Hey y’all,

So I’ve been doing some research lately with seeing if I should get my carpet replaced or not on my boat.

I have no tears, no moldy spots, no crazy stains. There are parts of the carpet that are sunburnt though. Looking for opinions if I should look at replacing it or keep it for a while more. Thanks guys.

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I’d try a good carpet cleaner first. That’s just a few dollars. A replacement is several hundred.

If you replace it go for at least 20oz. It will be a lot better grade than the original and last longer.

1 minute ago, Jig Man said:

I’d try a good carpet cleaner first. That’s just a few dollars. A replacement is several hundred.

I'm with @Jig Man , vacuum, use a brush and some cleaner and see how it comes out. To be honest, it still looks in pretty good shape to me. Unless you have a tear, rip, or spots that have worn through I would just ride with it. A total recarpet is kind of pricey from what I have heard.

I've seen marine carpet in much worse condition than that.

The ultimate solution is to ditch carpet completely. You'll never go back to it once you have the maintenance-free surface.

Get yourself some Star Brite Ultimate carpet clean and go to work !

A-Jay

5 hours ago, A-Jay said:

Get yourself some Star Brite Ultimate carpet clean and go to work !

A-Jay

Funny you commented, I actually just watched your video a couple days ago. I’m gonna go this route once I complete some other projects on the boat.

6 hours ago, gim said:

I've seen marine carpet in much worse condition than that.

The ultimate solution is to ditch carpet completely. You'll never go back to it once you have the maintenance-free surface.

Agreed, yeah I’ve thought about leaving the carpet on for at least a couple more seasons or so.

That’ll be the move for me to change to like foam or vinyl or something on those lines. But at that point, I may just purchase another boat. We will see.

10 hours ago, gim said:

The ultimate solution is to ditch carpet completely. You'll never go back to it once you have the maintenance-free surface

I got rid of my carpet….. best thing I ever did.

Went with tuff coat , been May 2021 no issues

Growing up, our boats always had marine carpet. That's just what they came with as the standard.

When I bought my own boat in 2015, I was going to continue using carpet. The boat I bought came with the polymer-vinyl interior instead. At first, I wasn't real keen to it, but the salesman talked me into it.

It didn't take long for me to realize that its a vastly superior surface in a boat compared to carpet. Mine is a light grayish color so it reflects the sun. It has "flakes/specks" in it for grip, even when wet.

But the biggest selling point is being maintenance free. All I do is hose it down. No stains, rips, or normal wear and tear. No scrubbing blood out. No stinky pike slime. It looks the same as it does the day I bought it, over 10 years ago now.

I'm never going back to carpet again in a boat.

That being said, if you have carpet, and its in pretty good shape, I would not just tear it out. But once it became time to replace it, I'd move on. And if I was buying a new boat, I would not even consider carpet again.

I agree with @gim.

However, considering I fish from the messiest boat at Bass Resource, my opinion holds about as much weight as hydrogen.

Growing up I fished out of carpeted boats mostly. In the kayak it was the molded boat plastic plus foam decking material. I have carpet now. I really like carpet generically. It's soft on your feet and knees, quiet, etc. I like to fish barefoot at times and carpet is nice for that. That said, so is foam decking (like a seadeck material). If I was buying from scratch that's what I would have picked for all the reasons Gim mentioned above. But I bought the floor model and I have no regrets about that.

11 minutes ago, Swamp Girl said:

I agree with @gim.

However, considering I fish from the messiest boat at Bass Resource, my opinion holds about as much weight as hydrogen.

You should have seen my lure pile as recently as yesterday and that was only after 4 trips this year. It's still bad, but I at least put the 2 dozen things that were on top back in the boxes.

And Hydrogen can carry a lot of weight. Until it doesnt....

When I get around to replacing mine, I'm going to seadeck the floor of the boat and go back with carpet on the decks. With the heat and sun in my area, I don't trust the seadeck to last as long as carpet on the decks.

If you're going to try and ride your existing carpet out for awhile, Jump on youtube and search Barbasol shaving cream for boat carpet. Sounds crazy but it works.

4 hours ago, Mike Thomas said:

When I get around to replacing mine, I'm going to seadeck the floor of the boat and go back with carpet on the decks. With the heat and sun in my area, I don't trust the seadeck to last as long as carpet on the decks.

If you're going to try and ride your existing carpet out for awhile, Jump on youtube and search Barbasol shaving cream for boat carpet. Sounds crazy but it works.

I checked that out the other day, I was surprised at the ton of folks who use barbasol to clean their carpet

3 hours ago, Backroad Angler said:

I checked that out the other day, I was surprised at the ton of folks who use barbasol to clean their carpet

The first time I did it was on my '97 482vs. I was the second owner of that one, It was a local boat that the original owner took amazing care of. It was about 6 months before I sold it, I was blown away at the results. I've done it twice now on the 518vx that I currently own and you wouldn't think that the carpet is now 26 years old. The only reason I'm replacing the carpet is that I'm going to re-power with a Yamaha SHO and swap out for aluminum deck lids. This boat fits the way I fish perfectly plus, the miser in me can't justify spending over twice as much as I bought my first house for on a boat lol

My boat is an 06I've got some pretty good worn spots in the carpet in high traffic areas. I am going to replace the carpet in the next year or two. I am 90% sold on some kind of sea deck foam covering. Being my boat is a fish and ski I think that would actually be better all around anyways since I use it for family ski outings and picnics at the beach during the summer months.

You have options.

1. Clean and keep using current carpet. My choice.

2. Replace carpet. Gives you the option of putting in a padded front deck and going up in weight. Be careful, higher weight carpet can cause problems with lids, both fitting and weight on struts.

3. New product that goes over existing carpet and is a sea deck like material.

4. Remove carpet and replace with sea deck style flooring. Pros and cons are out there. From friends who have done it, I have been told it is not that easy to keep clean. Dirt gets into the pores of the material and has to be scrubbed to get out. I’m sure that may vary by manufacturer and material used.

5. Just put the sea deck material in the footwell.

Of course all of these options carry different price tags. As for cleaning your existing carpet, I’m with @A-Jay. Use a product designed for carpets. I know a lot have jumped on the shaving cream bandwagon and have good results but if you read anything from the marine carpet manufacturers, there’s a good chance you will have buildup no matter how good you rinse. Personally, I use a heavy duty carpet cleaner designed to totally rinse out. My 2005 boats carpet is worn but still holding up great.

13 hours ago, TOXIC said:

You have options.

1. Clean and keep using current carpet. My choice.

2. Replace carpet. Gives you the option of putting in a padded front deck and going up in weight. Be careful, higher weight carpet can cause problems with lids, both fitting and weight on struts.

3. New product that goes over existing carpet and is a sea deck like material.

4. Remove carpet and replace with sea deck style flooring. Pros and cons are out there. From friends who have done it, I have been told it is not that easy to keep clean. Dirt gets into the pores of the material and has to be scrubbed to get out. I’m sure that may vary by manufacturer and material used.

5. Just put the sea deck material in the footwell.

Of course all of these options carry different price tags. As for cleaning your existing carpet, I’m with @A-Jay. Use a product designed for carpets. I know a lot have jumped on the shaving cream bandwagon and have good results but if you read anything from the marine carpet manufacturers, there’s a good chance you will have buildup no matter how good you rinse. Personally, I use a heavy duty carpet cleaner designed to totally rinse out. My 2005 boats carpet is worn but still holding up great.

Very informative post, thank you for this!

Was pretty busy working on the boat this week. Put a new three bank charger in, oil change, fuel filters, spark plugs, greased the zerk fittings, impeller change, lower unit oil.

Plan for next week is to clean the bilge area and hatches of the boat plus clean the carpet.

Hopefully after all that, I’ll be set for a little while 😂

I have had a few boats with carpet. And in the spring when the ramps were all muddy. I would take my shoes off so I wouldn’t track mud all over the carpet.

My latest boat no carpet and no longer any mud worries. Gets a little dirty…a quick rinse with a hose is all.

Only disadvantage is in the summer heat the metal gets warm. Which I can deal with.