deck material

[Capt Hodge]

I'm in the process of replacing the deck in an '89 sunrunner. It's more of a cruiser than a fishing boat as the deck is carpeted. I figure to start with 5/8 inch plywood since the deck is structurally sound and layer with epoxy to waterproof. I want a textured finish and was wondering if one could use formica and then spray a layer of truck bed liner for a non-skid deck. Does this sound OK? My e-mail is hodge36_@yahoo.com. Any advice is greatly appreciated

[Don B]

did the same thing on my 15' flat bottom boat. Might want to check with the manifacturer for the liner material use are thinking about. The technical reps from the liner companies I talked to said the bond to epoxy is not good.

Considering the bond between polyester and wood is not that great, you might want to consider a product from Duratec(Vinyl Ester Primer) to increase the bond to plywood.

[powert]

Have you considered this product? http://www.nonslipcoating.com/marine.htm

[PAR]

Epoxy will not provide all that much water proofing without glass, it's just to brittle without it. CPES is another story, being formulated for that very thing. It's an epoxy, but doesn't get near as hard, so it bends and moves as the wood does, designed to mimic the properties of wood.

There are a number of stand alone anti skid products available for use in the marine environment. Stick on tapes to paint additives and anti skid paint itself. This would be a more reliable way to go as the engineering has been done, testing, product compatibility, etc. Personally, I just use the shovel and sand over wet paint trick myself.

Polyester doesn't stick to plywood very well at all. Vinylester is better, but epoxy will out perform them easily. I wouldn't use Formica on a deck. It's a reasonably unforgiving material and trying to stick an untested combination of products together is really a crap shoot. You might get lucky or you might have to rip it up and think it over again next year, plus repair any damage.