Yep turns out it was, growing out of my boat floor, a sure sign that I can not ignore the ever growing soft spot in the floor any longer. I need to replace part or all of my boat floor.

Since I cannot stand to take a week (or however long) off from fishing, this will be a fall project.

I have a 1989 Lund Rebel 16' boat, it is basically an open floor, the severly rotted area is where the two batter used to sit at, before I owned the boat it was stored outside, and I'm sure water pooled under the battery boxes and rotted the floor. The entire floor is riveted down, there is a front deck that I will not be replacing. What is my best plan of attack, only replace the rot or do the entire floor?

I really have no idea where to start, from removing the old floor to reattaching the new, so any help is really appreciated.

Also I have a very slow leak, and I cannot find it, I do not think it is the plug, but if I fill the bottom of the boat with water, there is nowhere that it leaks out, only when I am using it does more water come in. Not sure how to fix this one either?

Thanks for the help guys.

RR - If your looking for a fall project do it entirely. I think you would be more satisfied just to git-r-dun. That way you wont have an issue the next year or whatever down the line.
As for the leak, I'd look to rivets..somewhere?

I was thinking while I was at work tonight, replacing the whole floor is probably the route I will go, and if I cannot find the source of the leak, most likely a rivet I may just bust out a few tubes of silicon when the floor is up and cover all the seams.

I would suggest doing the whole floor too, it is not a bad job, you will be able to do it in a weekend or during the week in the evenings. Drill the rivets out and use stainless steel screws when you reinstall.
You could use marine vinyl instead of carpet, it will be cleaner and won't hold any moisture (as carpet does).
Let me know if you need any.
When you have floor off, you can check all the plumbing (livewell, bilge, etc) for leaky hoses or connections, they can cause a small leak, I know they do it on my boat but I haven't had time to remove floor yet, and when I'll do it I will remove all the carpet too.

We have a vinyl floor in our boat and it is very easy to clean after catching a bunch of fish, spilling drinks, ect! I would throw out a vot for replacing the wood with treated and gluing vinyl to it. We replaced the floor in our boat a number of years ago and the first thought afterwards was "this is great, why didn't we do it sooner"

Do a search in this forum and the equiptment forum. The topic comes up every other week and there is alot of information out there. Treated plywood always comes up, but if you live in MN. the ACQ or AC2 treated plywood that is available at most buildiing centers corodes aluminum if they are in direct contact with each other.

I agree with everything Valv said - drill out the rivets, use stainless steel screws to secure floor to ribs, and use vinyl, not carpet, as your floor covering. Much, MUCH, easier to maintain, and cleaning is a wiz. Try to find the money to start keeping the boat inside too.

The boat is stored inside, the previous owner left it outside most of the time. Floor was rotting before I owned the boat.

Thanks for the help with the floor, I appreciate it.

I have 12 lund outfitters and vinyl is the only way to go. Tear up the whole floor, put down vinyl and you will be very happy.

It is simply to clean and it doesn't fade like carpet.

Won't hold moisture, so it will outlast carpet gauranteed.

Good Luck