Floors!

We likely have as odd taste in floors as we do in boats, but I really like how this turned out.
The ultimatum was given on the stinky old red carpet, so we went with this tough and water resistant hardwood. (I like teak well enough but have plenty on Klee Wyck)

Very nice. I did my last boat in maple, not everyone needs teak floors.

All my interior soles are teak with an occasional throw rug. I wouldn't have it any other way.

Flybridge was teak, we tore it out. Lower decks are teak and are getting on my nerves. They have been refinished and now the caulk is deteriorating. They may have to go.

IMHO teak belongs in the forest (or inside).

pete

Looks great , which no skis varnish did you go for?

It looks very nice! What type of wood?

Ted

Wow. Beautiful.

O C Diver said:

It looks very nice! What type of wood?

Ted

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Lumber Liquidators, some version of Acacia prefinished. The wood has this wavy texture and the finish not satin, so the floor does not seem slippery at all. Has a decent grip to it.
I was not the installer but watched some and it was very hard to cut.
That was half of the Winter project on Libra. This morning I am heading to the yard with her for a haul so we can sandblast the hull and start with fresh coatings. May as well make some progress while we are sequestered!

Bill, I think that looks great. I'm with you that after awhile teak gets boring. It's pretty but lacks the character of the wood you chose.

Pete Meisinger said:

All my interior soles are teak with an occasional throw rug. I wouldn't have it any other way.

Flybridge was teak, we tore it out. Lower decks are teak and are getting on my nerves. They have been refinished and now the caulk is deteriorating. They may have to go.

IMHO teak belongs in the forest (or inside).

pete

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The worst job I have ever done on a boat is recaulking the teak deck on my sundeck. Never again.

klee wyck said:

We likely have as odd taste in floors as we do in boats, but I really like how this turned out.
The ultimatum was given on the stinky old red carpet, so we went with this tough and water resistant hardwood. (I like teak well enough but have plenty on Klee Wyck)

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Another person that doesn't like carpet on boats.... Great job... What about hatches? how were they handled?

Ka_sea_ta said:

Another person that doesn't like carpet on boats.... Great job... What about hatches? how were they handled?

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Underway on a blue bird day in the PNW. What a treat after being landlocked for too long.

Hatches: I would love to welcome you aboard and give you five minutes to find the four hatches. I suspect you would not. They are blended into the floor and come up with a four suction cup apparatus.
These are not hatches I need access to on any regular basis except for hull inspection. This guy did beautiful work.
Engine room accessed from the companionway.

We had always had carpeting in our boats until the current boat that has teak and holly decking. Love it inside. It is so easy to keep clean with all the dog hair from our Lab.

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7/8" solid teak decks and cabin soles.

One of the things I was a little concerned about in the switch from carpet to the more rigid flooring was sound level. I suspected the carpet was doing more sound absorption than the wood would do and this was generally a pretty quiet boat, 57-61dB underway at full steam.
I am pleased to report that there was no change that I could detect.

Ka_sea_ta said:

Another person that doesn't like carpet on boats.... Great job... What about hatches? how were they handled?

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I have to disagree with you guys on carpet in a boat. I've had 4 boats with teak decks throughout and all 4 were noisy. Switched to carpet on last 3 boats and found it to be more comfortable on bare feet, much quieter in the salon and no harder to keep up than wood. No scratches or dents, no refinishing, etc. When old and worn, roll it up and get new!

I've currently got carpet everywhere down below other than the heads and galley, which are teak parquet. I'd love to ditch the carpet in the salon at some point, probably for Nautolex or another similar flooring material (with sound insulation added). The carpet in the staterooms will stay, however, as it's lower traffic (easier to keep clean) and comfy on the feet when getting up in the morning.

My biggest dilemma is how to deal with the rarely-used hatches for extra engine room access. Currently, only the main engine room access hatch is cut through the carpet, to get to the others you have to peel back part of the carpet. I'd say about 80% of the salon floor (by area) is hatches, so it might be a challenge to deal with that nicely.

I'd love to see some pictures of how the hatches on Libra work with the new flooring (which looks great).

Foulweather Bluff is certainly not today. Really flat.
Fair weather and fair current. Note SOG!

When the world is this screwed up, there is nothing quite like a boat ride for perspective.

Hey that's some fine looking sole you've got there!

The acacia timber you have reminded me of coromandel (above). Your timber is richly figured.

I’m taking out my carpet, The wood flooring looks so much nicer and rich... Looks beautiful good choice

Through the course of our boat ownership we have had kids and dogs, Neither at present.

Carpet was OK and nice and warm on bare feet and the dog could "plunk" anywhere in comfort. If you go with fairly cheap carpet and the installation is easy I guess carpet is OK. With kids the sand is the issue

I much prefer my teak parquet with an occasional throw rug.

pete

Pete Meisinger said:

Through the course of our boat ownership we have had kids and dogs, Neither at present.

Carpet was OK and nice and warm on bare feet and the dog could "plunk" anywhere in comfort. If you go with fairly cheap carpet and the installation is easy I guess carpet is OK. With kids the sand is the issue

I much prefer my teak parquet with an occasional throw rug.

pete

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The solution to the dog on boat issue when I was a kid was that the dog isn't allowed in the cabin, he/she stays up on the bridge deck. Now that it's my boat and my girlfriend's dog (still the same boat though), we follow the same rule for the most part. Our current dog isn't happy sleeping on the bridge deck with us down below, so he gets to come down at night to sleep if he's on the boat overnight with us. During the day, he's perfectly content to not go further than sticking his head through the doorway into the cabin.

How well that works for the dog is very much dependent on boat layout, however. Both dogs I've known on this boat have been quite happy sleeping on hard surfaces, so as long as there's at least some choice of non-slippery surface for them to lay on when needed, carpet vs hard floors wouldn't be an issue anyway.

To me, the biggest annoyance with carpet is keeping it clean and not letting it look gross / worn, particularly if it's light colored. It's mostly an issue in the high traffic areas. The 20 year old carpet in my staterooms looks basically new, but the stuff in the salon is due for another round of heavy cleaning and it's starting to show some wear on the stairs.

Impressive.

klee wyck said:

We likely have as odd taste in floors as we do in boats, but I really like how this turned out.
The ultimatum was given on the stinky old red carpet, so we went with this tough and water resistant hardwood. (I like teak well enough but have plenty on Klee Wyck)

Click to expand...

Looks really good! I recently helped my daughter install luxury vinyl planks in her home! She's got a very rambunctious boxer who causes lots of spills and is still in process of being house broken!

The vinyl planks look exactly like engineered hardwood and gave a wonderful texture finish.

I'm looking to do the cabin sole in my sailboat with luxury vinyl planks.

Hi, slip-mate (I'm a few slips west of you at G-12). This looks really great! I'm impressed. Has the change from carpet to wood floor had any impact on engine sound-deadening when underway?

Juliet 15 said:

Hi, slip-mate (I'm a few slips west of you at G-12). This looks really great! I'm impressed. Has the change from carpet to wood floor had any impact on engine sound-deadening when underway?

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Hi Neighbor! Wish I was over there right now!

From post 14 above:
One of the things I was a little concerned about in the switch from carpet to the more rigid flooring was sound level. I suspected the carpet was doing more sound absorption than the wood would do and this was generally a pretty quiet boat, 57-61dB underway at full steam.
I am pleased to report that there was no change that I could detect.

I did not have the meter on the trip into the boat yard a couple of weeks ago but Laurie and I both commented that we could not pick up any difference from when it was carpet. That surprised me a little since the pad and carpet should absorb more sound and transmit less than you would expect the wood might.
I will try to remember the meter when we bring her home and report back. Perhaps the meter will be more discerning.

Juliet 15 said:

Hi, slip-mate (I'm a few slips west of you at G-12). This looks really great! I'm impressed. Has the change from carpet to wood floor had any impact on engine sound-deadening when underway?

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Update:

We retrieved Libra from the boatyard Tuesday with a freshly blasted and recoated bottom. Good for another 25 years....

On this trip I did have the meter to see if I could detect any increase in sound from the move to hardwood from carpet in the cabin. The meter read from 56-61 decibals at the helm with one side door open which was no change from prior even on the meter. This classifies as sound level of quiet office. I have been surprised that a boat this rigid would be that quiet but well insulated I think and 10 cylinder engine may help?

And, by the way, it was a beautiful day on the Salish Sea for a boat ride. I thought this cell phone pic turned out well looking West at the San Juan and Gulf Islands from near Cherry Point.

Good news on the sound proofing! On the pic, it looks like you need to wait out the weather window a little unless you have stabilizers!

slowgoesit said:

Good news on the sound proofing! On the pic, it looks like you need to wait out the weather window a little unless you have stabilizers!

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Yeah, how about that calm? This is a large body of water and from that particular spot there is around 150 miles of Northwest fetch. Not a ripple at that moment! I have seen it look quite different.