Maybe something you could paint the floor with?



If you can get the old floor up you can use the original pieces as templates for the new. You can saw Aluminum with wood saws. A little noisy but works good. Just like sawing a sheet of plywood but you do have to go slower.

 

There are nice saw blades for aluminum. Non-ferrous is what they are called. Smaller carbide teeth. I think mine are 80 tooth on the skilsaw. I have though of doing that on my boat, but worry if they are too hot when the sun shines. Also you have to go thicker plate or reinforce. You could acid wash the aluminum to get rid of the shine probably.

 

I cut mine to fit then took the pieces to pro-line and had them sprayed with bed liner. Looks great and will last forever. When you size them account for the finished thickness of the bedliner material.

 

A company I work with specializes in spray metalizing. http://www.greatwesternco.net/metalizing.html

I can tell you first hand, there is no other material on the planet with better traction.

Shoot me a PM if you are interested. I can get you in touch with them and could show you some of their sample work.

 

Have you considered thermolite flooring?

 

Sandblasted Diamond plate floors on my Koffler.

Slipping- we almost always have on Grundens, Boggs or xtra-tuff boots and haven’t found slipping to be an issue. Nobody has taken a fall which wasn’t the case with the vinyl flooring in the last boat.

Heat- I am mostly coastal so don’t have those 100 degree on a lake experiences but haven’t found it to be any worse than other flooring types for heat or cold.

Keeping it clean- easy to clean but you have to accept that it develops its own patina and won’t look uniformly perfect.

Durability- we take care of our stuff but use it the way it was intended. 4 pound halibut weights, full coolers dropped from the gunnel height and the occasional miss with the fish whacker have proven to be no match.

The only other floor choice I’d consider would be regular aluminum with a textured paint but would choose diamond plate again if it was an option.

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I talked with Joe from Koffler the warping is from the sandblasting it heats up the metal and warps that is why he using 1/8 sheets easier to work the warping out when screwing it down.

Am looking for easy floor to clean that's durable, how dose you floor clean up after a hard day chasing tuna.

 

Skip the diamond plate (ice skating rink when wet/slick with tuna blood and goo) and install Thermolite fiberglass composite flooring instead.

Lighter than wood, won't absorb water, and you can paint it with your choice of traction coating in your choice of colors. It is similar in thickness to you original plywood decks, so you won't have clearance issues around access hatches above the fuel tank. If you go w/ the 5/8" or 3/4" thickness, it can also bridge the gap above stringers without the need to additional support (even 1/4" aluminum diamond plate will sag over time).

Lots of posts on the main board about folks who have done the conversion. I considered diamond plate when I did mine, but I would have needed to have additional floor support welded in, and would have had issues w/ the access hatches above my fuel fittings.

 

Kiwi Grip+Thermolite is "ok" for clean up. It's sort of like truck bed liner... you can get it clean-ish, but the texture is always going to trap some grunge. Mine cleans up fairly well with a deck brush and soapy water, but to really clean it I have to use my pressure washer with one of the lower power tips. You can't use a full power tip, as it will blast the coating off. This is the second boat I've had it on... if you go with a darker color, the grunge is less noticeable.

Ease of cleaning vs. traction is always going to be a trade-off.

Re: sagging... I fished for years out of a friends 21' Stabicraft. When he pulled up the rubber mats to get it ready to sell, you could see the outline of his stringers and floor re-enforcement grid by the little dips in his floor plate. 3mm/1/8" is what they use, with no sandblasting. He is a really big (at the time, pushing 300#) dude, so that may have been part of it. It held up very well, but he had to run a rubber mat on top of it for traction, which kind of defeated the intent of easy clean up.

A lot of the bigger aluminum boats I have been in that use plate for their floors run either Kiwi Grip or truck bed liner on them for traction.

 

I've installed diamond plate floors on several boats. Its much lighter and more durable than (what are usually stock) wood floors, but there are a few considerations to be made when making the switch.

Noise is an issue. Wood floors dampen both noise and vibration. I've made a habit of putting down a layer of silicone (with a caulking gun) prior to laying down diamond plate floors and this helps a lot, but noise from water displacement and waves will be more noticeable.

Weight & bracing. 1/8" thick diamond plate is easy to work, light, and reasonably strong on its own, but if the gaps between bracing under the diamond plate floors are too great then you may have to add some bracing or use thicker (3/16" thick) diamond plate to prevent sagging (when you step between a gap in the bracing and the floor sinks down a bit). You'll notice in one of the pictures that I added extra side to side bracing under the floors to better support the 1/8" diamond plate that I used.

Grade makes a difference. There is 3003 tred-brite, and then there is 5052 diamond plate as well. If you're just going to be screwing or riveting the floor down then 3003 is a fine choice, but if there is any welding or forming involved, then you'll want to opt for the more expensive 5052 grade.

All of the diamond plate that I can find locally (West Coast Metals, Pacific Metals, Alaskan Copper & Brass) Is mirror finish (#8, super shiny). The shininess fades quickly with use, and you can hit it with a coarse scotch-brite pad on a random orbital sander to dull it faster, or of course you can have it sand blasted (at extra cost and butt-pain... sand-blasting is nasty without the right setup). I dont think that paint would adhere well to the factory #8 finish without a lot of prior prep. If anyone knows where to buy 4x16 or 5x16 sheets of matte dimaond plate, I'd love to know. One of the pictures that I've attached (the one taken in the dark boat shed) has ~two year old diamond plate floors in it. As you can see, they've dulled up nicely after two years of use and turned more matte in finish. They started bright and shiny like the flatbottom with the yamaha main.

If you're looking to source some sheets or need someone to talk to on this topic, please PM me. Happy to quote the work too, but I'm more of a stainless guy, and I'm sure there are some sponsors on this site who are more specialized for this (not trying to steal their workload).

Cheers!



Any

 

I've had pretty good luck with powder coating and sanding the diamond tops off. Have a few guide sleds with it and it's held up well to heavy use. That said it's expensive to do with the current aluminum prices and add the prep and powder coating and sanding costs. Looks good and holds up well though.

Thermolite (coosa board) works well and is light but doesn't hold up to abuse of dropped weights and anchors etc. as well. Careful with darker coating as some warpage has been seen by some.

Lots of choices that fit different peeps needs such as listed by others above.

Slipperyness hasn't been an issue for anyone I've talked with or in my experience. Fish blood and slime is worse on my fiberglass textured floors and wood vinyl covered vs tread plate. I've run them all and done many floors. I have customers that keep it clean and shiny and dulled it for others or just let it dull over time like I did for my little sled. You can speed it up really quick with a Sandy crabbing trip with dogs and kids and don't wash the floor afterwards. Good shoes like extratuf's mitigate this.

With the price of aluminum and composite flooring, if you have the time, wood that is sealed properly will outlast most of us and you can finish how you'd like, vinyl, kiwi grip, etc. Plain aluminum coated is a good alternative also but prep well so the coating adheres well. Use sealant underneath and on all screws. Bracing may need modified like Proteus listed above.

Most stock wood floors would last much longer if edges and screw holes were sealed.

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My boat is a wooldridge 29ss and has the stock dp floors. They do dull quickly but the deck is super easy to keep clean. I fish in flip flops and don’t notice any major issue with slipping. I have thought about adding non slip padding but always decide against it because I favor low maintenance and easy cleaning.

Good luck with your choice.

 

A lot of good information here thanks, Am leaning towards flat aluminum 3/16 sheets for flooring.

Prep work sand with 150 grit prime roll on non slip or spray liner cheers.

 

I’m happy with the diamond plate floors I’ve been around. Mine was shiny but that gets wore off. It’s parked under a oak tree in the fall and the leaves stain it. In the early spring I wash it with “aluminum brightener” an acid that makes it look clean and dull. The only time I noticed it being slippery was when there was a hydraulic leak on one of the boats.


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Alright I will chime in too. On my fourth NR, this one a 22 Commander. Love the Al Diamond plate. On this one I put on rubber mats, Only this one! Never had a slip problem on the others. All polished Aluminum all weathered dull quickly and no slippage. Love the rubber mats, this is the first with rubber, much less leg and knee fatigue at the end of a long day standing. Did it all myself, used original floors as pattern.

 

Another vote for sand blasted aluminum diamond plate. Best upgrade I did to my NR. Not slippery covered in tuna blood or halibut slime. The original vinyl floor was worse.