Non-Skid redo

Engines, Drive trains, Propellers, Steering, Ground Tackle and other mechanical system
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katorpus
Posts: 146
Joined: Thu Dec 04, 2008 10:51 pm

Non-Skid redo

Post by katorpus »

(Repost of my post at Freedom Owners' Group)

I used Skid-No-More (West Marine & Defender carry it). Single part,
acrylic based. Smells like latex house paint.

I didn't tint it, but I will "next time"...to a lighter color than
the "wet cement gray" that it comes in. The gray is great for glare,
but hard on bare feet in tropical summer sun in South Texas.

Likewise, it has ground up black rubber particles which do shed in
much the same way that ashphalt driveways "shed rocks"

Great from a non-skid perspective, wet or dry, and I get lots of
compliments on how good it looks.

I didn't roll it, instead I applied it with chip brushes
by "dragging" it with the brush laid almost flat. The first coat got
very little coverage, and I didn't attempt to avoid "brush marks",
but it built up the "altitude" to give me something to "fill to" with
subsequent coat applied (the same way) at a 90 degree angle to the
original. The first coat was "across the boat", the second "the long
way".

The ONLY peeling I got was what was inadequately cured when I pulled
the double-layered masking tape immediately after applying the second
coat. Touch up was easy & un-noticeable.

I mixed it with the HEAVY paint-stir sticks and poured it into a
roller tray to apply it, stirring and boxing regularly.

Preparation is key. My original non-skid had been overcoated and was
chalking badly. I used a serious solvent and lots of paper towels to
get it back down to the "factory beige" color (which had "worn
through" in many places prior to the first overcoat.

I wouldn't call it "very tough"...if you "drag your feet", you have
the sensation that you're abrading the surface. Probably, you are.
The alternative is that you'll be "sandpapering" your feet and
knees...one or the other is gonna give.

I clean it with a hose, a deck brush & bucket of water with West
Marine deck soap slopped in. It gets a lot dirtier than it LOOKS like
it is, judging from the filth that washes out of it (with the soap,
but doesn't just "rinse out" with the hose), but cleans up nicely and
looks good dirty (unlike the adjacent white gelcoat). No stains
evident from anything (including my blood, bird poop, or burn marks
from cigarettes (see next paragraph).

I'm in a marina with a parking lot and a Joe's Crab Shack almost
immediately adjacent. Lots of dust & dirt & sand (and cigarette
butts) find their way onto the deck. Why do people stand at the edge
of the water and flick their cigarette butts onto boats floating two
slips away? Penis envy, I guess, but it happens ALL the time.

Conclusion: Hard to screw up the installation when "doing it
yourself", reasonable endurance (4 years later), I won't have to
remove it to bring it back to "new"...I'll just (rolling this time,
since I don't need more thickness) overcoat what's there with the
same thing in a lighter color. Cost...CHEAP in comparison to paying
somebody multi-megabucks for an alternative.
Four Year Old Skid-No-More
Four Year Old Skid-No-More
Fenderage Starboard.jpg (88.74 KiB) Viewed 4934 times
Closer View 4 yr old Skid-No-More
Closer View 4 yr old Skid-No-More
DSC_01090001.JPG (99.16 KiB) Viewed 4934 times

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THATBOATGUY
Posts: 574
Joined: Thu Dec 04, 2008 9:50 am
Location: F40 CC CK Maryland
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Re: Non-Skid redo

Post by THATBOATGUY »

That looks great John! That may just be a winner for us too. Definitely we would need to have a lighter color.

George
George and Kerri Huffman S/V Marquesa Freedom 40 CC CK Sail MarquesaImage

User avatar
Michel
Posts: 546
Joined: Sun Dec 07, 2008 5:48 am
Location: Zaanstad, the Netherlands, EU

Re: Non-Skid redo

Post by Michel »

John, it looks like you have plush on your deck! Very nice. Is grey the only available color?
I have Awlgrip desert sand (yellowish) with grit on my deck, but it's not rough enough to provide non-skid, unless you have the perfect boat shoe. I should have listened to the painter and let him use the coarsest grain available. So I think I have to redo it with something else within a year or two. How did you make all the round corners in your masking tape?
Michel Capel, Freedom 44 #4 1981 'Alabama Queen', NED8188, cat ketch with wishbones, home port Enkhuizen, the Netherlands, 52*42.238'N 005*18.154'E.

katorpus
Posts: 146
Joined: Thu Dec 04, 2008 10:51 pm

Re: Non-Skid redo

Post by katorpus »

Michel

"Wet cement gray" is it as far as color selection is concerned. The product instructions say you can tint it with any latex based tint, but there's a limit to what you can do if you start with gray (as opposed to white base). Obviously, if you do this, you need to be very precise in your tinting and make sure you "box" all of the product that you're gonna need in order to maintain a consistent color.

1" blue masking tape can be "bent" into a pretty tight radius. You want to "stack" another piece on top of the bottom layer, then overlay as much of both of them as you can with a piece of 2"...ripped off into shorter pieces and overlapped as necessary to keep it close to the edge. If you already have a well defined edge, you can use an exacto knife if you're having trouble. Don't wait TOO long to pull the tape, or you'll become VERY intimately familiar with the use of the exacto knife to remove the (cured) coating and the tape that's under it from the deck.

Also, make sure that you DON'T apply the tape to any gelcoat that you've "just" cleaned off with solvent. Any remaining solvent residue that hasn't evaporated out will bond the tape to the gelcoat a LOT more than you want it to...just like leaving it too long in the sun. For this reason, I prefer a highly volatile solvent (like one containing toluene, xylene etc...such as automotive paint reducers) as they are way-better than the lower-volatility (and "greasier") mineral spirits when cleaning the deck prior to application. Any solvent residue will also damage the bond between the deck coating and the deck.

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