gelcoat floor

I have replaced stringers and fiberglassed the deck of my 21' cc. I want to gelcoat the floor. Do I need to do anything to the floor before gelcoating and what is the best way to make the floor non-slip? Can I put sand in the gelcoat and roll it on? What is the best kind of gelcoat to use for this application? Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

 

I spend a lot of time on a boat with a textured gelcoat deck. It's a terrific nonskid finish, easy to clean, etc. It's over 20 years old now and still looks and works great. It's just plain gelcoat, maybe thickened to a certain consistency, rolled on with a deep nap roller for texture and left to cure. I'm sure you could do this yourself, after experimenting a bit first.

 

Get a sample pack of anti skid profiles from Gibco Flexmold. (gibco at swbell dot net). With that you can use ordinary gelcoat to produce a very neat pattern.

 

Be sure to add surfacing agent to any exposed gelcoat finish or it will be forever sticky. Gelcoat cures sticky, much like laminating resin, as it is designed to be used inside a mold with subsequent laminations over. Even with the surfacing agent, it is advisable to coat over with PVA to seal it as it cures. The PVA will wash off after the gelcoat is cured.

 

I see one of your questions was what do you need to do to the floor, the floor needs to be rough sanded prior to rolling your gelocat, otherwise your gelcoat could end up not adhearing and peel or chip off. Surfacing wax is what you want to add to the gelcoat, it will make it a breeze to clean the deck with the wax in it verses no wax, in addition to it curing tack free. Rolling with non skid particals is acceptable or you could spray the gelcoat/nonskid for a nice uniform pattern also. good luck. Picture attached is a Dusky floor I redid for someone recently. You may also want to consider a little webbing, it hides any flaws in the floor/gelcoat!!

 

Are we talking about floors, soles or decks?

 

Sand will work well, trouble is, oftentimes it works a little too well, especially if you ever have to sand it off.

For a quick, cheap and readily made non-skid, we first apply a coat of the gelcoat to make sure the color will be even. Once the first coat is cured up but still within the secondary bonding-window, we mix some more gel with silica until we have a putty, then we trowel it on in an even thickness and run it over with a stipple-roller until it looks even. You can either spray PVA on afterwards or mix in wax-solution, I prefer PVA. Finish by lightly skimming a piece of coarse sandpaper by hand over the surface.

Amount of silica, thickness of putty-layer, type of roller, the heat of the meat and the angle of the dangle will all affect the texture, so do some experimenting first, once you get the technique down it looks surprisingly good.

Yokebutt.