I want to replace the carpet in my boat and am thinking about doing it myelf. Any suggestions

Get some knee pads

Ill be doing it as well once it warms up a bit. Thinking of a bedliner type floor instead. Tired of replacing carpet. back when I lived on the coast, I kept it at my dads house and he'd always tell me just to bring him some carpet and he'd do it. I just have a 16' Alum CC, though.

I did my old boat and the one I have now. It's really not that hard. More time consuming and tedious than anything. Hardest part is getting the old carpet and glue off. Next trickiest part is doing all of your compartment lids and knowing how to cut/fold the corners. Be sure you take the time to lay it out correctly to be sure the "grain" of the carpet all lays the same direction. I prefer it angled to the back of the boat. I saw a post by one fella that showed the deck of a bass boat. It was really obvious that one of the compartment lids wasn't done correctly. A sharp blade is critical for EVERY cut!

I bought my carpet and glue here. I thought the prices were reasonable and it showed up at my door.
http://www.boatcarpetbuys.com/spartan-boat-carpet.aspx

Good luck.

There is a YouTube video of a guy that sprayed his lids with GooGone and just pulled the carpet off the next day. If you can do that, it will make an easy pattern for you to use. I've been thinking of doing the same thing myself.

Let us know how it goes and try and take some pics to share.

+1 and a case of beer! (except when working with the carpet knife!)

There is nothing like new carpet in the boat, but boy what a pain in the A$$ it is to install. Make sure you order a little more carpet than you need. it is expensive, but its best not to come up short in case of a mistake. You can always trim off more, but you can't add any back. Replace the knife blades often! Make sure you have the carpet grains all running the same direction. it gets a little tricky with the lids so lay it all out and plan well.

After installing the carpaet, go around the edges of it with a woodburner and singe the edges of the carpet to keep it unraviling on you later. Also look at putting some of that padding under the carpet. I redid the carpet on my boat a few yrs back and the padding makes a world of difference on your back esp. if you are fishing several days in a row, but you need to shave the edges of the padding before you install the carpet to give it that rounded look and to also help the boxes close better. good luck.

Time consuming, but a great project if your a do-it-yourselfer.
I have done two. If you store your boat in the garage, then you could do it just fine over the winter months. Make sure you do a lot of research on the glue. Also, if your using outdoor carpet glue, you will need LOTS of clamps...my recommendation is get a lot of large binder clips and some thin 1/4" plywood strips. this will help you when you need to glue the lids. Also, Lots of blogs out there recommending Contact Cement for the lids instead of the glue. Not sure about that I have never used contact cement, however I like the idea of a quicker set time. The contact cement will set almost instantly where the glue will take up to 72+ hours depending on temp and humidity.

If it is an older boat and your not too worried about it, the carpet at Lowes/Home Depot will work fine. It is 16oz. If your looking for a very durable longer lasting carpet your going to want a 20oz non-looped carpet. it will last twice as long, but your going to pay double for it.

Also, if you plan on using the carpet glue, make sure it is OUTDOOR glue and read the instructions well. The Multi-Purpose glue will come up the first time it gets wet - hard lesson.

jWest - great tip.
Hendo - Large bottle of Morgans + the case of beer. +1 on the "get more carpet than you need." You will be surprised how much carpet gets eaten up by the box lids.

Good Luck and have fun with it.

I have the snap in carpet. Looks pretty easy to replace the carpet. Would just have to double sew the edges and then install the snaps. They do have the snaps that will screw into the floor and then you can mark the carpet to install the opp. snaps.