The Skipper's Blog

Robert Bacanskas asked:

My SeaRay cabin floor has glued in plush carpet. Do you have any suggestions how to clean it?

Answer:

SeaRay makes a quality boat and uses better quality materials like marine grade plywood floors, marine grade waterproof adhesives and synthetic fiber carpeting, but not all boats are built to SeaRay standards, so you need to be careful when cleaning the carpet. Use of aggressive chemicals or steam cleaning can lift the carpet, in spots, and cause rot to the underlying plywood flooring.

Aurora Boat Clean Plus does a great job. It will remove ground in dirt, oil, grease, coffee stains, red wine stains, pet urine, mold, mildew, food stains, gum, bird droppings, ink, and more. It’s non-corrosive so it won’t damage the carpet, it’s biodegradable so it won’t hurt the environment and safe for humans to use.

To Clean your Boat Carpet:

Since your carpet is glued in, you need to be careful that if your carpet cleaning is too aggressive, it may release the adhesion properties of the glue or the cleaning solution may even penetrate into the floor and cause rot, especially if the plywood is not marine grade.

The safest and most effective procedure is as follows:

• We a wet / dry shop vac, vacuum the entire carpet thoroughly.
• Work in small, manageable section at a time; 3 or 4 ft square.
• Pre-spot any obvious stains by spraying Boat Clean Plus full strength on the stains and rub it in with a sponge or scrub brush.
• Add warm water to a bucket and add some Boat Clean Plus. Use a large sponge and squeeze it and relax it until you get a nice head of foam. You may have to add more Boat Clean Plus until you get a nice foam.
• Use the foam on the carpet and scrub it with the sponge. This will clean the fibers without penetrating too deeply into the backing, glue and subfloor.
• Use the shop vac, set up for wet vacuuming, to vacuum up the foam and dirt. Vacuum back and forth in one direction and then repeat in a second direction at a 90 degree angle.
• Allow the carpet to dry thoroughly.
• Vacuum again.
• Use a scrub brush to fluff up the carpet fibers.

Your carpet will look new again and smell fresh!

Thanks for your question,

Captain Aurora

Richard Kittar

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