I can't describe the horror shows I have seen with plywoods, tiles, veneers, and parquet. Don't do it. A good quality linoleum over plywood is nice, and that teak-and-holly stuff that costs $8/sq-ft is wonderful, but there is nothing like real wood.
I used white oak (quercus alba) planks that I liberated from a dumpster. (My boat is a stone's throw from the SeaRay plant)
Because the pieces were all 1" cutoffs and discards, I cut it into strips about 1/2" thick to get as much as I could out of it.
Because tongue and groove requires a special router set and wastes a lot of stock, I used the table saw to groove each edge, and cut battens out of starboard plastic ("marine lumber") to fit in between strips to hold it together.
I kept it all together with aluminum "L" brackets, screwed to each strip, which was very little trouble.
To finish it off, I put little round brass pull rings, you can get them at marine surplus stores all over. They are a pain to install -- I used a hole saw to notch for the outer edge and a smaller hole saw to open under the lip, but you still have to finish the holes carefully with a chisel. Could have used Jeff's help there, he is so good at chiseling things down....
Finish with spar varnish, outdoor stuff. I think you could use any hard wood, but white oak is the queen of them all....
I put down fake-Persian throw rugs because I like the look. After a few weeks they can be tossed into the coin wash to re-new.
Postscript: a friend used brown starboard plastic (bought surplus) for his cabin sole and cockpit: he just cut it to fit and "notched" it to make it look like separate boards. You can take them out and pressure wash them, just the thing for a dive boat.
1975 32' Flybridge Sedan, twin Perkins 6-354 diesels, 1:1.53 velvetdrives, 16 X 19 props. Merritt Island, Florida
