Dougcole
Guru
I'm getting ready to tackle an area of rot next to the fridge in the interior floor of our Mainship 400. When I have defrosted the fridge over the years water drips down under the fridge and caused the rot.
Here's the floor setup:
Top layer is NuTeak, which is a vinyl/synthetic teak material that is glued down. It is super durable but very thin, perhaps 1/16". Our boat came with wall to wall carpet which was installed by Mainship. The NuTeak installers pulled it up when they laid the new floors.
Middle layer is a 1/2" untreated plywood sub floor that was laid by the Nuteak installers over the original Mainship cabin subfloor. They laid this subfloor to raise the level of the floor up to the existing trim level and to provide a smooth surface to lay the NuTeak on as the Mainship subfloor is pretty rough. This subfloor is plain interior grade plywood. I think (hope) that the rot is isolated in this layer.
Bottom layer is 3/4" plywood, epoxy coated/impregnated laid by Mainship when they built the boat. It is screwed to the floor stringers.
A few weeks back I pulled up a piece of cherry threshold trim that is just inside the cockpit doors as it had rot in one end right next to the fridge. In an example of their finest craftsmanship, Mainship laid the carpet, then put the threshold trim on top of the carpet. The carpet held the defrost water from the fridge and rotted the cherry threshold trim. It did not, thankfully, rot the epoxy coated subfloor underneath the carpet.
After I got the trim up, (easier said than done) I pulled up the moldy carpet then laid some thickened epoxy down on top of the sub floor, filled the space with a piece of plywood soaked in epoxy (4 layers, 5 on the edges) and put a new piece of mahogany trim on top of it.
My plan is to carefully peel back the NuTeak, then dig out the rotten middle layer of plywood, lay epoxy coated plywood back in the space, Fill all the gaps with thickened epoxy then carefully relay the NuTeak. I will probably use unthickened epoxy to glue it the Nuteak down.
My question is, how much of the wet plywood do I need to get out? I am hoping to avoid having to pull up much of the Nuteak as I am concerned about getting it to lay flat again. Obviously, if it is rotted it needs to go, but if an area of the plywood is damp, but not rotted can I leave it? I will lay enough new, epoxy coated ply to insure that no more water will be able to wick over to the old plywood. Also, the edges of the old ply will be sealed by the epoxy.
If there is just a little bit of moisture left in the ply, with no new moisture coming in, will the rot continue to spread?
Attached are pics of the threshold repair so you can see sort of what I am dealing with.
Here's the floor setup:
Top layer is NuTeak, which is a vinyl/synthetic teak material that is glued down. It is super durable but very thin, perhaps 1/16". Our boat came with wall to wall carpet which was installed by Mainship. The NuTeak installers pulled it up when they laid the new floors.
Middle layer is a 1/2" untreated plywood sub floor that was laid by the Nuteak installers over the original Mainship cabin subfloor. They laid this subfloor to raise the level of the floor up to the existing trim level and to provide a smooth surface to lay the NuTeak on as the Mainship subfloor is pretty rough. This subfloor is plain interior grade plywood. I think (hope) that the rot is isolated in this layer.
Bottom layer is 3/4" plywood, epoxy coated/impregnated laid by Mainship when they built the boat. It is screwed to the floor stringers.
A few weeks back I pulled up a piece of cherry threshold trim that is just inside the cockpit doors as it had rot in one end right next to the fridge. In an example of their finest craftsmanship, Mainship laid the carpet, then put the threshold trim on top of the carpet. The carpet held the defrost water from the fridge and rotted the cherry threshold trim. It did not, thankfully, rot the epoxy coated subfloor underneath the carpet.
After I got the trim up, (easier said than done) I pulled up the moldy carpet then laid some thickened epoxy down on top of the sub floor, filled the space with a piece of plywood soaked in epoxy (4 layers, 5 on the edges) and put a new piece of mahogany trim on top of it.
My plan is to carefully peel back the NuTeak, then dig out the rotten middle layer of plywood, lay epoxy coated plywood back in the space, Fill all the gaps with thickened epoxy then carefully relay the NuTeak. I will probably use unthickened epoxy to glue it the Nuteak down.
My question is, how much of the wet plywood do I need to get out? I am hoping to avoid having to pull up much of the Nuteak as I am concerned about getting it to lay flat again. Obviously, if it is rotted it needs to go, but if an area of the plywood is damp, but not rotted can I leave it? I will lay enough new, epoxy coated ply to insure that no more water will be able to wick over to the old plywood. Also, the edges of the old ply will be sealed by the epoxy.
If there is just a little bit of moisture left in the ply, with no new moisture coming in, will the rot continue to spread?
Attached are pics of the threshold repair so you can see sort of what I am dealing with.
