Installing Wood Finish Floor In Cabin


3

37 PC MN

New member
Hey everyone - I am considering installing an American cherry floor in the cabin of our 37 PC, similar to what we see in the newer Formulas. I am not really sure I want to do it because I like the feeling of soft carpet under my feet.......but I wanted to get everyone's opinion on this. Do you think it gives the cabin a warmer feeling to have the wood finished flooring? Would it be a dramatic improvement over the carpet that is in there? Also I'd like to hear from people that have that in their cabin........do you like it?

Once I figure out if I am going to do this, then I need to figure out which product works best for this application. I am guessing it should be a laminate floor?
 
I had the carpet on my 27PC and I have the wood (or whatever it is that Formula uses) in my 31PC. IMO, there is simply no comparison. The wood makes the boat look very rich, what a wonderful upgrade. Also, the wood is way easier to keep clean. No stains, no worries about someone spilling something, and carpet wears out and eventually looks nasty. I do not think you will regret it at all.
 
There are pros / cons for sure.

We have the carpet and personally feel with young children, the carpet is better match. No worries about scratching the fake wood, etc.

I think next year, I'm going to get a sunbrella protector the same dimensions as that plastic piece that I will never use. At least the sunbrella will breathe

One thing up north here, the carpet is warmer feeling, especially in the spring and fall.
 
We have a couple stains on our cabin carpet from the previous (original) owner. I suppose "stuff" happens as they say, but if I was ever able to buy a Formula brand new, I would go crazy if someone stained something on the boat. I already have a "no shoes" policy on the boat, but that doesn't prevent people from spilling food and drinks on the carpet.

Today I spend the day steam cleaning the carpets, both cabin and cockpit. None of the cabin stains came up, even after 3 rounds of pre-treatment and hot water steam cleaning. The cockpit carpet, on the other hand, came out perfectly clean. Granted the stains on my cabin carpet aren't severe, although there are somewhat noticeable.........I think adding the American Cherry-finish flooring would be a good move for aesthetics and for clean-up. It certainly would not be as soft and comfy on bare feet.......which I am always barefoot on my boat.

I, like many people, enjoy upgrading my boat to match current trends; and I think the addition of the laminate wood flooring would be a good choice, and cost effective considering the materials would be around $300 - $400 and labor could be done in one day.

A friend of mine who also has a 2005 37 PC replaced his curtains above the dinette with deep cherry wood blinds. That is another enhancement that would look good in the boat, although Formula is now using cellular shades.
 
I would venture that it would probably take more like a week in total to do the whole cabin. You would want to do the aft cabin also.

I asked Formula how long "they" would feel it would take to remove and install the FULL cabin and they came back with 1 guy taking two weeks to install. Sounds crazy, but that's from the factory.
 
A week? The carpenter that does projects for us around the house works quick. He could have that old carpet up in about 30 minutes, and have the underlayment in place within 3 hours. Then after lunch he'd work another 3-4 hours and I suppose he'd finish up the final trim work the next morning. He did a bathroom remodel for us last November, he had the old floor, walls, and tub (in pieces) after 45 minutes. By the time he left that night he had the new travertine tile floor in (minus the grout of course) and he had custom built an enclosure for our new jacuzzi tub, all in one day's work. The next day was grout, plumbing and electrical, followed by tile around the tub, paint, and installation of the new vanity and toilet. Total time was just over 2 days. And he worked alone. For him I would say one day on that small cabin floor area is a piece of cake.
 
Formula said 2 weeks to install a wood floor in the cabin of your boat? I suppose that's how they would have to justify the $5,000 price tag that would come with it. Or is $5k a bit light?
 
I would love to see that job get done in a days work. If you look at the floor in both cabins, there is a little more work involved.

I was trying to be polite and let you know what the factory told me. Who cares about the cost, it's the time frame they gave me.
 
Quote from Formula TAG:

"I ran this by engineering and they said it would be quite a job to install the wood floor. To take the carpet up that is glued down is a job in itself. They roughly estimated it would take 1 guy 2 weeks to install as we do today. The shop labor rate would be $75 and hour + materials. Let me know if you would like me to look into this any further."
 
I don't doubt that Formula quoted you that time frame and cost. Keep in mind that if you had Formula do this job, they are pulling a member of their reduced workforce away from other normal day-to-day projects, which costs them time, and as you may know in business "time is money." Also in business, it's commonplace to bid a job high when it is one that you do not want to do. Formula probably figured if they quoted you $75/hr x 80 hrs = $6,000 plus materials to lay roughly 35-40 sq ft of laminate floor, that you'd probably choose not to have them do it. I would assume you did not have them do it?

I bet if you got quotes from carpenters and tradesmen who specialize in flooring, not one of them would come near that estimate in both time and cost.
 
My wife (the Admiral) and I visited the Norwalk Boat Show and checked out the new Formulas. She decided we needed to "warm" up our '95 31 PC. I relaminated the cabinets in the galley with a medium tone cherry laminate and installed a solid Brazilian Cherry Bellawood 3/8"x 3" tongue and groove galley floor. Since then I removed the TV and that cabinet has a shelf and door that is hinged on the left side. We've also decided to laminate the head door in cherry. I'll do that over the winter lay up.

Regarding your floor query It took a day and a half to remove the carpet, install a 3/8" waterproof subfloor and the Bellawood floor. The subfloor is glued and screwed to factory floor and levels it. I did that the afternoon before the floor was installed. I hired a retired finish carpenter and he arrived the next morning to install the floating floor. He started in front of the galley. He glued the cherry pieces with a waterproof glue used when installing a wood floor on concrete. We stopped when half of the floor was in place and let the glue set for an hour and a half. Then we finished the remaining half. Important point, we left a 1/8" gap all around the floor to allow for expansion. The gap is hidden by the carpet on the vertical wall. He charged me $200.00 for 6 hours labor. See the enclosed pictures.
 

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i think it looks pretty sweet and would like to know how you were able to level the factory floor. you said you added a 3/8" sub floor? did that alone take care of getting everything level or did you have to do something else?
 
I found a couple of resin high spots that I took care of with a belt sander. The subfloor took care of the rest.

One thing forgot to mention was I wrapped a piece of carpet around the steps and screwed it to the vertical part of the lower step. I can slide the steps away from the sump access and not scratch the wood floor.
 
The guy right next to my current slip just had his 37 PC converted from carpet to wood via after market. I'll have to get the skinny from him. Doing this in the field, his flooring was taken right up to the cabinetry, with transition trim around the edges. However, when one orders the boat with the faux wood floor from the factory, it goes in before....and under, the cabinets, alleviating any "stop trim". I have some pictures which show this process on my hull number during production. Perhaps the Formula quote referred to above was to install it just like anew, which would have involved removal and re-installation of everything on the floor.

Regardless, I too like the wood floor better, both from a practical and aesthetic standpoint. On ours, we keep a small nautical/decorative rug in the middle of the cabin, which blends great with the flooring. It also covers the hatch up which is cut into the center of the floor for storage....something the Admiral preferred to do. I can see that with young kids though the floor could potentially get scratched. That would be a heartbreaker.

One of the advantages I have thought of with the wood floor is the greatly reduced risk of mildew if any source of water gets on it. Just wipe it up, and the problem is gone, where residual moisture would hang around on the carpeted version. We've all been on boats that have "that musty smell".....a big turnoff for me.
 
I would love to see those production pictures! Not just for this topic but in general, it would be cool to see a boat being built. I think it would really be cool to see a time-lapse video of a new boat being built.......
 
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