Rot in Cabin Floor

R

RBosque

Member
Joined
Jun 11, 2006
RO Number
21729
Messages
15
I have a 1997 Commodore 242 which I absolutely love. Recently, I noticed the cabin floor seemed to have a little more "give" than it should, so I removed the inspection hatch to take a look underneath. Needless to say, I was not happy with what I found.

I found water trapped in the bilge which was not being pumped out by the bilge pump. Moreover, in order to have the water drain out to the engine compartment and out through the transom plug, I had to raise the bow quite a bit more than normal by putting a cinder block under the trailer jack and fully extending the jack. Unfortunately, the trapped water had done its damage, rotting the cabin sole.

I called the factory to see if they would repair the floor (I would have paid them, of course) but they told me they only do warranty repairs.

So here's my questions to you: Have any of you ever had to do this repair on your boats? Have you done the work yourselves or had someone else do it? Can you recommend anyone in Florida (South FL or North FL) to do this job?

Thanks again everyone and sorry for the long post.
 
I had water build up on my 255xl that softened the cabin floor. Not hard to replace, but the first question is where is the water coming from and how are you going to get it out of there in the future? On mine I had to install drain tubes along the keel so water would drain. Once the new floor was in I installed an inspection hatch so I could keep an eye on it.

Chris
 
As kindredspirits said, "where is the water is coming from" is most important. Getting it out completely is going to require bulkhead work. In my 2460, the bulkheads were prefabbed with a piece of 3/4" PVC tube glassed into it for a limber hole. That way they just had to glass the bulkhead to the hull. If done properly, all bulkheads should have a 1/2 circle cut into the bottom at the lowest point to allow all the water to drain out.

If you have the recessed stern shower, the "O" rings dry out and the shower head leaks back into the bilges. The way the 246X series was built, their are no limber holes anywhere in the stringers, but there are in the engine room bulkhead both P&S as well as center (again the PVC job). The stringers end about where the water tank is. One weekend while at a club function at a marina resort, while connected to shore water, the aft shower dripped enough to go all the way up the starboard side and fill the center compartment. Thank God water seeks its own level or I could have lost the boat. The "O" rings are NOT a standard size, however the next closest thing to it is available at any hardware store. They fit tight, but if you lube them well the seal is actually better than original.

HTH
 
Thanks for the replies, Chris and David.

My boat does have a limber hole in the bulkhead; however, the shape of the bilge and the location of the bulkhead is such that the boat's bow must be angled pretty high in order for water to drain out of this area of the bilge and into the engine compartment. Part of the problem is that there is a raised pad on which a bilge pump is mounted in a plastic enclosure. The water has to go around this pad to make it to the limber hole in the bulkhead aft of it.

As for the source of the water, it's a mystery thus far. I've filled the water tank and pressurized the water system--even leaving it on overnight--and found no leaks or new water accumulating in the bilge. The transom shower is not a factor, as it is too far aft to affect this portion of the bilge. One thing I have not tried, however, is to run water onto the floor in the head, as if someone were taking a shower. I will try this next and let you know the results.

I hope the job of replacing the cabin sole is not too difficult, but from I can see of it, it doesn't look very easy to me. I haven't started tearing out the carpet yet, as we're on vacation and want to use the boat. But I did peel back the carpet a little around the edges in one area to take a look. It appears that Regal did a good job of gluing the carpet onto a pad and then onto the plywood. Then, the plywood floor appears to be glassed-in to the hull at its edges. I haven't figured out how to remove the old floor and carpet without a lot of destruction.

Has anyone here ever done this? Any suggestions or comments? Also, I'm thinking of replacing the carpeted floor with teak and holly. Any comments or suggestions on this?

Thanks again for the help,

Raul
 
I just finished a cockpit floor replacement on my 88 Four Winns, it was rotted from just in front of the helm seats back to the motor compartment, about 6 feet long. I cut out the old floor with a circular saw with the cut depth set just slightly more than the thickness of the plywood. I left a shelf of good wood around the perimeter of the floor, so I could make a support to fasten to this also out of plywood and then install the new floor into this shelf and to the stringers. You have to be very careful cutting with respect to depth. You also need to be sure of the thickness of the ply, it's usually 1/2 but not always. I then coated the new floor pieces with thinned penetrating epoxy. The floor was installed with stainless screws (make sure you do NOT drill thru the hull!!) and 3M 4200. I had a fiberglass shop do the final glassing and gelcoating with non skid, no more carpet in this boat. It was a big job. If you covering with carpet, see if you can reuse what you have, or save the old piece for a pattern for the new carpet. The advantage of carpet is that your glass work does not have to be perfect. The drawback is that the carpet holds moisture. Make sure the bilge under this floor really drains. The evaporation of the water there is probably the root of the problem, combined with carpet on top that holds moisture. The anchor locker on my FW also drained into the bildge,keeping the whole area damp. That is being corrected too. A good book that covers this is Runabout Renovation.
 
RBosque,
On my 1989 255xl I had a problem with water accumulating under the cabin floor. When I filled my water tank (located under the v-berth) the hose running through the anchor locker to the water tank would leak. I'm not sure how the 242 is set up but check this. On the 255 the fill hose is on the port side and runs right through the anchor locker. As I would fill the tank the hose would leak and the water ran into the forward bilge. If you have limber holes between the bulkheads how is the water getting caught in there? Mine didn't have thses and that was my problem. As far as removing the floor, most of the time kerfs are fiberglassed in that need to be cut with a dremmel tool/cutoff saw.
 
I have a 1994 Regal 6.8 that had rot in the cuddy just ahead of the porta potty.
I called Regal and was told this was a problem and was only in this area. I removed the carpet..pulled it back, floor and stringers.
Made new ones wrapped in fiberglass,epoxy..installed new deck, and rolled back carpet. This was last year. Only problem has been crap blocking the float in the bilge float. So far all seems to be ok. In my opinion the water is not a leak, but a problem storing the boat at a low angle. I think the water collects forward and simply does not get into the bilge. Also there is a new bilge monitor that is electronic and can't get stuck.
 
Thanks for the great replies, guys. I will check the anchor locker, even though it has a drain to the outside, and the water tank filler hose. I'll also check the shower pan in the head for leakage into the bilge.

As for limber holes, the boat definitely has a good-sized limber hole in the bulkhead just aft of where the water is being retained. The problem is that there is a bilge pump mounted on a raised pad that is glassed-in just a few inches forward of the bulkhead in question. So, unless the boat is stored with a pretty darned high bow angle, the water cannot go around this raised pad and remains trapped under the cabin sole. I found that I had to put a cinderblock under the trailer's tongue jack, then crank up the jack to its maximum extension before the trapped water would go around the raised pad. I very much doubt that the water will drain completely from this area when the boat is at rest in the water. However, it's possible that it may drain when the boat is underway, as the inertia of the water during acceleration, rolling and pitching may be sufficient to drive it around this raised pad and out through the limber hole in the bulkhead.

I guess the first problem I'm having is with the thought of tearing apart my boat's good looking interior. The carpet in the cabin is very high quality, is in excellent condition and was installed very professionally. I seriously doubt that I could do as good a job with the carpet and, short of a factory repair (which Regal will not do) I don't know who I could hire to do the job right. One possibility I'm considering is to replace the carpeted sole with teak and holly (or maybe Flexiteek). I'll probably start tearing the floor out in a couple of weeks, after our vacation is over.

Thanks for all the help, guys and I'd like to hear from anyone else who'd like to chime in. I'll let you guys know how the project is coming along once I start it.

Raul
 
I think the forward to aft drainage is the real problem here..Storage...gl
 
There's no storage whatsoever in that part of the boat, drpetvet. That area is always kept clear of storage except for the bilge pump which is supposed to be there.
 
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