Removing Old Carpet

rnbenton

rnbenton

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OK, my 1987 Carver Voyager 28 needs new carpet. Like most production line boats the carpet was laid and glued on the floor then all of the interior bulkheads built on top if it. Now I need to replace the carpet but don't really want to remove the entire interior to do so.

So, the question is, how do I get the old carpet out so I can install the new?

Bob
 
Bob,
Take a utility knife with new blade, cut along the bulkheads and you can also cut it into "section" The carpet should come out in larger pieces, with a lot of pulling. The issue is the old adhesive.
 
I replaced the original carpeting in my 86 Mariner. No problems at all. Adhesive just keeps it in place. Bought a Berber remnant at the carpet store and used the old carpet for templates. It came out real nice.
 
My method to loosen the adhesive worked really really well, but I don't recommend it: have 7 gallons of water sit in the cabin for a couple of weeks in the winter. After another three weeks of trying to dry it out, we just pulled the d^mn thing out and replaced it.

No adhesive for the replacement carpet and we cut into sections instead of one great big piece. The next time I had water on the cabin floor, we easily removed the wet carpet and left the dry sections in place.
 
quote:
Originally posted by cmariner32

I replaced the original carpeting in my 86 Mariner. No problems at all. Adhesive just keeps it in place. Bought a Berber remnant at the carpet store and used the old carpet for templates. It came out real nice.

Click to expand...


Did you remove the interior and take all of the old carpet up of cut it as described above?

Liz, LOL, thanks for the tip. But, as you said, I think I'll try a few other things before I get to the "water saturation" method. :)

Bob
 
I installed carpet professionally in my younger days and have installed carpet in a few boats not too long ago. Cut the old carpet along the bulkheads with a new blade as Aholst recommended. grab the carpet with a pair of pliers in a corner and start ripping it up. Scrape the old glue with one of those red devil razor scrapers. Get up as much glue as possibe, but you just can't get it all up. As long as the floor is relatively smooth, that will be good enough. You can make a pattern with paper or just take some measurements and rough cut the new carpet to size, leaving at least 6" extra all around. Cut the carpet in place and put something heavy like a tool box on it to prevent it from shifting. fold back half the carpet and trowel on an outdoor carpet adhesive on to the floor and lay the carpet in to the adhesive. move the tool box and fold back the other half, trowel glue and lay carpet in to the glue. Try not to leave any raw edges of the carpet showing as it will unravel.
 
I didn't have to remove any of the interior. On my boat, carpeting just ran to fiberglass bulkheads or wood. Nothing ran under any cabinets.
 
You may want to pick up a carpet knife instead of trying to use a utility knife. Home Depot, Lowe's etc. will have them. The blades are rectangular so you have 4 edges to dull instead of 2, and they are also thinner and sharper, and leave a cleaner cut on carpet.
 
Guys, thanks for all the input. I will post photos when i get this deed done. :)

Bob
 
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