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Boat Carpet Adhesive

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  • Global Moderator

I have one edge in one of my rod lockers that the carpet is starting to peel away from the fiberglass a little bit every time I open it. Probably about a foot long and maybe 2" wide section. What would be my best option to use to glue it back down?

I would probably just try some contact adhesive that you could pick up locally. If you know anyone who is in commercial roofing ask them if you can have some bonding adhesive. That stuff is great for boat carpet, just not as easy to get your hands on. Could purchase it at a roofing supply house but you would be buying way more than you need.

  • Super User

Contact cement or indoor/outdoor carpet adhesive.

I replaced all the carpet in my boat last winter, DAP Weldwood contact cement worked awesome.  You can probably pick up a small can to fix your carpet pretty cheap at Lowes or Home Depot.  

  • Super User

Weldwood CC.

The thing is you can get a big can for a better price than you can get a little bottle.

DAP contact. Makes life a whole lot simpler than carpet cement. My son has a boat we put carpet in eight years ago that sits outside in the south texas sun and the carpet is still stuck solid.

  • Super User

How do those adhesives work when it's time for new carpet?  Is it a bear to remove the old carpet and to get down to a bare surface for applying the new carpet? 

How do those adhesives work when it's time for new carpet? Is it a bear to remove the old carpet and to get down to a bare surface for applying the new carpet?

I would imagine that any of the above mentioned adhesives will be fairly difficult to remove. Especially if they're applied over a properly prepped surface. I know I'm not looking forward to dealing with the bonding cement when the time comes to re carpet. That said though I would think that anything that is going to hold up well is going to be hard to remove. Be nice if they had an adhesive with a similar life expectancy as the carpet for ease of removal.

I bought 3m super 77 at lowes for that very purpose last year.

Worked great.

  • Super User

I'd try a heat gun to soften the adhesive.

Citrus stripper to remove adhesive. Heat gun can apply too much heat and mess up the coating

I put one of those big, bowl shaped wire brushes on my 7" side grinder and get the most of it.  Then a whole bunch of nitrite gloves and lacquer thinner or MEK.  Some the thinner works better on, some the MEK works better on, both play havoc on gloves and you don't really want to use either with unprotected skin. 

  • Author
  • Global Moderator

Thanks for the help guys! Got some warm weather this week so I'm going to get it taken care of before we go into the deep freeze for the winter!

  • Super User

I have a bucket of adhesive, let me know if you want to use it.

  • Super User

I put one of those big, bowl shaped wire brushes on my 7" side grinder and get the most of it.  Then a whole bunch of nitrite gloves and lacquer thinner or MEK.  Some the thinner works better on, some the MEK works better on, both play havoc on gloves and you don't really want to use either with unprotected skin. 

 

Latex gloves stand up to acetone and lacquer thinner better than nitrile.  They do not use latex gloves in health care because some are allergic to them, both for the patients and the health care providers.

I bought 3m super 77 at lowes for that very purpose last year.

Worked great.

I used this to scratch build my boat and a friends and both have held up really well.

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