Man that's a loaded question I know, but what the heck...

I am about to begin replacing the carpet and redoing the upholstery in the pontoon boat we bought back in March...I was thinking (probably my first mistake, but please continue reading)...I've seen some really nice boats that have the snap in carpet and I like this idea....However, I'm not willing to spend the kind of money it would take to fiberglass the floor in order to accomplish this...

While looking for the carpet, I began to wonder, what about placing some good vinyl flooring down on the plywood, then placing the snaps on that and then putting the carpet on top of it? Would this work? Is this stupid?

The reason I would do this is the boat will be used for 2 functions, fishing and tubing...We have a ski boat, but we have a large family and sometimes we just need both boats at once...I hate getting fishing hooks in my feet, and without a doubt, I would be the one to step on one. So I figure leave the carpet in for when we go tubing and such and pull it out for fishing...

Can the vinyl you buy at Lowe's/Home Depot withstand this much water?

I appreciate any advice/ideas you may have....And I'm still looking for carpet....Lowe's and Home Depot have it in 12 foot and 6 foot widths, I need 8 foot...

Thanks

vinyl and water dont mix... that would be like walking on ice how about just painting the floor grey (the wood) and putting some grit additive in the mix.

I have installed a lot of vinyl it does not hold up to water well. That would be a waste of time, money, and energy. I would go with the slip proof paint first. What about the epoxy garage floor coating with some type of non slip additive? I don't have any hooks in my boat's carpet but it's not the indoor/outdoor stuff from Lowes/HD

G3 Boats now have vinyl as an option on their boats. It's got a nonslip built into it. They've offered it for a couple of years on aluminum boats and now offer it on pontoons. Some searches for "marine vinyl" or something similiar should find a comparable product.

If you don't fiberglass the floor, it'll start to delaminate in a matter of months. Rot will follow soon thereafter.