Marine: Boating, Sailing, PWC, GPS and Navigation - how do i repair a boat floor that doesnt have wood?

My 1977 Mackie bass boat has a thin sheet of fiberglass over the top of the floatation foam. The fiberglass has seperated from the foam and the floor feels mushy to walk on. Do I need to cut out the fiberglass sheet, dig out the old expanded foam, re-foam the floor area, then reinstall the fiberglass sheet? :confused:

Not knowing what your floor looks like ,but i'd consider using the thick heavy matting for fiberglass cloth ,not the thin stuff at walmart and lay it to your floor ,maybe even running the cloth up the side walls a bit,you may even use a dab of construction glue here and there to hold the cloth in place.If your near the coast line any hardware store will have the resin and hardner for about 18 bucks a gallon,a bass boat may take three gallon.Pour in on floor heavy in spots and use either a big brush or a roller,it's a messy job but your floor will toughen up,keep what you have in place,you can color your resin but i would just paint afterwards with a good floor paint . The finish product will have a raised screen look but helps with the non-slip that it offers. You may check at a carpet store for long lengths of aluim. trim and snap in rubber for the wall trim. Be careful of fumes around children.good luck....bernie

If the foam is wet leave it open until dried. If the foam has a bad oder or showing molding replace it otherwise it should be fine.

make a new fiberglass sheet onto the one you have and put it down, and maybe use some more foam in weak areas.. .. That's what I did.

make a new fiberglass sheet onto the one you have and put it down, and maybe use some more foam in weak areas.. .. That's what I did.

Thank you all for the great advice!! What should I use to replace or add foam? The original looks the the yellow expanding stuff.

Thanks :thumbup:

I forget the name but the foam I used came in a can and expanded, so may be what you're talking about aswell. You could also just make a new thicker fibergalss floor and reinforce.

Id just put down a P/T plywood floor over it then a thin glass over that. . Have had so much trouble with foam under the floors on boats that have gone to cutting it out and make air tanks there. The foam works very good when its up in the gunnels of the boat. But not under the floor where it can get water in it.

ED ;)

on my foam floor, i had a old bass runner.

I had to fix the flooring, fiberglass was week.

Here is what I did and thoughts.


That foam is a safety measure to keep the boat afloat if you get a whole or to much water in the boat.

Now I had found when i got my used boat, screw wholes in my floor, letting water into that area.

I sealed them up with figerglass resin.

I used the heaver thick figerglass cloth from farm n fleet, and I also ran it up the sides fro added strength.

Now When I looked into the flooring, There was wooden braces also besides just the foam. some of the wooden braces were rotted out and I replaced them, they were friberglassed in and figercloth used to hold into place.

Now wher my drain plug was I had 2 wholes that were from the sealed compartment (foam) and were suppose to have rubber plugs in its place, they were missing.

So It was getting water into that area thru the wholes also, so I had to get some rubber inserts to seal the wholes.

sporty