/2-ounce mat, alternating the mat with a 6-ounce fiberglass cloth. You'll need one layer of fiberglass for each 1/32-inch of deck thickness, with each layer of fiberglass cloth and mat 1/2 inch wider and longer than the previous layer.

Step 5: Color-Friction match the Gel Coat

Color match the gel glaze to your gunkhole and mix the hardener into the gel glaze resin—too picayune hardener is better than also much. Working from beneath the hole, inside the boat, use a paintbrush to spread a layer of gel glaze that's about the thickness of a toothpick onto the waxed countertop backer at the top of the pigsty.

Stride 6: Mix the Gel Coat to Harden

As y'all wait for the gel coat to harden, mix the epoxy resin and hardener for the fiberglass. When it starts to harden, begin laying up the fiberglass and epoxy resin, three layers at a time, until the repair is complete, pressing the fiberglass into the epoxy resin with a pocket-sized paint roller or a squeegee.

Step 7: Let the Fiberglass to Cure

Expect at least 24 hours for the gel coat to cure before removing the sheet of countertop textile. Permit the fiberglass to cure thoroughly before walking on the repair.

Conveniently located on the protected waters of Bayou Chico, Pensacola Shipyard is the Emerald Declension'due south premier shipyard. We have everything that you demand to take care of your vessel. Whether your boat needs in-h2o or out-of-the-h2o service, we have the boatyard capabilities and resource to get the job done.

Contact Pensacola Shipyard at 850–780–8441 to schedule a service or find out more than virtually our facilities.