Lonseal flooring

We are getting ready to pull the disgusting carpet out of our Mainship 400 and replace it with hard wood imitation flooring. We are looking most closely at lonseal, but also considering Amtico.

We have two teenage sons and an energetic 80 lb dog, so durability and ease of maintenance are high on our list.

The plan is to pull up the carpet and the 6 billion staples that hold it down, then lay down a 1/4" matt of soundown soundproofing, then a luan layer on top of that, then the Vinyl.

Anybody used lonsel, amtico or another similar product? Thoughts?

I think you'd be happy with either one. Which one you use might end up being based on how they are installed. Amtico is strips and Lonseal is a sheet product.

While boat shopping we looked at boat in Ft Lauderdale that had Lonseal that looked like teak in the pilothouse. It looked great I would consider it for replacing the carpet in the pilothouse on my boat. Not a good picture but you can see just a little in front of the helm seat.

Yeah, I have samples of the Lonseal and my brother put amtico in his boat. The amtico looks fantastic, but I've been told by installers that it is labor intensive to put in since it is in strips.

The lonseal samples look OK, but I think it will look much better installed than in a 6" sample. I know it goes into some very high end boats.

I've been bead board stripping my interior...while strips seem more labor intensive...the problem with sheet materials on a boat is that a boat isn't even close to being square/symmetrical. Strips can be cut a little oversized if in question and trimmed/sanded to perfection. In the long run, I think strips on a boat aren't all that much more work than a sheet where you have to measure, remeasure, pattern and cut...than stripping where a quick measurement and final trim isn't all that much and probably less waste in the long run because you can reuse pieces that are trimmed off elsewhere.

I spent months looking at all the synthetic wood flooring products when our boat was being built. Probably like you, I wanted something that looked like wood, but was maintenance-free.

I looked at all the 'synthetic teak' products, and ultimately went with a product made by a Portuguese company called Wicanders. They make flooring out of engineered cork. The stuff is amazing! It's waterproof, solvent-proof, fire-proof, sound-insulating, has a 15 year warranty against any defects, and needs no maintenance. I comes in 4"-6" wide planks like wood. We tested a piece by putting it overnight in a container of acetone solvent, and the next day it was completely unchanged. You can bounce a hammer off of it without damage.

The company has a range of different wood finishes, including teak and holly. I went with one called "Auburn", which looks like burled black walnut. I'll try to post a photo here, but pictures don't do it justice. Anyone that's ever been on our boat has remarked on the 'gorgeous walnut flooring', and can't believe it's not wood.

Good luck!

FWIW, we too installed cork flooring. People wonder about it, but when I pointed out it is often used in high traffic areas like libraries and such - the durability surpasses what most people understand.

What drew me most to it was its dimensional stability - it does not change with moisture. Many of the laminate products we looked at warned against installing in wet areas, ala basements for bathrooms. So I figured boat? Not a chance.



Was not that hard to install. Like the hard surface, and the slight give under feet is nice. Plus, it is not as cold as true hardwood on those early spring morning.


Do post some photos of what you end up with!

-al-

thomasonw that looks great in the picture is it small strips or one foot squares?

thomasonw said:

FWIW, we too installed cork flooring. People wonder about it, but when I pointed out it is often used in high traffic areas like libraries and such - the durability surpasses what most people understand.

What drew me most to it was its dimensional stability - it does not change with moisture. Many of the laminate products we looked at warned against installing in wet areas, ala basements for bathrooms. So I figured boat? Not a chance.

Was not that hard to install. Like the hard surface, and the slight give under feet is nice. Plus, it is not as cold as true hardwood on those early spring morning.


Do post some photos of what you end up with!

-al-

Click to expand...

Looks beautiful, nice work!

Pura Vida said:

thomasonw that looks great in the picture is it small strips or one foot squares?

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Thanks all, it is perhaps the best feature of a good number of years of rebuilding

They are 1' squares. Trimmed with some custom mahogany strips around the hatches (Amazing what one can do with a 40 year old Chraftman table saw and a newer power planer) I even tried to make sure to use a single square to span over the gaps, cutting out the appropriate material in the middles of the squares. Cut easy with an L-Square and a sharp utility knife. I made a cutting board with a stop along the bottom edge to brace both the cork and L-Square against to keep them from moving around while cutting the tiles.

Went down easy. Even though the squares came per-finished we over coated with a 2-part "high traffic" liquid finish. Several years now and about the only things we have noticed is it has faded a bit in the direct sunlight - doing it again I might check into a UV resistant over coating.

-al-

All the hard surface materials will reflect sound , regardless of the soundown below.

The cork might be best choice depending on how loud the area is.

New Overhead sound absorbing material might make sense as these have improved over the years.

Endurance said:

I spent months looking at all the synthetic wood flooring products when our boat was being built. Probably like you, I wanted something that looked like wood, but was maintenance-free.

I looked at all the 'synthetic teak' products, and ultimately went with a product made by a Portuguese company called Wicanders. They make flooring out of engineered cork. The stuff is amazing! It's waterproof, solvent-proof, fire-proof, sound-insulating, has a 15 year warranty against any defects, and needs no maintenance. I comes in 4"-6" wide planks like wood. We tested a piece by putting it overnight in a container of acetone solvent, and the next day it was completely unchanged. You can bounce a hammer off of it without damage.

The company has a range of different wood finishes, including teak and holly. I went with one called "Auburn", which looks like burled black walnut. I'll try to post a photo here, but pictures don't do it justice. Anyone that's ever been on our boat has remarked on the 'gorgeous walnut flooring', and can't believe it's not wood.

Good luck!

Click to expand...

Thanks Rick. That sounds really good, do you have contact info for the company you used? I found some info on the web, but I didn't see anything that looked like teak and holly.

Doug

The PO of my boat installed the Lonseal product. It looks fantastic, everyone is impressed when they first walk into the saloon. After living with it for 3 months, the only complaint I have is the plastic trim that is used around the hatch, I would have done something different. Also, the PO did it himself and got a little sloppy with the adhesive, which is a two part epoxy. That, and a few imperfections on the floor below get telegraphed through the covering so be sure to get it real smooth and keep it clean until you glue it down.

Doug, in perusing the company website

Wicanders - world reference in cork flooring and wall covering

it looks like they don't offer the teak and holly anymore. They had it two years ago when our boat was being built, but I guess that style wasn't a big seller.

The U.S. distributor is in Maryland -

(+1) 410 553 60 62
info.ar.us@amorim.com
2600 Cabover Drive, Suite A
Hanover, MD 21076

Though the materials I got were from a distributor in Seattle WA (maybe one of them might have some leftover material).

Good luck!

thomasonw said:

FWIW, we too installed cork flooring. People wonder about it, but when I pointed out it is often used in high traffic areas like libraries and such - the durability surpasses what most people understand.

What drew me most to it was its dimensional stability - it does not change with moisture. Many of the laminate products we looked at warned against installing in wet areas, ala basements for bathrooms. So I figured boat? Not a chance.

Was not that hard to install. Like the hard surface, and the slight give under feet is nice. Plus, it is not as cold as true hardwood on those early spring morning.


Do post some photos of what you end up with!

-al-

Click to expand...

Thanks for posting this.I'm sold.

I'm looking at flooring too. I thought I'd settled on a nice-looking and durable vinyl strip material from the big-box home improvement stores. I even bought a few strips to play with. They look good and I have held up well to my attempts to scratch and mar them.

Now you guys come up with a cork option. Do you think it will really reduce engine noise? That alone would make it worth trying. There's too much "stuff" attached to the overhead in my ER to do soundproofing there.

Where can I buy the 1' squares?

I also have to deal with edges around the hatches, but my finish carpentry skills aren't up to the task. Anybody have any good ideas for something I can just buy and cut to length for the edging?

I was considering Nautolex or Marideck vinyl flooring.

On passenger ships where noise reduction and soft underfoot and no skid is desirable www.bolidt.com is sometimes chosen.

http://www.bolidt.com/en/newsflash/passenger-ship-technology-on-flooring-en-decking.html

Our first quote for Amtico came in last week, a company from Fort Lauderdale. $12,500 just in labor not including materials. I told him to go pound sand....it really bugs me when companies quote super high because they don't want to do the job. Why bother to take measurements or waste both our time, just tell me the boat is too small and the job isn't profitable enough for you.

Second quote came in at just over $3,000 including materials. That is using Nuteak, which looks just as nice as amtico.

The Lonseal installers haven't shown up at all or given me any idea as far as pricing.

What are the names of the companies? That kind of information is nice to know.

The first with the inflated quote was Custom Marine Carpentry. The second, whom I will likely go with, is Nuteak.

Thanks.

Hello. I purchased ours through a local flooring supply store - one key was looking at the sample tiles they had and making our selection based on that (photos on the computer do not even come close).

Another key is to make sure it is solid cork, stuff that glues directly to the substrate. Do not get a 'floating floor' or 'snap-together' tiles, as they are 1/2 cork mounted onto a different material backer that does not have the same stability.

Once we selected what we wanted they had to order the tiles. IIRC, we purchased about 20% overage to account for odd cutting and fitting, and I ran short. It was a few years ago so I am not sure about the % overage; I would talk with the flooring guys and get their ideas on how much overage to order.

We selected tiles which were NOT pre-glued, and used a tub based mastic. The tiles we selected DID come pre-finsihed, and after installing we put on a two part top-coat.

Sound: To be honest, I am sure it cuts sound down some. Perhaps more than true hardwood, less then say carpet? But at only 1/4" thick, I would not count too much on sound dampening. Suspect insulating hatches and making sure seals are intact would go much further.

And as far as edging, that is a tough one. You can see what I did - but to be honest - one of the problems I had with coverings was edging. I was looking at Bamboo material; and had not found a good factory solution for the edging. Closest stuff come with a taper I did not want around all the hatches. Is there a good edging solution for the vinyl you are looking at?



-al-

CaptTom said:

I'm looking at flooring too. I thought I'd settled on a nice-looking and durable vinyl strip material from the big-box home improvement stores. I even bought a few strips to play with. They look good and I have held up well to my attempts to scratch and mar them.

Now you guys come up with a cork option. Do you think it will really reduce engine noise? That alone would make it worth trying. There's too much "stuff" attached to the overhead in my ER to do soundproofing there.

Where can I buy the 1' squares?

I also have to deal with edges around the hatches, but my finish carpentry skills aren't up to the task. Anybody have any good ideas for something I can just buy and cut to length for the edging?

Click to expand...

I really like the cork and have looked at it on numerous occasions. But, about 12 years back I bought a "pallett" of plantation teak in 8 foot 2x6s, rough cut. I dont recall the actuall count but it was 4 foot by 4 foot and 8 feet long, however many boards that is. It is only good for flooring but it is absolutely beautifull. I plane it to 1 and 7/8 inches then resaw to 1/4 inch thick. Installing is similar to decking by the gougeon method except I use 3m 5200. All hatches are framed around, all edges are framed out then the run is cut to size and laid in. No teak/holley look just teak, with thin black lines between. After all is glued it is sanded smooth. Cork would be WAY easier and when I run out of teak thats what I will use. Until then when I finish a floor I will still look at it and think WOW that was hard work. Everyone else just thinks WOW.