Refurbishing Non Skid

[Bob Emmons]

Hello,
I need to beef up my worn non skid on my CD30. Question: Has anyone ever tried the urethanes or epoxy based finishes with recycled rubber particles such as Durabek? If so, any words for or against. I was on the Durabek website and it looks like a good product.

Thanks for your repsonse,
Bob Emmons

[Mitch F]

Here is an idea you might try if your deck has the molded waffle nonskid pattern - I've not tried it but others have reported success in "sharpening" the existing molded nonskid by using a hacksaw blade without the handle or saw. Run the bare blade along the grooves of the waffle pattern to slightly sharpen the edges of the raised squares. Obviously you don't want to cut too deep or you will penetrate the gelcoat, but a light use of the blade to sand down the grooves might provide a little more traction for your deck shoes. It sounds like a tedious and time consuming job, but it might just work. Good luck!

[Dalton]

After I stripped the decks of all hardware I could remove and repaired any soft spots, crazing and gouges from 30 years of use I used my Porter Cable random orbital to sand smooth the molded in non skid, much easier than it sounds. Prepped and then I painted the entire deck with 2 coats of Awl Grip. Then I taped off to devide the areas I wanted non skid from those to remain glossy. Then I painted a third coat in the non skid areas and sprinkled the silica stuff into the wet paint. One more coat on top and it was one of my best efforts. I didn't get the boat in the water 'til 4th of July that year.

[Oswego John]

Bob, Mitch and all,

Some of my deck nonskid is worn pretty smooth in places It would be good to replenish them to at least somewhere near the condition they were in, when new.

A few years back, maybe five or more, I think that I rmember seeing at a boat show, or reading about a system whereby you applied a thin coat of gelcoat-like, precolored substance on the deck. Next, you laid a premolded, waffle patterned sheet of plastic on top of the gel substance and let it set up. The waffle molded sheet would self release to be used again.

I haven't seen or read anything about this process for a long time.

Anyone remember this stuff? If so, was it any good or a dud?

What was the stuff called?

O J

[Glen C]

OJ

was it maybe Gibco Flex-Mold...http://www.gibcoflexmold.com/
also, see: http://www.westsystem.com/ewmag/22/nonskid.html

I watched the guy across the dock from me apply the following method with excellent results...he didn't sand off the peaks, though, since he wanted a very aggressive non-skid surface for serious offshore work: http://www.anzam.com/howto_index_006.htm

[Lew Gresham]

Another option is to use epoxy resin with a coloring agent. You can roll on epoxy and just when it begins to harden, continue rolling back and forth over the area. By doing so it raises small peaks in the epoxy. Once completely cured these peaks are needle like, so you have to knock down these peaks by sanding lightly. This makes for a great non skid area and you never have to paint. I learned about this process from a man that worked for Luhrs Yacht builders and this is what they did on their boats.

[Oswego John]

Hi Lew,

Not to ruin the thread but when I read Luhrs, I just had to jump in.

My brother had a wooden hull Luhr's Sea Skiff. I had a Morgan woodie. Most of the power skiffs were either Luhrs, Morgan, Uhlrickson,(Sp) Egg Harbor and a couple of others that were top of the line. Owens entered the market with a plywood hull.

And then some upstart called Hatteras comes out with a new fangled hull called fiberglass. Nothing's been the same since.

Luhrs. What a blast from the past.

O J

[Bruce Ebling]

Bob: I just this morning finished painting the sliding hatch cover on my 25D. Through an accident last sailing season I ended up repairing a hole in the hatch, then re-painting the entire non skid area. I chose to use Interlux two part polyurethane and a product called "soft sand" which is in essence ground up rubber particles. The rubber comes in three gradations. The hatch is now standing up catching some rare sun in the back yard drying. I first primered the hatch, then put down the first coat of poly with a flattening agent, then using the broadcast method sprinkled the rubber particles on to the wet paint. once that had dried I went over the entire area with the finish coat. Although the pattern doesn't exactly match the original, I believe it will look just fine when I re-install the cover on the boat.
Bruce Ebling

[Ron M.]

I'm not familiar with the rubber material you describe. Wondering if the material absorbs paint so that when it wears the color of the non skid will remain constant or will the rubber color show through. I've used different grits of polymeric beads which do absorb the paint evenly maintaining consistent color as they wear.
________
UHWH

[Brian2]

West Marine makes a roll on non skid paint that I have used. It is easy to apply, and I used it on the deck of our CD28 and our aluminum ramp that goes from the shore to the float. For the deck, I just sanded with a palm sander and then rolled on two coats of the paint. I am not sure how it works as it doesn't have pumice or sand, and althoug it is a hard finish it gripps like rubber. It really worked great on the ramp, which has quite an angle at low tide. Both my wife and I have previously slipped on the ramp in morning or evening dew, which was aluminun with a diamond nonskid pattern. After painting, it is secure even with dew or in rain. It was a big improvement.

Brian

[Bruce Ebling]

Just finished the non skid on the sliding hatch cover and put it in place this afternoon. It looks great, and now I would like to refinish all of the non skid on the boat. The rubber non skid I used is white in color so even after wear it still should look great. I used the maximum amount of flattening agent on the Interlux white and am very satisfied with the look.
Bruce