HDPE dinghy floor boards

[Neil Gordon]

My West Marine roll up serves me well, with the only serious complaint being the rotting out of the floor slats. Replacements are over $100 for a set of six. They'd be easy enough to fabricate from 3/8" marine plywood, but that won't solve the underlying problem.

For less than the cost of replacement boards, but more than self-fabricated plywood replacements, I can have HDPE boards fabricated. My only question is how they would flex underfoot... 3/8" thick, about 32 inches long, 3 1/4 inches wide.

Thoughts?

[tjr818]

I think the 3/8" HPDE would be okay, but I would worry about the narrow width. If you step on one narrow board it is certainly going to deflect quite a bit, probably too much. Would there be some way to lock them together, or better yet use wider boards?

[jbenagh]

Coosa 26? Supposed to be the same, mechanically, as plywood. You could epoxy coat the edges and paint.
Jeff

[Neil Gordon]

I think the 3/8" HPDE would be okay, but I would worry about the narrow width. If you step on one narrow board it is certainly going to deflect quite a bit, probably too much. Would there be some way to lock them together, or better yet use wider boards?

Yup, the flex, as compared with the same configuration of plywood, is the question. "About the same" is good enough.

The boards fit through six slots, and provide some rigidity to the bottom of the rollup. It would be possible to fabricate a complete floor,
but I'm not sure it's worth the expense, which would be about 3x the cost of the slats.

[Neil Gordon]

Coosa 26? Supposed to be the same, mechanically, as plywood. You could epoxy coat the edges and paint.
Jeff

I'm not seeing it in 3/8"... any more than that and it won't run through the slots.

Cost (for 1/2") would be about the same as already fabricated boards, either in plywood or HDPE.

[Cathy Monaghan]

Make them out of plywood. Be sure to coat the plywood with penetrating epoxy, afterwards coat them with paint or varnish.