Page 1 of 1

Building floors from larch wood

Posted: Fri Jul 12, 2019 2:02 am
by rasmuss
Hi, I have a small open alu boat. I have had som problems with corrosion in the bilge and with som e help of this forum, we suspect its from the floors being built from treated wood containing copper. The copper has then been washed out with the rain and caused galvanic corrosion.

Im no building new floors and have started with floors in larch wood, as larch wood wont rott easily. And why wont it rott? Because of high amount of acetic acid :banghead: Does anyone know what effects the acid in larch might have on a aluminium boat? You think its safe or am I just trading one corossion for another?

Re: Building floors from larch wood

Posted: Fri Jul 12, 2019 5:03 am
by gandrfab
This may seem like a silly question. Why not aluminum floors?
You can use just about all the same cutting tools.
Jig saw. skill saw, hole saw, dual action sander....... I use a sharpie marker instead of a pencil to mark aluminum.

Re: Building floors from larch wood

Posted: Fri Jul 12, 2019 3:28 pm
by rasmuss
Ya I guess that would be a ok project, but I dont want to spend much money on this boat and I have already bought larch and cut it to pieces. If larch is a no go I think I just put down a bit thicker untreated wood.

What do you think? Anyone know if larch is a problem?

Re: Building floors from larch wood

Posted: Sat Jul 13, 2019 3:24 am
by rasmuss
Ok, I'm sorry if I'm offending people on this forum. It's not my intention.
The floors on my boat was previously treated wood, probably with copper, that probably caused corrosion. Because of this I decided to build a new floor of untreated wood. Larch is untreated, but naturally resistant to rott. Thats why I went with that. After buying some larch I find out that its acidic.

I asked here because I dont know if this is an issue, maybe its commonly known that its not acidic enough to make a difference or maybe it doesn't wash out with rain. Again I don't know so thats why Im asking.

In your answer you are talking about wood problem, is wood, even untreated a problem un alu boats.

Again, sorry if Im offending people. Im just an amateur trying to get som advice.

Re: Building floors from larch wood

Posted: Tue Jul 16, 2019 4:32 am
by Chaps
Kevin . . . why so rough? It's not like we are swamped with new members on this forum.

Re: Building floors from larch wood

Posted: Tue Jul 16, 2019 1:03 pm
by kmorin
Chaps, deleted rough posts.

Cheers,
Kevin Morin
Kenai, AK

Re: Building floors from larch wood

Posted: Tue Jul 16, 2019 9:43 pm
by Chaps
kudos Kevin

Re: Building floors from larch wood

Posted: Thu Aug 01, 2019 2:20 pm
by rasmuss
Ok, so I have made some searches on the forum and I can see that there are more people that have had bilge corrosion problems possibly from treated wooden floors. So as we discussed in other threads this is likely to be my problem.

The threads I found seem however to be about treated wood. So Im looking at other alternatives.
I understand that larch could also be a problem as it naturally contains lactic acid. Seem smart?
The other alternative is un treated wood. Do anyone have an idea if this would be a problem?

Again Im looking at wood first just because its cheeper, but If you say its a problem Im open to suggestions.

Again amature trying my best =)

/Stefan