How to Install a Boat Carpet

Boat carpets, or marine carpets as they are commonly referred to, are absolutely essential regardless of the type, size and purpose of the boat. Each and every type of water vessel including family rowboats, speedboats, yachts, catamarans, kayaks, fishing trawlers, luxury liners, aircraft carriers, submarines, and even Titanic-sized ships require boat carpets to be installed on board. Typically, there are plenty of areas on a boat which require marine i.e. boat carpet installation:

• decks
• aisles
• flooring
• cabins
• stairways
• pool decks.

Now that you are aware of the different places which require carpeting, let us take a look at how to go about installing boat carpets.

Installation of a Boat Carpet

Before you begin with the carpeting process, you must make sure that you keep all the required tools and carpeting material at hand. Here is a detailed list of the material that you will require:

• basic utility hardware tools such as knives, blades, pliers, spanners, etc.
• marine carpet sheets
• vacuum cleaner
• synthetic adhesive
• good quality scrapers
• measuring tape
• sketch pen or marker

Installation Procedure:

1. First and foremost, strip your boat of all removable hardware and furniture. If you already have an earlier boat carpet which you wish to replace, make sure you remove it completely.
2. Remove all the debris, dried glue and other residue with the help of scrapers. Scrape the entire surface until it is completely leveled and smooth. Vacuum it thoroughly to remove all traces of dirt, dust and loose debris.
3. It is advisable to expose the carpet sheets to a few minutes of sunlight. This helps to smoothen the carpet and also dries it in the process.
4. Using a measuring tape, accurately measure the dimensions of the different sections that require carpeting. It is always recommended that you work on carpeting the sections one at a time, rather than all at once.
5. Using a sharp blade, cut a portion of the carpet sheet such that it is slightly bigger than the measured area of the section.
6. Using a trowel, apply a generous amount of adhesive on the backing surface. While fixing the sheet to the surface, make sure that you start from an edge and work your way inwards towards the opposite edge of the sheet.
7. Press all areas of the carpet sheet uniformly using a heavy weight and leave it to dry for some time so that it binds well. Once it is nice and dry, you should trim all the extra sheet portions using a sharp pair of scissors to ensure a proper fit.
8. Follow the same set of steps for all the other sections that need to be carpeted. Lastly, return all the removed pieces of furniture back to their original places and you're done!

When installing boat carpets, always ensure that the carpet sheets being used are of the right quality and are completely water-proof. Use only specially designed marine carpet adhesive or else the carpet may not bind properly.

Boat carpets provide all-round usage as they are not restricted to just boats and ships. You can install a boat carpet around the edges of your swimming pool, on your patio, or even around that cute water fountain on your lawn. At the same time, they also happen to be a good carpeting alternative in areas like your garage, work shed, etc. Well, there you go... that's one more thing that you've learned today, in addition to how to lay carpet in a boat.