Floor covering other than carpet

Hello everyone,
I am about to start a rebuild of my 1974 16' Mirrocraft Deep V. I am going to install a aft deck, front deck, and flat floor. I am thinking about floor covering options and am wondering if there is something other than carpet that is very durable and non-skid that does not get hot. I fish without shoes quite a bit and I will have my small kids with me so I want it to stay cool to the touch. My boat is a fishing boat primarily. On the rare occasions we go out for a swim, carpet might be nice, but 99% of the time, I will be boating fish and carpet always seems to get nasty. Is there such a product out there that is able to be installed by a do it yourselfer?

Marine vinyl

It's durable, non skid and pricey........

Hyrdoturf or Seadek. I'm a barefoot man myself. I have Seadek in my my aluminum boat and can stand on it in 100 degree blue bird skies with no problem. Mud and blood wash right off at the car wash even after weeks. Hooks don't snag it. Can see pics of it in my 1656CCJ thread.

Seadek is expensive. I say again...expensive. Hydroturf is a similar product and cheaper. Not quite as tough as the Seakdek but still nice. I've had both.

I have really been looking at vinyl as an alternate to carpet. Look at nautolex. I found a place a while back that sends out samples and I tried as hard as I could to tear the stuff and could not do it. The way I see it if you install it and over lap the edges, your decks would probably never rot. Best price I have found was on eBay

They make truck bed liner in other colors besides black.

Or you could put on a coat of oil based enamel, then sift on sand over top, let it dry, then put another coat of paint over that to seal it in. Non stick and you could do it in grey or tan.
I did a wall in my house like that, to hide the imperfections from painting over old wallpaper.

akbejeepin said:

I have really been looking at vinyl as an alternate to carpet. Look at nautolex. I found a place a while back that sends out samples and I tried as hard as I could to tear the stuff and could not do it. The way I see it if you install it and over lap the edges, your decks would probably never rot. Best price I have found was on eBay

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Defender.com has Nautolex for a good price $19 per yard I think. Shipping was quick and price was fair.

Is that for a linear yard on the 6ft wide roll? I think the guy on eBay wants 10.99 port for on the 6 wide roll.

Those are some good prices on vinyl.

Let me fix my typo above. The guy on eBay wants 10.99 per foot on the 6 ft wide roll.

+1 on the Nautolex marine grade vinyl from a Defender!

SeaDek certainly has its application, but dayum ... it is soooooooooo expen$ive!

Vinyl gets hot in the sun. I have vinyl on The floor of my G3...I wouldnt stand on it barefoot in the summertime.

akbejeepin said:

Is that for a linear yard on the 6ft wide roll? I think the guy on eBay wants 10.99 port for on the 6 wide roll.

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I think that I got 6' wide goods but I am not positive. When I did my project last winter I looked on ebay and couldn't find any cheaper than defender.com. Lots of what I found on Ebay was either by the ft of were charging ridiculous shipping prices.

I ordered a 1 foot piece of the Nautolex off ebay to see what its about. Nobody I could find had samples available except one place that had a$25 minimum order. I checked out both hydroturf and seadek as well. Hydroturf looks like a very viable option as long as it can be cut very cleanly. I don't want to spend all this time ona rebuild and have the "carpet" look like my 5 year old installed it.

parratt1 said:

I ordered a 1 foot piece of the Nautolex off ebay to see what its about. Nobody I could find had samples available except one place that had a$25 minimum order. I checked out both hydroturf and seadek as well. Hydroturf looks like a very viable option as long as it can be cut very cleanly. I don't want to spend all this time ona rebuild and have the "carpet" look like my 5 year old installed it.

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Look around on the net. Very clean self installs. Recommend the kind with the adhesive backing.

After looking at the defender website, I think they have a much better deal. 18.99 peer running yard, which I think means linear yard off the roll. I did just notice they had one color in a 54" wide roll that was only $10.

Hydroturf looks nice but expensive in comparison to the vinyl.

I think the vinyl would not be hot if bought in one of the lighter colors.

Vinyl on a wood deck might work. On an aluminum deck may be a different story. It cleans up good. Thread is new. Maybe some guys will chime in that have experience with the light color vinyl and heat.

I think you can get free samples from hydroturf. Should get some so you will see what your feet are missing. ;-)

RiverBottomOutdoors said:

Vinyl on a wood deck might work. On an aluminum deck may be a different story. It cleans up good.

Thread is new. Maybe some guys will chime in that have experience with the light color vinyl and heat.

I think you can get free samples from hydroturf. Should get some so you will see what your feet are missing. ;-)

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I checked out some installs of the Hydro. Very nice looking stuff. Way better than what I was seeing originally. I will for sure see if I can get some samples of that. Gotta long ways to go till I'm ready for that but just trying to think ahead!

I have seen the vinyl installed in aluminum boats from the factory at bass pro shops. I don't think it is a problem with the right adhesive.

I do believe the hydroturf would be much more comfortable. That's why I am considering it on the front deck where I will stand a lot.

I have Nautolex in light gray and it isn't too hot for summer in NE. Obviously summer here is much different that summer down south. Yes it is measured linear yard off the roll.

Good to know on the vinyl being hot on aluminum. I was thinking it would be but was unsure.