Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

Just ordered a 2015 Bennington slm 20 ft. Have until Monday to decide whether we want vinyl flooring or carpet. Worried about that green moss that we have seen on many boats with carpet. Vinyl seems like it would be less maintenance. Any thoughts?

Vinyl, it is dry on the way home not dripping on the garage floor for days

What Herb said, plus it better protects the wood underneath and hard ware. You can just hose off spills and bait etc. If you are in fresh water you could use a wash down pump without a wet carpet.

I love the feel of carpet but our next boat will be vinyl or something other than carpet

We have carpet and really like it. Frankly, it doesn't really get all that wet, and when it does, it dries out fast. It is super nice when you're walking around barefoot on a hot sunny day too. Vinyl gets really hot during those days. The only drawback has been a relatively ignorant passenger trying to bait his hook with thawing chicken liver which dripped on the carpets, but that was easily cleaned off with a power washer. Oh, and if you drop a treble hook in carpet, prepare to spend quite a bit of time trying to get it back. Other than that, it is great! Can you get the snap in carpet over vinyl floor? That would be the best!

I have fake teak on my bow and stern outside of the fence. I love how is keeps a lot of sand and water off my carpet from people boarding the boat. The biggest issue is it can get warm and while not super slippery it is slick compared to carpet when wet. My next boat weather I build or buy will be full teak/vinyl with snap in carpet. I would love to be able to take my carpet out to clean not to mention ease of replacing the carpet.

I've had 'toons with both and I prefer the vinyl.

We like our vinyl.

Cleans easy. Dries quickly.

I prefer vinly!!!

Vinyl is getting more and more popular every year.

On my Sweetwater have full vinyl with mid section snap in carpet. If you plan on fishing it's the best way to go. Have a raw water wash down installed making cleanup much easier.
Did a landing one day on small island, and realized what a smart move it was to have both vinyl and wash-down installed. Just hosed down everyone's feet as they boarded.

We prefer vinyl as well.... my son's toon has carpet, we have vinyl.... he wishes his had vinyl now.... it's just much easier to clean up.. we use our toon for fishing most of the time, so you can imagine the mess, dropped bait, fish on the deck..... two or three times a season we just hose off the deck, throw down a little liquid car wash, go over it with a stiff broom and rinse.... damn near good as new.... and of course for quick clean up's you can just pull into a DIY carwash and use the power washer on the deck....

Vinyl !

We had carpet in our Sea Ray 250 SLX which we sold to buy the new 2015 Berkshire 233. We chose the fake teak vinyl. It's got a slightly rough surface so shouldn't be slippery when wet. I won't miss the carpet a bit.... never had it in boats until the Sea Ray and each time we would come out from swimming, I would stay on the extended swim platform and wring out my bathing suit till the worst of the water was gone. Every year I would also have to clean the carpet just from dirt off of shoes, dirty dock feet, etc.

NO MORE CARPET for me !!!

I have vinyl easy clean up. yes it gets warm at time just pour some water on it and it cool. I would say go with vinyl you can add carpet runner if needed.

Yep, vinyl all the way. get the textured type to prevent slips and a light color for heat. You can add snap-on carpet pieces later if needed.