cabin Flooring / sole whats the best surface? Opinions please.

[jkindredpdx]

My 1974 HR35 has 3/4" (1.9cm) thick Honduran Mahogany. Seems to be holding up quite well. Sapele or Khaya (African Mahogany) can be substitutes for genuine Mahogany.

[Patrigo]

Have a look at Flotex. It is called 'carpet", but is one of the best soft floor coverings on the planet and far superior to any carpet. Expensive, but impermeable to any liquid and very hard wearing. Mine has been on cabin sole for almost thirty years. Any dirt (dog droppings, wet paint or varnish, foods, etc. etc.) is easily cleaned with the appropriate solvent, finally scrubbed with a good detergent, and comes up like it didn't happen. Millions of fibres/sq.m. electrostatically flocked onto a flexible glass backing (with or without an optional rubber backing). Cut it with a sharp blade, and not one fibre is lost.

[Windy Patrick]

Originally Posted by Capt Doug

I don't usually post but to many expensive and not very practical ideas. I purchased two boxes of 1/2 inch bamboo flooring at Lowes, it is tongue and groove and if fitted by someone like me (anal perfectionist) no need to glue down. Has been in place for 6 to 7 years and in some very nasty conditions, ----SNIP----

How good is the bamboo with a long soaking? For how long can it be wet?


Thanks in advance.

[Dymaxion]

Bamboo is pretty much bulletproof for water, have it in my ski cottage and it takes a beating from ski boots. It will indent however, but it's basically solid wood and at 5/8" thick it can be refinished a few times if desired. Can get it in natural colour or "carbonized" darker shade for contrast strips. Mine was edge glued T&G. Not sure how slippery if covered in water...

[chowdan]

Would the bamboo be applied to a plywood subflooring or applied to just the floor stringers? I'd assume the subfloor?

Originally Posted by Dymaxion

Bamboo is pretty much bulletproof for water, have it in my ski cottage and it takes a beating from ski boots. It will indent however, but it's basically solid wood and at 5/8" thick it can be refinished a few times if desired. Can get it in natural colour or "carbonized" darker shade for contrast strips. Mine was edge glued T&G. Not sure how slippery if covered in water...

[Dymaxion]

Bamboo- a subfloor would likely be needed, at least for the 5/8" thick stuff in my kitchen. A bit springy and likely to open at the T&G seams under load. Starting to see a weight penalty here...

Someone mentioned industrial floor coverings, never used it but garage floor rubber matting may be viable. Lots of colours/tread patterns available.

[chowdan]

Originally Posted by Dymaxion

Bamboo- a subfloor would likely be needed, at least for the 5/8" thick stuff in my kitchen. A bit springy and likely to open at the T&G seams under load. Starting to see a weight penalty here...

Someone mentioned industrial floor coverings, never used it but garage floor rubber matting may be viable. Lots of colours/tread patterns available.

I am probably going to wonder homedepot and lumber liquidator to see alternative options.

I was also thinking that the T&G seam would open when flexed.

[Pelican_38]

My wife is a commercial interior designer and I sat down with her flooring guru's back when I was deciding what flooring to use. I had a hard time getting them to understand what conditions it would be exposed to on a boat. But they were quick to rule out a lot of household floorings when I told them summer temps might get over 100 degrees a few days a year and winter temps might get down below 20 degrees a few days a year, and water would likely get tracked in fairly frequently.

I ultimately settled on Bolon woven vinyl flooring for my purposes - waterproof, stable in temps from -20 to +130 depending on glue, good slip resistance, would take rugs as covering well, absorbed airborne noise, looked OK (but certainly not traditional), not outrageously priced, and easy to install. I'm told by the Bolon rep that it is purchased by Outer Reef Yachts; although I've never seen it installed in one.

I also liked some of the other commercial flooring - stone composite tile and wood composite tile both are waterproof, slip resistant, carry commercial wear ratings, fairly economical, tolerate heat and cold (some do, but not all - you have to look at the specs of the one you are interested in). Looks are a personal thing, I like some of the products but not all of them. I ended up ruling out SCT and WCT flooring because most of it had a wood look and I either want tree-wood or something different, but not something that's trying to look like wood.

https://www.bolon.com/en/products

[Ken Pole]

Check out Plasteak's flooring/decking products; great product and youll never have to varnish again.

[chowdan]

After looking at many different samples and being unable to convince the wife to go with something synthetic(I didnt like plasteak but didnt mind some vinyl used in homes).

We've decided on a T&G maple floor. Our plywood subflooring will be glassed down in place then the maple flooring will be adhered down with something like sika 291, or 3m 4000/4200.