Suggestions for non skid deck paint

[drysuit2]

Thanks guys. My non skid job is way overdue.

[Cathy Monaghan]

This is great. I'm in the process of repairing the wet core in our cockpit sole. The only trick now is to try to match the color or the old non-skid.

-Cathy
CD32 Realization, #3
Rahway, NJ
Raritan Bay

[Bill Goldsmith]

This is great. I'm in the process of repairing the wet core in our cockpit sole. The only trick now is to try to match the color or the old non-skid.

-Cathy
CD32 Realization, #3
Rahway, NJ
Raritan Bay

Hi Cathy,

Was the wet core due to seepage around the steering pedestal? The emergency tiller plate? Something else?

Thanks, Bill

[Bill Goldsmith]

This is great. I'm in the process of repairing the wet core in our cockpit sole. The only trick now is to try to match the color or the old non-skid.

-Cathy
CD32 Realization, #3
Rahway, NJ
Raritan Bay

One more thing. I am looking at a non-skid re-paint in the not-too-distant future and was intrigued with this thread as well. It seems that the KiwiGrip beige is too yellow to match, but the gray is too gray. Maybe mixing the two in equal parts to start would generate something close?

[mike ritenour]

Thanks to KIWIGRIP for the following COLORING INSTRUCTIONS:

Color Matching

White KiwiGrip can be tinted to any light color using Universal water-based colorants such as those found at Ace Hardware or Home Depot.

Dark colors require excessive colorant which erodes KiwiGrip’s thick consistency which is key to the excellent non-skid texture. See limit on colorant below.

Many paint retailers can help you match a color chip. They prefer a nice smooth chip. If it is impractical to take your deck into the store, you can usually find a stock color in their display area that’s suitable for your application. This may require a few trips between your deck and the store. The chip will reveal the required colorant mixture.

Note: Like other acrylic latex coatings, KiwiGrip dries to a slightly darker shade than its wet color. Color matching computers generally allow for this phenomenon.


A little bit of Math for customers with 4-Ltr sized tin(s)*

Ask the retailer to print out the colorant formula, usually measured in fractions of an ounce. For example, a lovely tan color may require

32/48ths of an ounce of Thalo Blue,
17/48ths of an ounce of Medium Yellow, and
15/48th of an ounce of Red Oxide.

This amounts to 64/48ths = 1.35 ounces of colorant.

You’ll need to increase each component by 5% to account for the difference between a 4-liter tin and a gallon tin (5% more volume)

In our example, you’ll be adding 1.35oz * 1.05 = 1.42 oz of colorant to 4-liters of white KiwiGrip.

Do not exceed 2% colorant. This means that you can add 80 milliliters (2.5 ounces) of colorant to a 4L tin

* The 5% difference is VERY slight. Unless you’re trying to get an exact color match, you can probably skip this step. Of course none of this applies to you if you received US Gallon-sized tins.

Mix and Shake

Ask the retailer to add the colorant, (per your calculations) to your white KiwiGrip. He’ll necessarily point out that your white is different from his white base product. Don’t worry; our white is very close to his white. You won’t notice the difference on your deck!

Ask the retailer to shake your full can of KiwiGrip on his commercial shaker. He may find that your 4-liter tin won’t fit in his gallon-sized shaker. In this case, KiwiGrip can be carefully stirred at slow speed with a squirrel-cage mixer on a variable speed electric drill, or by hand with a broad paddle. Stirring rapidly or shaking a partial can will introduce small air bubbles which will become micro-craters in your finished surface. These small craters do no harm, but make the surface a bit harder to keep clean.

Give your retailer a beer for his trouble. We’ve always found the paint guys very intrigued and helpful as long as you catch them at a slow time, like early in the morning or during dinner time.

A Final Note

Don’t be too fussed about an exact color match. Because KiwiGrip is a textured finish, it will reflect light differently and therefore look like a different color than exactly the same color when applied smooth. We’ve run test panels where we’ve smoothed one half of the panel with a foam brush and textured the other half. When viewed from 3 or 4 feet away, the textured half looks darker.

Note to Retailer:

We understand that our white KiwiGrip will be a different shade and brilliance than your base white products. No worries – our local paint shops have had very good success tinting by eye or by machine for our customers here in the Northwest. Rest assured that if you give it your best shot and it doesn’t come out well for any reason, Pachena will replace the customer’s product at no charge.

[Cathy Monaghan]

This is great. I'm in the process of repairing the wet core in our cockpit sole. The only trick now is to try to match the color or the old non-skid.

-Cathy
CD32 Realization, #3
Rahway, NJ
Raritan Bay

Hi Cathy,

Was the wet core due to seepage around the steering pedestal? The emergency tiller plate? Something else?

Thanks, Bill

Hi Bill,

Probably all of the above are reasons for the wet core. In 2003 (I think it was 2003) I removed the pedestal. While it was off the boat we enlarged the hole thru the sole and dug some of the old wood core out from around the hole and filled it with epoxy. We also removed the bronze inspection plate for the emergency tiller and did the same thing (obviously didn't enlarge the opening for that), and did the same thing for the pedestal guard's feet and the waste fill. What we didn't do, was check the rest of the sole's core. Anyway, those areas had never been sealed and I'm sure they let lots of water into the sole's core over the years. There are also a bunch of gelcoat cracks that may have contributed to it as well.

There are gelcoat cracks all over the boat. I had suspected some delamination of the foredeck due to some of the larger cracks but Billy Lockwood (the owner of the boatyard where we keep our boat) went over the entire deck with a mallet and a moisture meter with me at his side. The deck remains dry and those cracks are still only cosmetic. The only moisture he found was in the cockpit sole. The needle on the meter pretty much went off the chart and the mallet made that dull thud that indicates there's something wrong. The deck "rang" nicely everywhere else and the meter showed it was dry.

So, we're repairing the cockpit sole. Once again the steering system is all apart and the pedestal is now sitting in our basement. While it's out, I may as well paint it again too.

-Cathy
CD32 Realization, #3
Rahway, NJ
Raritan Bay

[Bill Goldsmith]

Cathy,

Good to hear everything else was dry. I have a lot of gelcoat cracks as well, and am 95% sure they are all cosmetic. Someday in the next 2-3 years I will repaint all my nonskid and repair those cracks first. Obviously I'll check dryness first before doing all that work.

An interesting note: I had a number of cosmetic stress cracks forward of the main sheet winch on the coachroof. This winter I cut away some of the stick-built liner to see how big a backing plate they used. They didn't--they only used washers. I rebedded the winch with a new, large, 3/8" thick aluminum plate that I also epoxied to the underside to avoid any curvature-related point loading. Before reinstalling the winch I did the usual "drill/fill and drill" approach for the fasteners, and took out a radius of core inside the hole before filling with epoxy. The core was bone dry. I am hoping the larger backing plate will prevent cracks from reappearing after I repair and repaint.

[Cathy Monaghan]

We used kiwi-grip. Easy to use and looks great. It's a pretty aggressive non-skid too. The beige color was a little light for our taste, so we took it Home Depot and had it tinted a bit darker. They were a little reluctant to do it at first, but OK after we talked to the manager and took all responsibility for the tinting, even if it didn't work.

I would say basic approximation using geometric shapes (cabin top is a rectangle, deck is a triangle + a couple of squares) would be good enough for figuring out how much paint to get. The difference due to curves is pretty much offset by the deck hardware in the way).

For our 28 we got a gallon of kiwi-grip, and only used about 2.5 quarts to do the entire deck and cockpit.

If you take a quart of KiwiGrip to a paint store will they tint it or will they only tint gallon containers?

-Cathy
CD32 Realization, #3
Rahway, NJ
Raritan Bay

[Oswego John]

Hi Cathy,

The local Ace Hardware up here in Oz mixes tints in both gallons and quarts.

Besides asking them if they WILL tint a brand x paint, look at the reverse side of the paint chip of choice and see if there aare two ratios or recipes, one for gallons and a lesser one for quarts.

Good luck,
O J

[Cathy Monaghan]

Hi Cathy,

The local Ace Hardware up here in Oz mixes tints in both gallons and quarts.

Besides asking them if they WILL tint a brand x paint, look at the reverse side of the paint chip of choice and see if there aare two ratios or recipes, one for gallons and a lesser one for quarts.

Good luck,
O J

The paint chip is a chunk of my cockpit sole. I don't need more than a quart of non-skid/paint and I'd like to have it tinted the same color as the old non-skid.

I asked at the local Home Depot and they said that they won't tint any paint that you're not buying from them. So now I'm going to ask the folks at our local Ace Hardware and Sherwin Williams.

-Cathy
CD32 Realization, #3
Rahway, NJ
Raritan Bay

[dancer]

I have just used product for a 10 foot dinghy project. Pachena was an excellent supplier. Water based product is easy to work, and no rushing about was required.
I ordered Kiwigrip a year before I needed it (not planned!). When I finally opened the can, the paint was the consistency of window putty. Called Pachena, who asked the color of the can's label. he confirmed that the particular lot was shipped in faulty paint cans that should have been scrapped. He asked what color and how much I needed, and shipped new paint to me no charge.
Had Ace Hardware store tint paint to an almost exact match to what I was looking for. The application was actually fun.
To make a long story short, I don't think you'll go wrong with KiwiGrip.
Make sure you give it adequate time (2 weeks) to FULLY cure.

[MarkN]

From: frequent reader, infrequent poster.
I am repairing some side and coach roof issues on my allied greenwich, the predessor to the cd 25, and was wondering what the reasoning was to painting non-skid on the top sides? i will be painting kiwigrip on the side decks but am not yet decided on the coach roof. I have seen some almost entirely painted with non-skid and others with only sparsely painted near the mast. any thoughts on what and where to paint on the coach roof would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

[Duncan]

... i will be painting kiwigrip on the side decks but am not yet decided on the coach roof. I have seen some almost entirely painted with non-skid and others with only sparsely painted near the mast. any thoughts on what and where to paint on the coach roof would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

I was just wondering about that myself. I have a molded-in non-skid pattern on the coach roof, but there's no paint on it.

There is the same pattern on the side decks, but it's painted, and I got a quart of Interdeck to update it. I was thinking I might do the coach roof, too, if I have some paint left over.

In my case, it's almost completely a decorative issue. If I didn't have the non-skid pattern already, though, I think I'd cover most of the coach roof. I think it looks more complete that way, and it's easy on the eyes.

[barfwinkle]

Morning

My 25D has non-skid on the coachtop. Its not "patterned" like the decks, but its there and all white. I am on the coachtop a lot so I am glad its there.

Fair Winds

[mahalocd36]

From: frequent reader, infrequent poster.
I am repairing some side and coach roof issues on my allied greenwich, the predessor to the cd 25, and was wondering what the reasoning was to painting non-skid on the top sides? i will be painting kiwigrip on the side decks but am not yet decided on the coach roof. I have seen some almost entirely painted with non-skid and others with only sparsely painted near the mast. any thoughts on what and where to paint on the coach roof would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Well, our boat is a little bigger, but we are on the coach roof a lot and am glad it's covered with non-skid.