For your wooden boat bu.
Epoxy to seal plywood boat floor.
Marine plywood is thicker than typical plywood so you ll need to apply more coats to maximize its lifespan.
A good rule of thumb for sealing marine plywood is to apply as many layers of sealer as there are layers in the plywood.
Watch how to scrape off the old finish on a dinghy and then how to mix the proper amount of epoxy before you start your next project.
A good rule of thumb is to add as many coats of sealant as there are in the plywood.
If you have purchased plywood with six layers for example apply six layers of epoxy to seal it.
You ll find a lot of debate over epoxy encapsulation may people feel it just leads to checking on plywood particularly douglas fir which is great boat building wood btw and at the most epoxy alone just penetrates a millimeter or two into the wood.
Just removed the carpeting and found several areas that were rotten on the floor.
Between the carpet and the floatation foam new floor was already deteriorating.
The advantage of an epoxy sealing product is that it protects the wood while allowing it to retain its natural color.
Note that even though the plywood has been snapped and left exposed to rain and wind it still holds its integrity.
Photo d is a piece of plywood from the floor of a boat wreck.
This was located underneath a faux teak floor meaning that it is most likely the original plywood used to build the floor of the boat.
This plywood is formulated to resist water and moisture on its own.
A scratch penetrates that pretty easily.
I ve built a couple boats.
With normal plywood you would use two coats of sealer maybe even three.
However usually the materials in the wood are not enough to block all moisture from the wood.
Plus the epoxy itself is quite strong and can be used on plywood that is both indoors and outdoors.
This is a popular type of sealant that can be easily used on most plywood.
But they didn t seal it.
Allow the epoxy to dry completely before flipping it over and applying it to the bottom edge and back of the wood.