I see quite a few jon boats for sale that would work just fine for me, but a large percentage of them are carpeted. Is there any way that the carpet will hold up to a saltwater environment. There is a particular boat I’m thinking about looking at that has marine grade plywood floors and decks, but it’s covered with carpet. I don’t know how big a problem this is. Can any of you enlighten me? Do any of you have carpet in your saltwater boat?
If you’re lucky enough to be fishing, you’re lucky enough.
No way I’d have carpet in a saltwater boat, or any boat. All it does is trap moisture against that plywood and causes the deck to rot. I replace a lot of rotted decks because of carpet.
Capt. Larry Teuton
Cracker Built Custom Boats
I have a small aluminum Starcraft with carpet, just like Cracker Larry said it just rots the wood. Thats my next project is to rip it all out and put on a painted wood deck. Even with rinsing the crap out of the carpet, in two years I’ve owned the boat the salt has rotted it out.
Kinda what I thought.
If you’re lucky enough to be fishing, you’re lucky enough.
You can tear out carpet & paint over the floors with rubberized paint for Rubber RV roofs & other roof patch applications. You can get it at Homedepot or Lowes by the gallon. About same price as Paint but it will seal it in better. If you put it on thick you can actaully give it a texture kind of like the new Jon boats with the textured alum. floors have. It is usually in the roofing section where the tar paper & shingles are.
I actually have about 90% of a gallon leftover from a roof repair I did 2-3 years ago. I can’t make up my mind whether to get a samll, cheap boat now, or wait a year and get something nicer. Today, I’m leaning toward waiting. Tomorrow may be a different story.
If you’re lucky enough to be fishing, you’re lucky enough.