Interior Cabin Modifications

T

tommyc_37

New Member
Feb 1, 2010
169
Liberty Harbor, Jersey City (in the shadow of Stat
Boat Info
268 Sundancer 1988
Engines
454 Mercruiser
Hi all,

New to the site...seems like a cool forum!

I've got a few questions on renovating the interior of my boat, a Sea Ray 1988 268 Sundancer.

Cabin Flooring - how difficult/feasible would it be to put Pergo-type flooring in the main cabin/galley area? Just a small strip, about 24" x 7' or so.

Galley Countertops - they are currently a boring, white formica. Is there any kind of paint that will adhere to this surface, and look decent? Is tiling an option? (thin, decorative tile)?

Fabric wall coverings - the walls in the main cabin area are a dull powder blue. I'd like to liven it up a bit. I've seen fabric spray paints online. has anybody had any success with this, for a marine application? Or is it just asking for disaster? I'm wondering if the paint will properly adhere to the fabric surface (and not crack).

Thanks for any insight! :)
 
Tommyc-37
Home Depot now sells a kit to redo formica counters to look like granite or stone. All I know is it's epoxy-based and sells for about $200. Have no idea of how it holds up but might be worth a conversation with the paint desk staff.
Good Luck
Paul
 
I'd stay away from the Pergo type flooring for the same reason it isn't recommended for kitchen and bath applications, it falls apart when it gets wet. On the engineered wood floorings, you really have to be careful about moisture. But there is no reason why you couldn't use a solid flooring.

Henry
 
Also, be careful not to put any floor down that would be slipery when wet. All floor surfaces should have a texture otherwise you have a dangerous situations for slips and falls.
 
I just put down 9/16 inch thick bamboo (it is cross laminated like plywood to avoid warping) in my '88 300 and it really looks great. My problem is having a problem trying to post a picture. Nothing I do will put a picture on this screen.
 
Docofthebay, I'd be happy to post your pictures for you! I'd really like to see them! Are they hosted some place like Photobucket or just on your hard drive? Either way, send them to me and I'll post them for you!
 
Good point on the textured finish - how does the bamboo do with wet feet? My wife is concerned about our dogs not being able to get traction - but maybe that is solved with a rug for when they go with us. I'd love to see the pictures as well as this is exactly what I'm looking to do. We had bamboo in our previous home and it really was nice - held up well and can handle moisture.
 
Here are pictures of the bamboo floor of Docofthebay's 300 DA! Nice looking I might add! How much did the bamboo cost? I see a project in MY future!!

2.jpg
3.jpg


4.jpg
1.jpg
 
The wood planks themselves were about $200 for the prefinished boards. Got them from LumberLiquidators.com but later found that Lowes and Home Depot has essentially the same stuff for the same price.Then I spent another $80 or so on the trim pieces. The floor is glued down with glue made for exterior flooring placement so it should handle water better. Trim is nailed down into the wood floor.

Dont know about slipperiness as I just did this a month ago and will be taking it to the water in 2 days.

My inspiration to do this upscale was when I was showing off the boat to a friend after I bought it last fall. His comment when going inside was "Oh its like a little camper". I decided then and there that I was going to make it much nicer than " a little camper"


Thank you Sundancer for posting these for me!
 
Last edited:
Doc, how far under the dinette step did you cover with bamboo? Does the dinette floor unscrew or did you just have to work around that?

It was WORTH it to post these pics! These are incredible and I'm looking at doing a similar thing especially if the bamboo can handle the water!! Another friend used a rubber type that slips together in strips like Pergo. This looks way better! Both can handle the water and that's the critical part.
 
The ledge that the table sits on is actually 2 pieces of board, each about half of the total size. The front half (starboard half depending on your orientation) unscrews and comes off easily after you remove the screws holding it down. Feel thru the carpet along the edges for the screw heads and use phillips head to remove. I left the other half in place for carpet removal and eventually recovering. I covered the floor under the ledge back to where the angle of the hull rises from the flat floor, then put the front half of the ledge back in place so I could cover it with the bamboo.
The carpet on the dinette ledge and stairs was actually wrapped around the edges and stapled prior to their installation, so on the steps you need a really sharp carpet knife to cut the carpet off level with the old floor--much easier that removing the steps and the new floor will cover the edge anyway
I didnt remove the stairs to remove carpet or recover. They were easy enough to get to.
I oriented all of my boards longitudinally as this made it easier to put them down in the space provided.
Part of what took so long on the whole project was where new floor went up against vertical moldings. The molding had to be either cut in place or removed and shortened to allow for the depth of the new floor.
Lastly, the new quarter round molding on the edges covered up lots of gaps and inperfect edges and gave a nice finished look, but took a long time for me to do as I'm not really good with finish work like that.
 
That looks fabulous.
 
The work looks outstanding. My wife and I have been contemplating doing a similar project on our 1994 330SD. How difficult was it to remove the old carpeting? I've heard that could be extremely difficult. Any insight into how you got the old carpet out would be greatly appreciated.
 
This looks awesome. You are my hero. What did you do to change the cabinetry to the wood color? I'm buying an 89 Sundancer 300 that needs some interior love.
 
FANTASTIC! I think I'm going to have to do something similar. My '89 has the powder blue cabinet faces so I think a darker wood would work nicely. I've thought about doing this off and on since we bought the boat in 2008 but now seeing this, I think my wife will allow me to proceed.
About how long did it take for the entire project?
What did you do on the verticle surfaces behind the cabin steps?
Thanks for sharing your pics with us!

Took another look at the pics and I see you left the carpet behind the steps, thats what I was thinking about doing.
How hard was the old carpet to remove? How hard was it to remove the residue and what did you use?
Sorry for all the questions, its just that your job looks so damned good I just want to do mine now.
 
Last edited:
Great stuff here, thanks guys.

Hmm, for such a small countertop, I'd hate to spend $200 in materials. I'll have to see what else is out there...has anybody done tile on the countertop? Small, mosaic tile? I'd think if you caulk the perimeters, it'd allow for hull movement and prevent cracking?

Has anybody refinished/painted the fabric walls of their cabin? I don't like the color in mine...

Stupid, novice boater question - what is below the carpet on the floor ... just fiberglass? Can anything be nailed into it?

Dockofthebay, did you reupholster yourself? That looks great. I really want to give my cabin some TLC.
 
I did my own reupholstery on a $70 Singer sewing machine from Walmart and fabric from a local Hancock Fabrics store. Pull the old covers off and use them for a pattern.
That's about 16 yards total there in the whole interior.
Pulling the carpet up was not hard. It pretty much just pulled away leaving fiberglass floor. I used a wire brush to loosen and remove the remaining fibers. The underlying floor had a sort of rough texture but it didnt really matter since I was covering it with the new wood floor. The only tough removal areas was where the carpet rolled over an edge and had roughly 3 trillion staples holding it on the bottom side.
I left the vertical surfaces covered with carpet as I really didnt know how I would recover them. I just picked fabric the had some of the blue of the carpet and blue of the fabric walls and also had the browns of the floor and wood walls. This pulled it all together. This was my wife's contribution- picking the fabrics.

My walls/cabinets were already the wood look. That was normal for '88s, '89s changed to the white surface.

The flat part of the floor can be nailed/screwed into as that is not hull but I did not put metal into anything that came up on an angle as that was hull surface.

The floor was made to be a floating surface but I glued it down so in the event of water intrusion, it wouldnt become a "floating surface".

Another tip- spend the $25 to $35 for an electric stapler as there are 1-2thousand to be put back in when putting the new covers on. Home depot has the stainless staples for $12/1000
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Forum statistics

Threads
113,185
Messages
1,428,142
Members
61,094
Latest member
Linword
Back
Top