Interior carpet liner replacement

Geo798

.
Jun 5, 2026
12
Oday 272 Merritt Island
The glued carpet (or whatever the material actually is) on my 272 releases very small fine fibers into the air if anyone brushes against. I'd like to just encapsulate it somehow because I'm sure to correctly remove and replace it would be a big and probably expensive job. Just curious if anyone else may have fixed this issue. My Oday 272 is a 1987 so I'm assuming others with older boats may ave had this same problem.
 
Jan 1, 2006
7,935
Slickcraft 26 Sailfish
Is this material on the cabin sole? Or is it headliner or cabin sides?
 

Geo798

.
Jun 5, 2026
12
Oday 272 Merritt Island
Absolutely, that looks great!
I’d have to do the overhead too. I think it might be a little more than I want to tackle though. I was hoping to find something that could be rolled on, maybe like a rubberized coating. I’m not really sure what to do. I thought about pulling it all off and painting it, but I’m sure the glue used to put it on would look pretty bad. So having to remove it all would again be a big job.
but I agree, the wood slats look great and definitely would work.
thanks for the suggestion
George
 

dmax

.
Jul 29, 2018
1,314
Telstar 28 Buzzards Bay
I had an O'Day - I took a section of the wall carpet off, came off pretty cleanly, the surface was not rough and paint would hide the left over glue (I covered it with a cabinet so didn't bother to paint). Maybe try removing a bit to see - you can always glue it back on. A rubberized coating would probably look pretty bad. You could try some hairspray :)
 

Geo798

.
Jun 5, 2026
12
Oday 272 Merritt Island
I had an O'Day - I took a section of the wall carpet off, came off pretty cleanly, the surface was not rough and paint would hide the left over glue (I covered it with a cabinet so didn't bother to paint). Maybe try removing a bit to see - you can always glue it back on. A rubberized coating would probably look pretty bad. You could try some hairspray :)
That sounds promising, I’ll peel a little off and see, thanks for the feedback.
 
Sep 24, 2018
4,448
Catalina 30 MKIII Chicago
I replaced the burlap sack wall covering on my O'Day with some inexpensive marine canvas. If you go with fabric, I recommend something with a bit of stretch to help conform to the curves. It was a ton of work with fabric that didnt have any stretch and it didn't turn out that great. It was still better than the burlap sack from the factory
 
Aug 7, 2021
156
O'day 28 Casco Bay
The glued carpet (or whatever the material actually is) on my 272 releases very small fine fibers into the air if anyone brushes against. I'd like to just encapsulate it somehow because I'm sure to correctly remove and replace it would be a big and probably expensive job. Just curious if anyone else may have fixed this issue. My Oday 272 is a 1987 so I'm assuming others with older boats may ave had this same problem.
What you are referring to is interior hull covering. It is placed there by the builder for essentially three reasons:
1. Insulation to prevent the skin of the vessel from sweating when there is a large temperature differential between the interior and the outside air or seawater. It also helps keep the interior cooler, and actually works.
2. Sound deadening. Much like an acoustic ceiling in a house.
3. (Probably the most important from the builder's perspective) - It is an inexpensive way to dress up and cover a raw fiberglass interior.

Back in the day, this "burlap sack" with a foam backing was considered "stylish" along the same vane as 1970s camper interiors. Today, you will see inexpensive boats with cuddy cabins lined with a material known as "mouse fur" (due to its grey color), which again, meets the three requirements listed above. Higher end builders use a plain or perforated vinyl covered foam.

A few years back I ripped out the hull covering from the inside of the hanging locker of my O'day 28, and during a sunny afternoon, the bare glass was hot to the touch whereas the covered hull area was noticeably cooler. I eventually covered the inside with a piece of the aforementioned vinyl covered foam - a scrap from one of my boatbuilder customers. Hope this helps.
 
Last edited:

Geo798

.
Jun 5, 2026
12
Oday 272 Merritt Island
Good morning Project Mayhem, I’m not sure what the material is on mine but it looks like a very short 1/4” or so carpet of some sort.
 

Geo798

.
Jun 5, 2026
12
Oday 272 Merritt Island
What you are referring to is interior hull covering. It is placed there by the builder for essentially three reasons:
1. Insulation to prevent the skin of the vessel from sweating when there is a large temperature differential between the interior and the outside air or seawater. It also helps keep the interior cooler, and actually works.
2. Sound deadening. Much like an acoustic ceiling in a house.
3. (Probably the most important from the builder's perspective) - It is an inexpensive way to dress up and cover a raw fiberglass interior.

Back in the day, this "burlap sack" with a foam backing was considered "stylish" along the same vane as 1970s camper interiors. Today, you will see inexpensive boats with cuddy cabins lined with a material known as "mouse fir" (due to its grey color), which again, meets the three requirements listed above. Higher end builders use a plain or perforated vinyl covered foam.

A few years back I ripped out the hull covering from the inside of the hanging locker of my O'day 28, and during a sunny afternoon, the bare glass was hot to the touch whereas the covered hull area was noticeably cooler. I eventually covered the inside with a piece of the aforementioned vinyl covered foam - a scrap from one of my boatbuilder customers. Hope this helps.
Good morning. Yeah that all makes sense. I don’t even mind the look, it’s clean and era correct, but the floating fibers are just to much. This is way my first thought was to just encapsulate it. I didn’t give much thought to the sweating of the hull. This would be a deal breaker because it would lead to mildew and mold. I’ll look into the vinyl foam. Since there is so many curves that this covers, I hope they can show me an easy way to maybe stretch it or have another way to make it conform without a hundred cuts to contour it. Good suggestion and thanks for highlighting the reasons for its use.
George
 
Sep 24, 2018
4,448
Catalina 30 MKIII Chicago
I've seen articles for car audio installs that used vinyl with a hair dryer or heat gun to help make it conform to curves.

I ran into the most issues at the end of the stringers. It was a small compound curve. I believe I got one and then for the second, I artificially extended the stringer to the bulkhead so I had less curves to deal with. I think I used some foam insulation. I only had to extend it by a couple of inches
 

Geo798

.
Jun 5, 2026
12
Oday 272 Merritt Island
All good info. Thank you everyone. :)
now it’s time to experiment a little and see what will work best (aka the easiest). I plan on starting this the end of July. I’ll post what I finally went with and a few pictures.
 
Aug 7, 2021
156
O'day 28 Casco Bay
Regarding your idea to encapsulate, perhaps a coating of spay lacquer would do the trick.
 

Geo798

.
Jun 5, 2026
12
Oday 272 Merritt Island
Hi, I thought about that also, but I was concerned that the looks of it, plus the flexing of the hull would crack it and make it unattractive. Thanks for the feedback.
 
Mar 24, 2012
77
O'Day 40 BC Coast
We stripped all the fabric off and scraped off the residual contact cement. Then we glued on 1/2" Armaflex and glued 1/8" thick by 7" solid teak. It makes a huge difference in cool weather and the teak is a lot nicer looking and easier to keep clean.
 

Geo798

.
Jun 5, 2026
12
Oday 272 Merritt Island
Nice. I just looked up armaflex and it sounds like a perfect material to insulate and reduce condensation, abet a fair amount of work. Did you have any issues with the teak trying to pull the armaflex away from the hull in areas where the teak was pushed into the bend of the hull (curve)?
I’m in east central Florida and the daily cabin summer temps here can easily run 105°.
I wonder how the teak to armaflex glued connection (with some teak pressure resisting the bow of the teak would stand up to our extreme heat. Most of the hull bends are gradual so it may not be an issue but I’ll look into the material just incase.
This is more work than I originally thought I wanted to do, but the the idea of insulation cover with thin strips of wood is intriguing. I would probably stay away from teak, for ecological reasons, but the concept and finished project sounds really nice. Thanks for this great info.
George
 
Sep 24, 2018
4,448
Catalina 30 MKIII Chicago
I did the sides of the hull in the main cabin. Most of the work was prep and trying to deal with a couple of complex curves. The actual cutting and gluing went pretty quickly
 

Geo798

.
Jun 5, 2026
12
Oday 272 Merritt Island
No issues with the wood pulling away for the armaflex or the armaflex pulling away for the hull as a result of the wood trying to straighten out? I’m focusing on this because I need to do the V berth area also and I believe the tightest curve is there. I’m most concerned with the fibers there. When we take an overnight trip any touching of the walled surface releases the fibers to be breathed in.
 
  • Like
Likes: jssailem
Mar 24, 2012
77
O'Day 40 BC Coast
Nice. I just looked up armaflex and it sounds like a perfect material to insulate and reduce condensation, abet a fair amount of work. Did you have any issues with the teak trying to pull the armaflex away from the hull in areas where the teak was pushed into the bend of the hull (curve)?
I’m in east central Florida and the daily cabin summer temps here can easily run 105°.
I wonder how the teak to armaflex glued connection (with some teak pressure resisting the bow of the teak would stand up to our extreme heat. Most of the hull bends are gradual so it may not be an issue but I’ll look into the material just incase.
This is more work than I originally thought I wanted to do, but the the idea of insulation cover with thin strips of wood is intriguing. I would probably stay away from teak, for ecological reasons, but the concept and finished project sounds really nice. Thanks for this great info.
George
It's been better than 5 years and nothing has separated. I used white pvc in all the lockers and behind the cushions. I didn't use teak in the V-berth because it's just storage. The extra expense isn't worth it and the tighter curves would be difficult.
The teak came from some salvaged timbers that a guy on Vancouver Island has had for decades. Otherwise I would have used plantation teak from Costa Rica.
I had some leftover pieces so I stripped the plastic off of the table and had the teak laminated on. That is the Admiral's favorite part.