Carpeting Hatches

We decided to rip out our salon carpet and put an Allure type flooring in over the winter. After ripping it out, wife decided she wanted carpet back in it.

I pulled the carpet out end of summer last year, and wasn't paying much attention to how it was installed, since I was thinking not doing carpet again

How can I trim the edges? Can I fold the carpet over, and staple it down on the edges? I don't want to put any trim round hatches (metal, wood, etc.).

If there are larger gaps at hatches I've seen carpet rolled over the edges and glued or stapled along the hidden edge.
If close fit and you just cut edge clean you can stop any travelling by using a hot melt glue gun on the edge of the backing. I've applied hot melt and smooth / work it into the backing w a putty knife. They sell carpet sticks for hot melt but any will work.
I'd say tuck under & staple could work if installing padding and you cut padding back in that edge are... otherwise I think the extra thickness will be evident?
My feeling is hard flooring with easily removable area rugs is a preferred solution. It makes thorough cleaning and future replacement EZ. If hatches you need to have access to a carpet shop can bind edges on both pieces and you might need some double sided carpet tape on hatches.
I took out carpet in fwd cabin and installed PlasTeak sheet teak & holly with a carpet like padding (cut & supplied by mfg) and love the feel. Its soft under bare feet. Wish I had the same in saloon but that doesn't have the pad and is hard under foot... but EZ to swifter clean.
Bottom line best to do what DW wants! [emoji7]

Bacchus said:

If there are larger gaps at hatches I've seen carpet rolled over the edges and glued or stapled.
If close fit and you just cut edge clean you can stop any travelling by using a hit melt glue gun on the edge of the backing. I've applied hot melt and smooth / work it into the backing w a putty knife.
I'd say tuck under & staple could work if installing padding and you cut padding back in that edge are... otherwise I think the extra thickness will be evident?

Click to expand...

I hope she made the "change" before you took up the padding and removed the glue.

Ideally, you still have the removed carpet around so you can use it as a pattern. If not, butcher paper may work to make the pattern.

I had a company replace my carpet. I watched. Carpet was 'there' so it will be easy to figure out how to do the hatches. Chances are, there is no padding around the edges of the hatch covers. Glue and tuck and staple the carpet around and under the edges. Yes, it will stick up but, a week or so of normal walking on the carpeted hatch covers will compress the carpet and make a flat surface.
When my carpet was remove, there was some thin 'rubber' backing (padding) glued between the actual floor and the back of the padding and then, on top of the padding. I walked on the sticky surface for a week while the carpet folks cut and prepared the carpet. Nothing detrimental to glue surface but, I cant say that about the socks I wore while waiting for the carpet installation.
Get some pieces cut and bound for heavily trafficed areas. Careful with these, we dont want you to trip and fall. Best to remove and store these pieces while underway.

For the galley area... after carpeting, I visited William Sanoma, purchased a long spongy rubber runner and cut to fit. Yup, expensive at the store.... Took a while to get used to the spongy effect but, spending time in the galley preparing a big meal will make you appreciate the effect on your legs and far more easier to clean after you drop food bits and pieces and grease splatters on it.

I had considered not carpeting the steps but decided against it because the carpet is there for sound deadening too. I still have that option. Maybe just leaving for the next owner to decide.

Depending on carpet thickness... it can take up to about a 1/2" gap to be able to "wrap" the hatches (carpet bent over the edges and glued/stapled). Some of that gap can be created by planing off wood from both hatch and surround... but it also depends on the support mechanism, too, whether there's enough there to stabilize the slightly smaller hatches.

It can be a reasonably clean look, though, and seems to be the most stable option. We've got a single wrapped hatch into a storage area, looks nice, can't move, etc.

We recarpeted last summer, and installed Soundown at the same time... and wrapping our engine room hatches wasn't an easy option. And Soundown is heavy, so our 40-lb ER hatches would have turned into 80-lb hatches...

We ended up free-floating a segment of carpet/Soundown over each hatch, and the installer did a "pseuodo-wrap" on the surround.... in this case, that mostly meant he bent the carpet down over the Soundown, so it actually looks like a real wrap job.

The floating segments shuffle a little with traffic; I've just installed hatch lifts through the carpet, through the Soundown, into the hatch lumber -- without going all the way through to the underside of that hatch, since I still want to be able to lift the heavu floating segment off separately -- to act as locating pegs for the free-floating parts. Literally did that just today, so don't have a track record on how well that will work yet.

-Chris