Woven Vinyl on Boats and RVs: Interior Surfaces That Travel
A boat interior and a motorhome interior have more in common with each other than either has with a building. Both are small, moving, weight-limited spaces where the surfaces take sun, condensation and constant cleaning.
That is why the same woven vinyl specification usually serves both, with one difference that decides the project: the fire requirement.
What is different about a moving interior
Weight is a line in the budget. Every kilogram of interior is a kilogram of payload or range. A surface specified for its look has to justify its gsm.
The envelope moves. Hulls flex, bodies twist on uneven ground, cabinetry settles. A rigid sheet cracks where a textile-covered panel accepts the movement.
Moisture arrives from both sides. Condensation forms on cold surfaces, spills sit on the floor, and a bilge or a wheel arch is never far away.
The sun is not filtered. Windscreens and hatches pass UV that a building interior never sees, and a colour that fails in year three is a visible failure on a small surface.
Cleaning is frequent and informal. A boat or a motorhome is cleaned by its owner with whatever is in the locker, so the surface has to tolerate a wider range of products than a hotel floor does.
Where the material goes
Our marine and RV application work covers three areas.
Interior walls and cabin partitions. The woven surface replaces laminate, vinyl film or fabric, and it is laminated to the panel by the fit-out shop. Our wallcovering build uses a PET non-woven backing; where the panel is padded, the upholstery build uses a 1 mm vinyl cushion backing.
Floors, including shaped areas. Cabins, galleys, heads and cockpit soles are rarely rectangular. The material is cut to a template, welded at the seams, and finished at the edges.
Seating and soft trim. Upholstery in the same weave ties the floor and the walls to the seating, which is what makes a small interior read as one design rather than three.
Weight, in numbers a fit-out shop can use
Our official specification gives the figures directly:
| Build | Thickness | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Wallcovering | 2 mm total, on a 1.0 mm woven vinyl face | 1,100-1,300 gsm with non-woven backing |
| Wall to wall flooring | 4 mm | 2,400 gsm |
| Upholstery | 1.0 mm woven vinyl face | stated on request |
| Acoustic modular carpet tiles | 3.20-3.50 mm | 4,350 gsm |
For a caravan or a motorhome, the flooring figure is the one that gets quoted in the weight budget. For a boat, the wall build usually matters more, because wall area is larger than floor area in a cabin.
Moisture: what the surface does and what it does not
A woven vinyl surface is closed. Water sits on it, which is why a spill can be cleared rather than absorbed, and why welded seams matter more here than in a building: a joint that lets water into the substrate is how a soft floor fails in a boat.
What the surface cannot do is ventilate the structure underneath. Condensation forms on the cold side, and a flooring specification cannot solve that. The installation document states the substrate and adhesive requirements, and in a marine or vehicle context those requirements are the part to read before the sample is approved.
Sun and colour
Colour is solution-dyed into the yarn rather than applied to the surface, so cleaning and wear do not take the colour off. Colour fastness is tested to BS EN ISO 105-B02 for artificial light and 105-B04 for weathering, with reports behind those standards.
For the texlymat mats and runners used at entrances, the material is UV-stabilised for in-and-outdoor use. That statement belongs to that product line specifically, and it should not be extended to the interior flooring.
Fire: be exact about which requirement applies
This is where a marine project goes wrong most often, so it is worth writing plainly.
On a vessel surveyed under SOLAS, the fire requirements come from the IMO FTP Code, and the material has to be tested and certified to the relevant part of it. We do not hold IMO FTP Code certificates, and we will say so at the first meeting rather than at the submission stage.
On inland craft, yachts below the survey threshold, caravans and motorhomes, the requirement usually follows the national craft, vehicle or interior standard the builder works to. There, we supply what we hold: reaction to fire classification to EN 13501-1 for the product and backing, stated in the Declaration of Performance, plus the REACH and colour fastness documents.
CE marking to EN 14041 covers the flooring as a building product. It is not a marine certificate, and it should not be presented as one.
Putting the right document against the right requirement is the whole job here. A specification that names EN 13501-1 for a caravan is answerable; one that implies SOLAS compliance is not.
Cleaning in a small, hot space
Two practical notes from interior work.
Marks show up sooner on a small surface, so a two-tone weave with visible structure holds appearance better than a flat shade. And cleaning products vary by owner, so the maintenance document should name the classes of chemical that are compatible, not just one brand.
Documents for a marine or RV project
- Reaction to fire classification to EN 13501-1, for the product and backing
- Declaration of Performance for the product supplied
- CE marking to EN 14041, where the supply is flooring
- REACH statement and restricted substances reports
- Colour fastness to BS EN ISO 105-B02 and 105-B04
- Installation document: substrate, adhesive, cure time
- Maintenance schedule
- Templates for shaped floors
Questions about marine and RV interiors
Do you supply material for SOLAS vessels?
We supply woven vinyl for interiors, and we do not hold IMO FTP Code certificates, so we are not the right supplier where a SOLAS fire certificate is a condition of the order. For inland craft, yachts below the survey threshold, caravans and motorhomes we supply the EN 13501-1 classification, the DoP and the REACH documents, which is what most of those projects ask for.
How is a shaped cabin floor done?
A template is taken on site, the material is cut and the seams are welded, then the floor is finished at the edges with a profile. Weight and thickness stay the same as the roll specification, so the weight budget can be calculated before the template exists.
Can the same colour run from floor to walls to seating?
Yes. The weave and the yarn are shared across the product lines and only the backing changes, which is how a small interior keeps one design rather than three. Confirm with physical samples of all three builds together, because the light in a cabin is not the light in a showroom.