woodfloor in grp hull

[Guest]

Hello everybody. Need some tips on laying some wood floors in our Bermuda 34. I think that laying an engineered real wood laminate as a "floating" floor might be the most suitable., thinking that we might need to keep some sort of access to the hollow glassfibre floor. However, a kind friend has offered us a solid wood ash floor for FREE so that is very tempting. Normally such a floor would be screwed, nailed or glued down to prevent warping thereby blocking all access to the glassfibre. Has anyone got any experience doing something similar? The ash floor is all tongued and grooved on all sides of each plank. Thanks in advance.

Bjorn

[jillR]

hi bjorn

the more access to the bilges the better

you never know when you might need it

ive never lived with fibre glass but i presume you will need access to clean it to keep it sweet

as i presume that even if the boat does not leak, condensation will gather in the bilges.

you will also need access to things like the stern gland, rudder stock, bilge pump and any other

working gear such as stearing linkages and exhaust pipe etc.

im sure peeps with better knowledge will be along soon.

jill

[mbird]

HI Bjorn

I would think the constant moving and flexing of the hull would be a problem for a wooden floor. I have no experience of this, but had to replace several rotten floor boards in our bath-tub when we first acquired her, so a permanently fixed floor is probably a no-no. You might be better off with a look-alike "lino" type floor covering that can be easily lifted and cleaned.

The floor boards themselves are screwed to the glassed-in timber bearers, so they would have to remain in order to provide you with a substrate to fix any other covering to.

[Antares_9]

The advice I would give on this is never, ever restrict access to bilges. I imagine you could use the T&G and make it up into removable panels by using hardwood stringers at right angles to the planks and treat the undeside with some serious waterproofing and or preservative. As you say, it's free so if it does still warp it will have cost you little.

[Guest]

Thanks for your advice people Have decided against the whole idea though, due to losing too much of the head height. I'm having to bend my neck enough as it is. Think we might be going for cork...

[jillR]

cork tiles are brill for steel boat ceilings as well as they are brill insulation

tried and tested for 10 years on my last boat

jill

[C.Ricko]

Bermudas were built with a fiberglass floor then everything built on top of that, therefore there is no access to the underside of it except for a hatch for the bilge pump/hydraulic motor. the floors all go a bit springy, therefore I would suggest a lino (as Jill said)