Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

I redecked my boat with marine plywood and plan on covering it with vinyl as soon as it dries out from all the rainy weather we're having here in Florida.I have some checking on a few sheets of the plywood [boat's sitting outside] and was wondering if there is some type of coating/paint that could be put on that would be compatible with the adhesive ? It may not be necessary but the marine vinyl isn't very thick and I would like to kept things as smooth as possible.

I've never installed vinyl flooring on boat, and I don't have much experience using marine plywood, but my question is..... why would you want to coat/cover the marine plywood if you're going to put vinyl on top?

Marine plywood is still wood and if it stays wet inside it will rot.
If nothing else, you want to seal the edges and penetrations.
I personally prefer MDO plywood over marine but that is a choice I made

Best is epoxy paint if you want it smooth.

I imagine the vinyl glue will bond to epoxy too.

The flip side of that is polyurethane paint works better if you have a high moisture content in the wood. You are really better off getting it as dry as you can tho.

I'm concerned about getting the Marideck vinyl,which is thin,to lay as smooth as possible.A couple of sheets of plywood are weather checked,so maybe the best thing to do is run over them with a belt sander and then just apply the adhesive.

GregF wrote:Marine plywood is still wood and if it stays wet inside it will rot.
If nothing else, you want to seal the edges and penetrations.
I personally prefer MDO plywood over marine but that is a choice I made

"Eye sea", says the blind man...

I just laid Marideck down a month ago. I originally was going to use the normal water based glue, but I had a difficult time getting the surface down to the wood.
I had a boat with carpet on good wood. Trouble is that the carpet was glued on so well that some came off, some didn't. Made a pretty big mess getting it off (pulling with a four wheel drive pickup). The floor sander I rented would hardly cut the glue residue. Goof-Off wasn't much better.
I finally ended up using a couple of gallons of Bondo to repair the low spots. As the water based glue would likely not work at this point, and the Marideck contact adhesive was EXTREMELY spendy, I chose to use DAP Weldwood contact adhesive. As the surface was still a bit rough, it took more than normal (about 5 gallons total). It also was a fairly touchy 3-man job laying down a 25 foot sheet (about 6 feet at a time) without wrinkles and bubbles. Contact adhesive is not forgiving like the water based stuff, which I have used in the past. All things considered, it came out very nicely.
Recomend using the water based stuff as you have new wood. It MUST be dry as others have mentioned. I would be hesitant to use too agressive of a sealer as the adhesive you are using is designed to get into the pores of the wood. Marideck may be able to advise on this. You are probably on the right track by keeping it simple and just giving it a rough sand and having at it. I think that kind of adhesive likes rough wood anyway.
Final note-if you don't have underskin, give serious consideration to doing this when you can get at it. Not only will you gain performance, but you will protect all that wood, seams, glue etc...
Good luck with your project mate

My experience with adhesives and vinyl is that if you seal the wood, you will probably need a solvent based adhesive. Water based adhesive takes a bit more to set up...all the water has to evaporate some way. It can't go through the vinyl, so it has to go through the wood. I tried it on aluminum flooring and Coosa composite and it never set up. Like every thing, if you don't do one stop shopping test an area first. But my question would be why use Marideck? Alpha vinyl is over twice as thick and hides almost all imperfections with no extra prep work

Good luck with the vinyl flooring. Mine has only been in place for about four months but, I love it. It was easy to install and even easier to clean up after a day on the water. The flooring is much thicker than I thought it would be and very durable. I used the Alpha product and the water based vinyl / carpet adhesive. Make sure you rent a heavy carpet/vinyl roller. The most difficult part of the job was removing the old carpet. It came up in tiny pieces and nothing would get the left over adhesive. My belt sander with 40grit paper had a difficult time. I ended up with a 4" grinder with a metal sanding wheel. It took some serious hours but worked great. It left some dimples that I was worried about but the adhesive and vinyl floor evened everything out. It's a smooth surface.

I am still not sure why they glue down the carpet. I am on my 3d rug and it was never glued. The rails and trim ring around the edges is all it ever had holding it down.
The current rug is crap (the wife choosing color over quality) but the first 2 were good grade of indoor outdoor berber and it never moved.

We upgraded our carpet to 32oz berber and our back deck is a light Beige vinyl, when it's in the high 80's or 90's the Vinyl will burn your feet.
I personally would never put Vinyl on my floor again. I have a hard time believing anyone who says that their Vinyl doesn't get really hot in the summer.

I have a hard time believing anyone who says that their Vinyl doesn't get really hot in the summer.

That was always my fear. Maybe they live somewhere that never really gets hot in the summer or they always wear shoes.

GregF wrote:

I have a hard time believing anyone who says that their Vinyl doesn't get really hot in the summer.

That was always my fear. Maybe they live somewhere that never really gets hot in the summer or they always wear shoes.

Greg, You may be right, I toss water on the Vinyl when we swim to cool it down. Our Vinyl is the color of light sand.

I can truly claim that my floor doesn't get hot. Although I live in the frozen northland, we do get a few days in the 90's. Perhaps the color has something to do with it. Mine is kind of a marbled white/light gray/dark gray. Maybe the high percentage of white is the solution. That was on the old boat. I chose the same pattern (different brand) on the new one.
Totally agree with ToonGuy about the quality of the Alpha. I got samples of all brands and the Alpha vinyl was far superior in the heavy-duty/flaw-hiding category. I wish they offered more color choices and it would have been a slam dunk. I just couldn't match their colors to my boat color or I would have gone that route for sure.