Deck refinish

[Rickforth]

My 1990 204C floor needs to be updated. It is the original gel coat in fair condition. I would like to improve durability and look. I want to match the GW existing color. Any suggestions as to a product to accomplish this task?

 

[Hookup1]

Hard to tell from the photo but is that a diamond non-skid or a flat non-skid?

If diamond non-skid I have not found a way to paint it. It can be repaired with new gelcoat and a silicone mat.

Flat non-skid can be sanded out and deck repaired. Lots of paint options from there.

Color is what I call "Faded Grady White". Closer to pure white. Take a pice of trim off or a frame around a compartment and look at original color. You will see! Nothing out of the can will match. It will have to be hand tinted.

 

[Rickforth]

Hard to tell from the photo but is that a diamond non-skid or a flat non-skid?

If diamond non-skid I have not found a way to paint it. It can be repaired with new gelcoat and a silicone mat.

Flat non-skid can be sanded out and deck repaired. Lots of paint options from there.

Color is what I call "Faded Grady White". Closer to pure white. Take a pice of trim off or a frame around a compartment and look at original color. You will see! Nothing out of the can will match. It will have to be hand tinted.

It is a flat non skid

 

[Hookup1]

I have a 1997 Islander. All walkwaround surfaces are diamond non-skid. It's actually in good shape with a few tiny spots.

Your boat being older is a little easier to refinish with a flat non-skid.

 

[DennisG01]

So what you probably have there, at approaching 4 decades old.. is "not-so-non-skid" non-skid?

When I re-did my '82 - which was pretty just "slip-n-slide" - I painted it with Pettit's EZ Deck. I didn't even bother trying to match the existing color as it would be near impossible - I went with a light grey and it came out really nice - the contrasting color actually looks quite good. Just a thought. After 7 or 8 years, it has held up very well.

 

[Sardinia306Canyon]

You have basically three solutions

1. prepare the deck correctly, and spray it with gelcoat and add immediately a non-slip agent
2. prepare the deck correctly, apply paint and add immediately a non-slip agent
3. prepare the deck correctly, apply non skid paint with small rollers and brushes for edges

in 2014 i used International Interdeck light grey colour to paint the whole floor of my dive rib and it held up very well despit the extreme use as professional use scuba dive boat for up to 12 divers.
Interdeck has a very fine grit non skid agent what is very nice to feet but only 90% non skid as too fine if barefoot but ok with shoes. The light grey could became so hot that we had to drop water to cool it. Divers are mostly barefoot so this was a little problem but does not have to be for boaters who use shoes.

In Costa Rica i had the dive panga sprayed with Awlgrip and then spattered drops as non skid and it worked fine for some years and then started to flake off, non skid effect was about 70%.

You can use a normal, marine paint and sprinke fine sand over it,
thats the cheapo way to make non skid but it has some serious back draws.

• often it looks ugly due uneven distribution of sand
• very harsh to bare feet
• very difficult to clean

You can reduce the problems above if overpainting the sand again to make it less aggressive.

I suggest to use a ready to use non skid paint made by the brand you like most and use the lightest colour available.

Chris

 

[Hookup1]

I repaired my hardtop and sprayed AwlGrip AwlCraft 2000, sprayed Interlux medium grit non-skid dry onto the wet top coat and then sprayed topcoat over it. Hardtop was primed, edges taped out, non-skid applied, tape removed and topcoated again. Since it is the hardtop I don't really walk on it but it has good texture to it and it looks great. Spraying the grit makes it easier to get even distribution. You could probably roll the top coat and spray the grit and have it look as good.



I also fish on a custom sportfish that has the bow full non-skid. Awlgrip paint and coarse non-skid probably not top coated. This also looks good but is very aggressive. Probably 80 grit!

The above method will result in a great finish. Spraying is messy though. Expensive too if you don't do it yourself. It's also difficult for the DIY boater to do for a one-off project.

Question I would ask you is how much time and money do you want to put into this non-skid project. What level of finish are you shooting for? The one part out-of-the-can products can give you good results for a number of years. The two part paints are much harder and will last longer but are much more difficult to apply.

Also, if you want taped-out borders you will have to paint and apply the grit separately.