Re: Boat floor
The deck finishing question has been popular lately. I am glad to see all those who are at that stage. The work leading up to finishing a deck is a real job.
But it sure is a good feeling to reach that goal.
There are so many ways one can finish a deck making the choice can be confusing. But it sounds like you have a plan. You want it smooth and "finished" looking. You don?t want it rough but you don?t want to slide around on it either? There is a solution that looks great and wont have you slipping overboard. Here is what I have found.
Leading up to a smooth deck finish you first need to consider the substrate. If you are re-glassing the deck the final layers of resin and cloth need to be as smooth as possible. It will make finishing much easier if the surface is smooth to begin with. I recommend using a finishing veil type of cloth as a final top layer in the fiberglass. It will minimize sanding and yield a reasonable surface. Next I recommend covering the raw glass surface with gelcoat. You can apply it many ways but spraying it probably yields the smoothest finish. Regardless of how it gets applied I fell gelcoat is the best protection for a deck. You will have to sand it and fair it to get it smooth enough for the finial finish, but gelcoat is much more durable than any paint. And any deck you are going to walk on needs that level of protection in my view. You can fair the fiberglass first before applying the gelcoat but be sure to use polyester compatible products to do it.
After getting everything smooth you can rub and compound the gelcoat at this point to make it shine. But ultra shiny smooth gelcoat is going to be a real slip and slide surface, your still going to need carpet, or some other means of traction. Thats why for a finished deck I recommend a good two part marine paint.
Two part paints are best for any surface that is going to see allot of wear like a deck. Painting it gives you several advantages. If you paint the deck the same color as the gelcoat damage to the paint wont be as noticeable. And if it needs work as time goes by, you can simply run a sander over it and re-paint. But that wont be very often given the durability of modern two part marine paints. They are very tough and will offer protection for the gelcoat layer. Another advantage of paint is the anti-skid compound you can add to it. In the anti-skid areas you are going to lose the shine, but any anti-skid surface is going to be that way. The cool thing is that the anti-skid does not need to cover the complete surface. I have seen some really nice decks done in borders using anti-skid and paint. You can border around deck hatches and seat hardware and use it to outline and accent features of the deck. It looks really cool. The anti-skid can be as aggressive as you like from barely seen to really rough for a swim deck. Some anti-skids are very, very fine making it very smooth looking but still giving a non-slip surface. I like paint because it is versatile and if you want freshen it up, just re-paint it. Gelcoat is far more permanent and more difficult to work with but it is still needed even under paint. Its a floor, for goodness sake, your going to drop things on it!
