How to get ply flooring through companionway?

[Cyrus Safdari]

So having removed the rotting old ply floor covered with bad vinyl laminate, I was hoping to replace all with teak and holly plywood flooring but now I realize that at its widest, the full floor was 5ft wide (which includes side bits that went under the settees for a few inches & not visible) while the companionway is 4ft.
I may be able to just cut it as wide as the visible part & hope that fits but apart from that I'm trying to figure out the best way to cut and fit the new floor, if I have to cut up the ply panel to get it past the companionway, so as to minimize the damage to the flooring. (This is for the one large floor panel piece that goes in the salon; the v-berth and head will have other flooring panels.)

[mlydon]

Sounds like a non-issue - ply comes in 4’x8’ sheets to begin with, so you’re going to have to piece the floor together anyway….

You can slice a thin strip off the edge of one panel so a holly strip is right on the new edge, and butt it up against a teak edge, so the two look contiguous, and have the seam on the less-visible side of the area, or right down the middle if you have a rug down over it. Another possibility is to run a strip of contrasting wood like mahogany right down the center, with teak/holly panels mirrored outward, or border the center with two contrasting strips, with smaller pieces outboard.

Matt

[psk125]

You will likely want to also be able to lift some of the sections out so as to reach the bilge, so the pieces will not need to be full width anyway.

[Cyrus Safdari]

Yeah thanks Im kinda reaching same conclusion
Regarding panel width: Previosly the settees etc were built over the sole, so the sole was installed first and the partial bulkheads and settees were built over the sole. I figured I could save a few inches of sole ply on each side by attaching the furniture first to the hull interior then fitting the sole around the furniture. This just about brings the necessary width of flooring down to about 4' hope I can get that past the companionway

[Spot]

Cyrus, I'd make cardboard templates for patterns and see if those makes it through the companionway before cutting the nice wood. One could also plan on a contrasting strip of nice wood going down the centerline and plan on 2 pieces cut with that in mind.

[Rumrace]

I made a 3 piece for a SeaRay Sundancer. That model had poor support and the carpet hid all their faults. I made the centre board one piece save the two cutouts to access the deep V bilge. I build aluminum frame sections and bonded them to the hull. I ran the centre board with a slot on both sides through the router. Then routed a tongue on both odd shaped floor. The dinette was better build Teak plywood but we replaced the small raised floor under it also. I gave the mess 4 coats of water seal before installing and 2 after epoxy on the joints. Was a fast boat but the pounding wore a few things out and they were all plywood related.