Internal narrowboat flooring

[L Commins]

Hi

 

Can anyone recommend a good flooring company in the Milton Keynes/ Beds/Bucks/ Northamptonshire area? We want new wood flooring on 60 foot nb.

 

 

 

[mrsmelly]

32 minutes ago, L Commins said:

Hi

 

Can anyone recommend a good flooring company in the Milton Keynes/ Beds/Bucks/ Northamptonshire area? We want new wood flooring on 60 foot nb.

 

 

 

Do you mean just a floor covering such as laminate? or the whole floor in such as hardwood planking, or precisely what?

[Tony Brooks]

Wood flooring could refer to the actual floor that the furniture and bulkheads sit upon and that is  a boat builder's, very expensive, job. This is why mrsmelly asked for more information. W can't really guess what you are asking about without more info.

[L Commins]

Hardwood planking or high quality engineered flooring

On top of flooring. Like a hard-wearing high quality covering. I'm not very technical, sorry

 

 

 

[Mike Tee]

Whatever you end up with, remember you may want to get it up one day. Also allow for inspection (for damp) hatches at the lowest point - normally as far back as is possible.

Also bear in mind your internal deck height - thickness of floor will reduce this. Also, do you already have fitted furniture in place - will doors and cupboards still open. We have Karndean type floor on ours, now 20 years old and still cleans up OK - however, if it ever needs to come up it will be messy! But it is thin, so headroom not encroached on. It was fitted when we bought the boat, so probably not what we would have fitted given the choice. I think I'd prefer something like the old linoleum, goes down in one piece and comes up the same way, not horrendously expensive to replace as a boat does not have a huge footprint, and these days is hardwearing and a multitude of patterns and thicknesses available. Although wood does look nice!

[Slim]

Before getting too deeply into it satisfy yourself it's totally feasible. I fitted 18 mm solid oak t&g fairly late into a self fitout. When Iooked in detail I was only able to fit it in the saloon/living area. In the gallery there wouldn't have been enough room to get the white goods  under the work surfaces whilst in the back cabin the under bunk drawers wouldn't have opened. 

Beaten by Mike

 

 

 

Edited May 16, 2022 by Slim

[Guest]

8 minutes ago, Mike Tee said:

Whatever you end up with, remember you may want to get it up one day. Also allow for inspection (for damp) hatches at the lowest point - normally as far back as is possible.

Also bear in mind your internal deck height - thickness of floor will reduce this. Also, do you already have fitted furniture in place - will doors and cupboards still open. We have Karndean type floor on ours, now 20 years old and still cleans up OK - however, if it ever needs to come up it will be messy! But it is thin, so headroom not encroached on. It was fitted when we bought the boat, so probably not what we would have fitted given the choice. I think I'd prefer something like the old linoleum, goes down in one piece and comes up the same way, not horrendously expensive to replace as a boat does not have a huge footprint, and these days is hardwearing and a multitude of patterns and thicknesses available. Although wood does look nice!

 

If the sub base is still sound and the existing Kardean flooring is just faded but intact you can fit new Kardean flooring over the top of the existing.

[Tonka]

1 hour ago, Mike Tee said:

Whatever you end up with, remember you may want to get it up one day. Also allow for inspection (for damp) hatches at the lowest point - normally as far back as is possible.

Also bear in mind your internal deck height - thickness of floor will reduce this. Also, do you already have fitted furniture in place - will doors and cupboards still open. We have Karndean type floor on ours, now 20 years old and still cleans up OK - however, if it ever needs to come up it will be messy! But it is thin, so headroom not encroached on. It was fitted when we bought the boat, so probably not what we would have fitted given the choice. I think I'd prefer something like the old linoleum, goes down in one piece and comes up the same way, not horrendously expensive to replace as a boat does not have a huge footprint, and these days is hardwearing and a multitude of patterns and thicknesses available. Although wood does look nice!

Not if you had used Karndean Loose lay. No adhesive used

[Mike Tee]

I’ve no idea how it was laid, but it looks to be firmly attached by something! Not even sure it is Karndean just looks similar - well laid in an interesting pattern though, and seems to have withstood the passage of time and use. The stuff you mention sounds good if it comes up easy for patching or replacing.

[LadyG]

Is it a new boat with no flooring, is it a self fit out?

Do you intend to strip out existing

I have a boat which was fitted out by a DIY type, I drilled inspection holes, everything dry.

I bought Atrex or some such off eBay to cover the horrid cheap wood latts.

Ifts washable and looks ok, cost about£200 , ie half price.

 It's like very thick modern lini

I'm not recommending my approach, but it was unknown f!oor, and I wanted something attractive and washable

 

Edited May 16, 2022 by LadyG

[Tonka]

Just now, LadyG said:

Is it a new boat with no flooring, is it a self fit out?

Do you intend to strip out existing

I have a boat which was fitted out by a DIY type, I drilled inspection holes, everything dry.

I bought Atrex or some such off eBay to cover the horrid cheap wood latts.

ITS washable and looks ok, cost about£200 

 

 

Artex is horrible. You put it on your ceiling and is full of Asbestos

[LadyG]

10 minutes ago, Tonka said:

Artex is horrible. You put it on your ceiling and is full of Asbestos

Well, you are correct. It's not Artex!

It's wot you find in posh loos, it sparkles

Edited May 16, 2022 by LadyG

[Jon57]

11 minutes ago, Mike Tee said:

I’ve no idea how it was laid, but it looks to be firmly attached by something! Not even sure it is Karndean just looks similar - well laid in an interesting pattern though, and seems to have withstood the passage of time and use. The stuff you mention sounds good if it comes up easy for patching or replacing.

They do a vinyl click flooring which is water proof and easy to fit. Can be fitted over existing sub floor. Also can be lifted if need be 

[Tonka]

1 minute ago, Jon57 said:

They do a vinyl click flooring which is water proof and easy to fit. Can be fitted over existing sub floor. Also can be lifted if need be 

Yes they do Looselay planks. No click needed and no glue. If you search this forum you will see some photos of the floor which i did in our narrowboat

[Jon57]

3 minutes ago, Tonka said:

Yes they do Looselay planks. No click needed and no glue. If you search this forum you will see some photos of the floor which i did in our narrowboat

Different product. It's just like click laminate but made from vinyl. 

[L Commins]

Its a replacement for existing carpet and laminate

[JRT]

We've just had our boat done by Alpine Carpets of Daventry (Alpine Carpet Warehouse | Carpets | Vinyl | Rugs | Wood | Laminates | Luxury vinyl tiles | Contract flooring in Daventry) They were brilliant and I can't fault them. Nice people, excellent service and fitting.

[Bee]

Quick reply from total cheapskate. We used carpet in 'bedroom' and living area. Changed it when it got muddy and horrible. Vinyl in kitchen and loo. Changed it when we got fed up with the pattern. Boats get a lot of mud / wear. One day you will need to get it up to get at leaks fron plumbing or something worse and that will suddenly become far more important than appearance. Boats are not little houses and suffer from stuff happening under the floor.

[LadyG]

15 hours ago, L Commins said:

Its a replacement for existing carpet and laminate

Yes, but what is it laid on, are there inspection hatches,if laminate is being removed, I'd assume you can replace with anything.

You will probably have to do it yourself unless you can find someone who is willing, and he will need to be paid time plus materials as it would be impossible to give a quote.

[cuthound]

The most practical flooring I have seen for narrowboats were the Flotex carpet tiles, both of my shareboats had them.

 

Easy to clean (simply hose down or scrub with washing up liquid if you get oil on them), hard-wearing (can easy be moved around or replaced if wear shows), warm to the touch and even survived hot coals from the stove being dropped on them.

 

They also lasted 10 plus years of hard use on each shareboat.

 

Not cheap though, and some of patterns available are awful. The ones on both boats were a plain dark brown colour, which looked OK.

Edited May 17, 2022 by cuthound
Grandma

[Puffling]

Need something for my boat soon as well. So far, from the suggestions made, the meeting point of the three plots of affordability, durability and liveability seems to be in favour of lino. With nice rugs chucked over it in the living areas.

It can stand an occasional dousing, too, unlike the cheaper laminate slot-together boards.

Any downside to lino?

[Tony Brooks]

As a cheaper and equally hard wearing what about gel backed polypropylene carpet. The so-called gel back looks like synthetic rubber so is loose lay, and it can be lifted out for scrubbing and hosing down. The Gel back also makes it far easier than ordinary carpet to cut and fit.

 

The only problem is that it is a bit hard so no good if you like a plush bedroom carpet.

 

I went with gel back except for the kitchen, bathroom, and steps where I used the stuff LadyG talked about. A sort of Vinyl with some type of grit in the mix giving a wipe clean non-slip surface. Mine was far from expensive, so I suspect LadyG bought a brand name.

[Slow and Steady]

2 minutes ago, Puffling said:

Any downside to lino?

Proper lino (marmoleum) isn't cheap, it's very very stiff and needs laying out in a large space to settle flat as it wants to roll itself back up, though it's just about everything proof. I wouldn't attempt it in a narrowboat, it would be a bit of a nightmare though very nice once it's fitted.

 

[haggis]

13 minutes ago, Puffling said:

 

Any downside to lino?

Can be slippy when wet ans rugs can slide along it

[blackrose]

54 minutes ago, cuthound said:

The most practical flooring I have seen for narrowboats were the Flotex carpet tiles, both of my shareboats had them.

 

Not cheap though, and some of patterns available are awful. The ones on both boats were a plain dark brown colour, which looked OK.

 

I have some flotex wood grain effect samples. They look nothing like wood close up of course, but I guess standing on them or from a distance they might look quite good and don't suffer from any of the disadvantages of real wood, laminate, etc.

 

I take my shoes off onboard so my floor stays clean but a real wood or other hard floor is far too cold, so I might change my 15 year old carpet tiles to flotex.