Need to redo the floor

The screws for the hinges to the motor cover stripped off this weekend. After further inspection, the floor is rotting out around that area. I havn't lifted the carpet any further but am thinking other areas may be rotting as well. My question is when I replace the floor, do I need to tear out all the old wood and replace with new wood? Or can I patch up rotting area with (fiberglass?) and be done? If I do replace it with new wood, can I put a layer of fiberglass over the new wood to help preserve it?Has anyone done this before and how difficult is it? I'm debating whether to wait until winter or sacrifice one weekend and get it done.
Thanks in advance.

You need to tear out all the rotted wood. once you get to good wood you can graft in good wood and cover with glass or you can just replace it all.

and its FAR more than one weekend. Plan to sacrifice a few months, unless you have nothing else to do (like work). Check out correctcraftfan.com for several stringer/floor repair/replacement threads.

I just got done doing that same thing to my parents 85 american skier and it took about 3 full weekends worth of work. We cut out all the old wood and grafted in the new wood. We also had 3 of us working on it.

Is your motor cover bolted to a center piece of wood. Maybe you can just replace the center piece?

Jeff,I wish it was that easy. It's bolted right to the wood floor. I need to replace the floor anyways because I can feel soft spots when walking around. Not good.

remove, install new wood. carpet and done. takes about 3 good weekends. tons of work. I have done it and dont want to ever do it again. that is why my new boat has no wood in it. I HATE WOOD

Sorry, I assume that most of these old boats will require some amount of stringer repair when the floor is that far gone....which would require driveline removal and a few more weekends. Silly to put a fresh floor over a rotted structure, IMO. Have you checked the stringers?

I havn't checked the stringers yet. I'll take a look when I pull the floors up. I'm thinking this will be a winter project since I'd rather be on the water right now.

I went against conventional wisdom at replacing a floor that turned out great that saved time and costs. First, as with all plans, you have to rip out the rotted floor and would suggest that you just do the whole thing instead of taking out patches. Check your stringers and pray that they are OK. If they are rotted you will have to lift the engine and replace those and engine mounts.

Instead of laying plywood and glassing it in, I cut 1"x4" pressure treated boards to fit. Kind of like building a deck with only about 1/8" gaps between boards. That way water can drip through to your bilge instead of puddling on your deck. Put carpet over that and if you got the gaps fairly tight you will not be able to tell that it was decked with 1x4s.

I have glassed in a plywood floor and put in a new floor with pressure treated 1x4s and the 1x4s lasted longer.

That's a great idea bmartin. thanks for the idea. I think I'll try that. I like the idea of the 1"x4"...easier to handle,install. Did you run the boards lengthwise with the boat or at an angle, like building a deck?

The stringers run length wise so the only option is mounting the floor boards width wise or perhaps at a slight angle but it will be easier to measure and fit the boards if you keep it at 90 degrees to your stringers.

The only problem with the above idea (from bmartin) is that water will be able to get through the boards and into the part of the boat that can not have water in it.

This is what we did. We bought Marine grade plywood. Then cut the wood to fit. Go out and buy a few gallons fiberglass resin and mix it up and coat it no fiberglass yet. When the resin hardens the plywood is sealed so it cant rot. After that you have to screw the wood in place and fiberglass it into the boat.

Use the woven fiberglass it looks like cloth the other stuff is too hard to work with.

The stringers in the 85 american that I did where all resined and had no rot