Thread: Fix'er up

How was the hole created?
Someone fall through or did you do it on purpose?
IF someone fell through I suspect rot and ALL rot MUST be removed.
If you did it on purpose. Make it round and put a deck access cover over it.

Previous boat owner attempted to make holes for drains and cracked the fiberglass floor. I pulled it all off until floor was stable

It being the type of boat that it is that floor will go under the top cap. To do it right the top cap would need to be removed. I see other cracks in the floor I believe. A patch if done carefully would work for a very long time though, if the rest of the floor is good. If you have found good dry wood and are not worried about the strength of the rest you can do it. The problem you are seeing I think is being able to patch it without having a base, since it is just a straight through hole. You will have create a hole that you can get a cut piece of wood under the deck and put a couple screws in from the top to hold it tight against the bottom of the deck. The wood you use needs to not be treated wood. Treat the wood yourself with a 50/50 mix of polyester resin (epoxy is better but poly will work and can be bought at the parts strore) and acetone. Use this mix and paint the wood on all sides and let soak in. It will last a LONG time like this. Once it is in there, screwed in and won't fall, cut a piece of wood that will fit your hole that you cut. It will be able to lay on the piece you treated and put under the deck as a backing plate. Now wet out the area with the normal resin/hardener and put a piece of mat in the hole on the backing plate. Wet out the bottom of your wood you cut to fit on top of the backing plate and put it on top of the backing plate. Put a small weight on it...anything that will hold some pressure on them. Once they have fused together you can fiberglass back over the floor. I would grind back at least 8-12" around the hole and rough the fiberglass up and even uncover some of your good wood. Start with small pieces of mat not cloth around the seam, then gradually make the pieces larger until you have one large piece over the hole. You'll want a few good layers over the wood. Once this is done and its fused, remove your screws as all the pieces are together now. If you make your layers right and lay it out you'll never know they were ever there. Then you can use a hole saw and cut back into it if you want to add a drain correctly. You might grind out those cracks around the floor and add a layer or two of glass in those just to seal the wood back off or you'll have trouble again. Could also pour some of the acetone/resin mix into the crack after you grind to help weather proof the wood some more. I know my instructions were clear as mud so if you have any questions and want to pm me...or ask here...whatever you want. I can walk you through it. I don't know if you have done any fiberglassing but its not really hard. I would say 80-90% of successful fiberglassing is in the prep work. Mixing resin and laying glass is not hard...just like a homemade jig saw puzzle, but I can walk you through it. LOTS of good youtube vids on it also. Many will say you'll have to rip the floor all out and that would be the best way...probably never have another problem...but many good years can be had with proper patching and keeping it out of the elements as much as possible. Just dont screw an old road sign down and lay carpet over it or something like that or you WILL be replacing the whole floor. I have seen that before. I've seen some pretty crazy things under carpet...lol. Good luck and please ask ANY questions you might have.

Oh yeah..post pics of your progress....WE LOVE THOSE and it will be sure to help someone else one of these days!

So in other words sell the boat for a discount just kidding..I'll pm you if you'd be willing to help!

You bet!! PM away! I see you have cowman in your handle. What does that mean?? I ask because I was an ag teacher (FFA) for 9 years. Been around ALOT of cows. lol

It's just kinda my handle I've always used. Grew up on a cattle ranch and was just thinking of a name that was catchy and that's what popped into my head ha.

Cool beans. let me know when you need help.

I fix a lot of these. If you can cut back to clean wood, you can fix without removing the whole floor. Make sure to use glass matt and resin on ALL sides, especially the bottom, top, and all edges of the cutout and the patch piece.

PM or email if you need more info.

-TH