Hello
Not sure this is really that structural, sorry about that, but...
We've got to the stage where the final floor covering is needing to be decided upon. So far we've cut the old floor out, red-leaded the chassis, put new 18mm Exterior grade ply with a lick of yacht varnish on the underside down, inch thick Celotex between battens on top, and have just ordered the final layer of 18mm ply. While we were doing the yacht varnish, we realised that the varnished ply looked really quite nice, and started considering it for the final finish on the floor.
Our question is thus: has anyone used varnished ply as the final floor in their conversion? Does it look OK after a few years, and do you have to put tons of coats on? Do you get splinters in your feet? Can you keep it clean? Durability?
It's that or vinyl, you see...
Not gone for that approach but having done some sailing I can vouch for the robustness of yacht varnish. Easy to clean, waterproof and durable. I reckon you'ld want to make sure you had sanded it well (a couple of times) and added at least 2-3 coats. Definitely less fiddly than vinyl, although I guess vinyl would be a little softer. I'd also be interested to hear from someone who has tried it........................