Carpet Headliner

While the NaugaSoft works well on a very smooth surface, it does not do well on a surface that is uneven (all the flaws in the surface show through). Carpet headliner is excellent in this regard. We used this for the v-berth area of the boat. Even though the carpet is a good deal heavier than the NaugaSoft, the 3M General Trim Adhesive was easily up to the task of holding it overhead. We did not want to remove the trim boards on the forward bulkhead or against the head (they were in good shape). So we just used a utility knife to cut the carpet along the edges of those boards. Indeed, the carpet is thick enough that I am not sure the trim boards would have covered them cleanly in any case.

The cut edges were a bit fuzzy (see Photo 1). We solved this issue by running a thin bead of 3M Fast Tack Adhesive all along them. This had the effect of sealing the carpet and preventing any future raveling (we hope).

The carpet was not wide enough to span from side to side so we installed it with a seam down the center (see Photo 2). We used the factory trimmed edges down the center and they matched up very well. The carpet stretches nicely (it is advertised to be up to covering a four inch high and wide bulge -- notice that the carpet closely molds the shape of the backing plate) so mating the two edges was not difficult at all. Two ceiling boards will be reinstalled to cover the outer rough cut edge.




The final photos show the completed work with the ceiling boards installed. Note that the center seam is nearly invisible. The backing plates for the staunchions are

evident (in the final photo). We may eventually replace them with thinner plates. But then new ceiling boards would be required
to eliminate the cutouts.