Fiberglass boat restoration help needed

[bear23]

Hello, we are about to start restoring this boat and we are very new to boats in general. I am pretty clear on restoring the fiberglass, however the deck is what I am having trouble with. The plywood between the hull and fiberglass deck is rotted, and I wanted to try and put a wood deck down instead of replacing the fiberglass. The question is, if I cut the deck around the edge to remove the plywood, would I be able to put a wood slat deck directly on the hull? I did not know if this would comprimise the sructure of the boat or if that weight would be too much. I am a newby, but any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

[tunnels]

Replacing the plywood in the deck ! Take the belting strip off and drill out any rivits and take out any screws take off the motor and the screen and then remove the deck completely off the boat turn it over upside down Support it will and then check out the ply . It possibly hsnet got much glass over the top any way and with a sharpe chisel and a disc grinder you will have all the glass and the ply off in a very short time . Scuff the surface with the grinder and make it smooth and clean . Re cut some Marine ply to go back in the same places as before and stick it down with a couple of layers of chopped strand fibreglass matt and catalysed resin !Then reglass over and seal coat with just catalysed resin and then ist back on the boat again like it had never been off .
Just do the job better than it was . re screw and re rivit evry where . go up a size in rivits and screws of you are using the same holes . Even if the deck had been glassed on as well as rivits and screws its worth the effort of removing it off the hull .

[LMB]

I think Bear23 might be referring to the floor or sole when he says "deck". If so, Bear you will find that the floor is resting on stringers and bulkheads. Chances are that structure will need rebuilding as well, along with the transom. Whatever the case I'm not sure a slat type flooring attached to the bottom of the boat would be a good idea. I'd put down a new floor like the original. If you want to achieve a classic look like teak decking, then install that over the new floor. There could be another way, but without more info that my initial thoughts.

[tunnels]

A deck is a deck and a floor is a floor whick one are you refering to ???

[PAR]

A deck is a deck, but a floor is an athwartship structural element, though often used as a novice term, when referring to the sole. The only part of a sole that has the word floor in it, are lift out floorboards, which are as the name suggests, removable panels in the sole.

There are dozens of previous sole replacement threads on this site. A search will yield hundreds of hits, where much, if not all of Bear's questions can be reviewed.

[LMB]

Yeah, I don't get too hung up on fancy terminology. I'm used to dealing with boat owners directly and a certain amount of interpretation is necessary when they are describing damage or repair needs. Where I'm from a floor is something I stand on so if someone says boat "floor" I know what they mean.