Cleaning boat Carpet

What have you found is the best product to clean your boat carpet?

Water

It’s usually best just to spot treat/clean/scrub stained areas with any household carpet cleaner or Mr. Green, then pressure wash with some common sense (especially if using a powerful gas powered pressure washer).

If you put soap down on the entire carpet, it will take a week of pressure washing to get all of the soap and bubbles out lol

Normal 120V pressure washers aren’t as much of a concern. With either kind, ALWAYS use the “FAN” tip.

DO NOT USE THE ROTARY/OSCILLATING HEAD OR PIN POINT HEAD. The former will twist the carpet fibers into pills, the latter will leave lines and could possibly harm the glue.

I’ve also never had a problem using household rust removers on boat carpet to spot treat rust stains from anchors, Etc.

To start, pull all of the seats out and take everything out of the boat. Then jack the front up all of the way, pull the drain plug and go to town starting at the bow working to the stern.

Don’t overlook compartments and the areas the lids sit down in that collect a lot of dirt.

Once finished use a shop-vac with the wide attachment and give it a once over. Next, put a fan or two in the boat to dry it out for a day or two. Once dry use a regular home vacuum cleaner for the bulk of it, and vacuum the rest by hand with a bristled attachment.

After that’s all done, wipe down all of your hard surfaces that have water-spots, film, dust, etc from the process with a detailer (glass cleaner for glass, vinyl cleaner, Armour All, etc). Use a plastic restorer for any faded looking plastics while you’re at it.

Side note:

I think it should be ILLEGAL for manufacturers to put carpet in boats. I don’t have carpet in my kitchen, so why would I ever want it in a boat lol

There are a few YouTube videos about using Barbasol shaving cream. I’ve used it. Seemed to work. Smelled good.

B-man wrote:

Side note:

I think it should be ILLEGAL for manufacturers to put carpet in boats. I don’t have carpet in my kitchen, so why would I ever want it in a boat lol

Haha, I do tend to agree that carpet isn’t worth the hassle of having it in a boat anymore. I think the alternative hard surfaces are catching on though. A lot of boats I saw at the boat show in Mpls last month did not have full marine carpet.

Easy and effective? Mix up a bucket of hot dish water with good Ole Dawn. Hose it first then pour on and scrub a little with a big brush. Then rinse. It works.

Dealer tried to talk me into a vinyl floor when I bought my boat 7 years ago. Said that’s what people are going with more and more. I wish I would have listened

B-Man has the right idea. Use as little soap as possible to clean any stained areas then pressure wash the carpet with plain water. Soaps and shampoos leave a film on the carpet that attracts dirt and causes it to mat.

Hot 90 degree day and a pressure washer but not too close to the carpet . Usually just as destroyed 3 months later .

crappie55369 wrote:

Dealer tried to talk me into a vinyl floor when I bought my boat 7 years ago. Said that’s what people are going with more and more. I wish I would have listened

The dealer did the same to me in 2015 and at the time I was skeptical. He talked me into it at no extra charge, and those doubts were erased quickly. I’ll never deal with marine carpet again.

Since I have been catfishing, once a year I used Suzuki’s recipe. Dawn.

I must not have rinsed very well at some point because the last few years I didn’t need to use dawn, just started spraying the hose, and it foamed up.

Kept the plug out and raised the trailer crank to it’s highest point with a 2/4 under it for a day in the sun to dry it. I used a cheap piece of indoor/outdoor carpeting to catch most slime and just replace that every year.

I haven’t used the Skeeter enough to get the carpet dirty.

PS I love the carpeting with family and friends in the summer. Unsnap it when I think I might catch a few that I can’t hold off the floor.

Simple Green cleaner works great. Mix as per carpet cleaning directions on the bottle. If you have grease or oil stains, mix in Dawn dishwashing detergent.

The key to any carpet cleaning product is to LET IT WORK. Guys get all jacked up and trigger happy and can’t wait to start blasting with the pressure washer. Calm down and give it an hour to really cut the grime.

For very dirty carpets, I’ve heard of guys using the wife’s carpet cleaning machine with the upholstery brush. Obviously, I have never, ever, ever even contemplated doing this with Mrs. Grouse’s Hoover Platinum MondoCleean XT Turbo machine, yeah, no way would I even think about doing the carpet in the grungy old Alumacraft with that, so yeah, no worries there, I don’t know why you even brought that up. But I have heard of OTHER guys doing it to spot clean really bad spots like that oil Grandpa dumped and it worked great.

Grouse

suzuki wrote:

Easy and effective? Mix up a bucket of hot dish water with good Ole Dawn. Hose it first then pour on and scrub a little with a big brush. Then rinse. It works.

X2 on the Dawn dish soap.

Don’t use the soapy water used at a self-serve car wash. Will leave a waxy residue.

-J.

Pressure washer? for general washing. Shaving cream for deep spots.

Boat rule #1: Boat carpet looks great in the showroom.

“If you put soap down on the entire carpet, it will take a week of pressure washing to get all of the soap and bubbles out lol”

X2. I was out in the driveway for a long time to get rid of the soap. Never again.

SR