Has anyone ever done it themselves?? I'm curious if it was a pure pain or if it is something I can do? If you have done it yourself, would you do it again or pay someone to do it for you?? Approx. how long did it take you? Any tips or tricks you care to share?? By the way, this is in a 1989 18ft Astro FDX.

I replaced the carpet in my last boat. It was a good winter project because I had to replace the floor and make some structural repairs.  I am glad I did it.  Only advise I have is don't use black carpet!

I replaced the carpet in my 2004 Tracker TV-18.  It took me about six weeks, off and on.  Definitely a winter project.  With the exception of the hatch covers, all of the decking on my boat is plywood, which was beginning to de-laminate a bit on the top surface.  I thoroughly scraped and sanded the wood to remove all old adhesive and de-laminated wood, and then coated the wood with two coats of thinned-down fiberglass resin.  I thinned the resin to allow it to penetrate more deeply into the wood fibers.  After tons scraping and sanding I was able to remove the majority of the old adhesive from the hatch covers.  If memory serves, I ended up with about eighteen separate pieces that had to be re-carpeted.

 

There are two important aspects about re-carpeting and they both have to do with the Nap (outer surface) of the carpet.  The Nap must be always aligned in the same direction or it will have a different appearance when installed.  Secondly, replace your carpet with the same Nap thickness as the original.  A thicker Nap may prevent your hatches from closing.

 

I could go on and on about my first (and hopefully, last) re-carpeting project, but suffice it to say is was no trivial undertaking.  I would suggest that you do as much research as you can before setting out.  Google will help you there.