Rotting Floor Problem

[bmadd]

When I bought my first boat, an 18 ft Bumble Bee fiberglass bass boat, it came with a hot foot. The first time I used the boat, the screws mounting the Hot Foot to the floorboard stripped out. Since then I've replaced the screws three times, each time with increasing in size and each time they still strip out. I'm looking for a cheap permanent fix. My thinking is taking up the carpet and prepping the surface. Then fixing a piece of treated 1x6 to the floorboard with some sort of marine epoxy. Then covering the board with leftover carpet and mounting the Hot Foot to the 1x6. Will this be sufficient or are there other means I should try?

Thanks,

Braden

[surfer]

If the larger wood is not rotten and the rot is isolated to the screw holes them selves then chisel out the small area of rot and fill in with liquid nails caulk.  Then screw the hot foot back down into the liquid nails.  The liquid nails is tough enough to hold the screw yet soft enough to accept the screw.

If the rot is larger, then what you described would work better.

[RobDar]

automotive well-nuts

[bmadd]

RobDar- I looked at the auto well nuts. How would I go about using them?

Also-as far as Marine sealant, I am thinking the 3M Marine 5200 adhesive sealant. Any body have any experience with the product?

Thanks,

Braden

[Branuss04]

When I bought my boat, it had some rottage going on where the screw holes were for the captains chair.  I'll start off by saying there was no carpet on it, so I did not have that step to worry about.  filled the 5 holes with a caulking that you would use for showers and such that was meant to get wet.  I let it sit and settle for a couple days, then used a generous amount of waterproof marine sealant and topped off the holes.  Then I got a peice of board (I think it was either 3/4 or 1" thick), and cut it so it would would be about 3 or 4 inches wider than the rottage.  I carpeted the wood, then used some wood screws and screwed it into the deck.  

It worked for me with no problems yet.

[Spencer W]

The 3M marine adhesives are very good, I used them on my boat restoration this past year, it was either the 4200 or 5200.  They have 2 different types of adhesive, a fast cure and slow cure. Buy the fast cure, because the slow cure takes about a week to fully cure. If your wanting a cheap fix you could probably do the repair that you described.

[George Welcome]

The first thing you need to do is stop the progression of the wood rot. You can achieve this by thoroughly treating the area with Boric acid. Depending on the amount of wood rot you may actually have to replace the wood in the area. Just gluing a piece of wood on top of the rotted wood will not solve your problem.

Wood rot is an active fungus! It will stay active in a boat once started as it only requires a small amount of moisture. Boric acid kills the fungus.

[Branuss04]

The first thing you need to do is stop the progression of the wood rot. You can achieve this by thoroughly treating the area with Boric acid. Depending on the amount of wood rot you may actually have to replace the wood in the area. Just gluing a piece of wood on top of the rotted wood will not solve your problem.

Wood rot is an active fungus! It will stay active in a boat once started as it only requires a small amount of moisture. Boric acid kills the fungus.

YES!!!!! Very important step, I forgot to put that in my post. Definately no sense of just covering it up as it is still active.