Hello to all i have a 18 bowrider and in 2 or 3 spots the floor feels spongy like it might be rotting out.
Check boat for floor soft spots.
Not sure of a great way to check for soft spots other than using your foot and bouncing your weight around throughout the deck feeling for it.
I too have a boat that had a soft spot in the floor.
Deck and stringer system problems go hand in hand.
They aren t near each other and they aren t real bad but you can feel the difference.
On inboard and sterndrive boats where transom flex is not as prevalent a core sample can be taken from the inside of the transom to check for moisture or rot.
Fixing small soft spots in boat floor.
The soft spots tend to be small enough at first so you need to make sure that the overall surface you are working on allows you to apply the epoxy and fiberglass properly.
I have 2 very small soft spots in the floor of my lund pro v.
The extra holes will give the foam a place to escape.
I did hear from a dealer though that they changed the type of plywood they used for floors in 1995 i believe to a much better type that holds up to water and time longer.
The holes need to be all the way around the soft spot.
If you hear a hollow sound you ll have an idea if there s a weak area.
I ended up ripping out the entire floor stringers the inside skin of the transom to where i had an empty hull and rebuilt the entire thing.
I talked to some people and they suggested drilling small holes in the soft area and injecting it with a fiberglass resin.
I use a very short drill bit so i do not go through the other side of the boat.
We recommend tapping around the soft spot with the back end of a screwdriver.
Also put several in the center of the spot.
Turned out the entire floor was rotten the stringers were rotten the transom was rotten etc.
A soft spot in a boat floor can be surprisingly tricky to diagnose.
Our 34ft silverton aft cab had some soft spots on the deck so instead of ripping up and having to repair the gel coat we decided to attack it from underneath.
When the sound becomes sharp and the material gives good feedback to the touch you know that it s stronger.
When noticing a soft spot on your boat you need to add more support to the structure to reinforce it as much as possible.
Say one every few inches.
One hole may not be sufficient.
Third squeeze in the gorilla glue or sealer.
I replaced the entire floor in one of my boats replaced a small area in another of my boats and also had a cheap boat that i didn t care about much and just screwed a piece of carpeted plywood over the soft spot to get it by so i could enjoy it right away.
