Synthetic Teak Decking

NYCAP- It is nothing like Non Skid, it looks and feels like teak.

Here is a picture albeit not a very good one.

Yeah, that's the stuff.

Hi,

This stuff does NOT come in sheets it is a poured , sanded, grooves routed into it and caulked to look l and feel like Teak.

I've looked into the flexi-teak before, from the installation instructions provided on the net, looks fairly do-it yourself. Mind you to pour and then router and sand, sounds like something I'd leave for the pro's. I've seen a picture of a bathroom(house) done with the flexi-teak, also a balcony. I've also been in a hotel bar that had the flexi-teak and it went well with the nautical theme looked like it was holding up to the traffic too.

I have had several steel trawlers with Marinedeck 2000 on fore, side, aft decks and swim platform. Marinedeck is a cork/epoxy composite and looks like teak and holly except corky instead of teaky. It's comfortable to walk on for temperature and texture, easy to maintain, highly stain resistant, and easy to repair. Some considerate dockwalker threw a cigarette on the swim platform and the 2" burn repair was easy and invisible. These decks always looked great (if you like the aesthetics to start with) after several years.

Professional recommendation is a must as are smooth decks. I had one vessel with a do-it-yourself owner with a not so fair surface and I was concerned that small "air pockets" seemed like a great potential problem for water being trapped against the steel deck beneath.

Judy Waldman
JW Yachts

I'd have to agree with Pascal. While I like Marindeck and have had good luck with it, it doesn't look like teak up close.

I though it was wood ....

I don't have anything to do with this product, nor the company but it caught my attention at the METS this year ....I was rather impressed and almost fooled. Caprails, rubbing rails too! Check out www.aikona.co.uk.
Just another alternative if you're interested. Seeing their product up close it the best way to judge though.

Call me picky, but this is my biggest problem with these coverings: "Aikona decking is guaranteed for 10 years for normal foot traffic when installed and maintained in accordance with the Aikona warranty and the following guidance on surface preparation, installation and maintenance." This sounds like you have maybe 5 or 6 years of a (hopefully) great looking product. Then what? For the interior it is definately great, but does anybody have long term experience with any of this stuff in an abusive (sun/salt water,etc.) situation? Has anybody restored a deck after this has been applied? I keep thinking of those fiberglass "mahogany" launches that looked so good before they had a few years in the sun and a few other products that have come out over the years. 10 years later a fiberglass deck can look brand new with a little compounding. What does it take to make this look new?

alternative woods

Why is there not more use of alternative woods? I get the feeling that ipe, the Brazilian hardwood that is often used for decking, would make a wonderful substitute. It is very attractive, rock solid hard, and would probably hold up better than teak. AND you would get the warmth and beauty of natural wood. I however, cannot speak to its cost.

Teck deck stuff

2 part cleaner one high PH that breaks down the fibers of the wood to lift the oil and stains and a low Ph to neutralize and brighten the wood
Please stay away from this stuff
Just use soap and water a citris cleaner helps(lower PH toughens the wood) with a good dose of teak oil after I usually sand with palm sander to smooth out first then wash and oil --D.L. acts as a natural bug and fungicide
This weekend on a Hatteras while rafting a friend I stumbled across a back deck with a synthetic deck under 2 feet of snow here in BC Canada
It was the only firm grip, better than the rubber mats on the sides and shurly better than the fiberglass deck on the front
I will be looking into the product and ways of installing it over and replacing existing decks on my boat
Everyone is talking about the cost. Why??
Please say away from the two step stuff unless you are selling quick and want the look
cheers Dave

The 2 part was good when decks were 1/2" or 5/8s. Today's teak is almost a veneer. I was surprised by your statement:

though. Sanding taker a lot of grain. Wouldn't you use brass wool instead?

Here is my home brew recipe for two part teak cleaner. Saves a lot of money over the store bought permix kits. And you can mix it to any strength you wish.

Just mix 1 cup TSP (trisodium phosphate, available at most hardware stores in white powder form) and 1-3 cups ammonia with 3-4 gallons of fresh water.

That is your #1.
Wet the teak and scrub with the #1. Keep teak and surrounding areas wet but do NOT wash off #1.

Mix 2-3 cups muriatic acid with 3-4 gallons fresh water. That is your #2.

Spread the #2 on to the teak and lightly scrub. The teak will go blond.
Be sure to get the #2 on all the teak that has been scrubbed with the #1.
After you have lightly scrubbed down all the teak with the #2 rinse everything off very, very well.

Since you mix this yourself you can dilute it down to any strength you wish and it costs about one tenth or less of the premixed kits.

It should go without saying you should use hand, eye and body protection when using this or any other harsh cleaner. And it should not be used to clean the teak on a regular basis.

I don´t know about the other stuff, but ammonia eats aluminium, so be careful if there is exposed alu near the teak....

Yes, just like premixed two part teak cleaners, my mix will attack aluminium anodized or not. So you must keep any exposed aluminium rinsed off with water.

Good Links for Decking material

Esthec, a composite decking material www.esthec.com

Or take a look at this pressrelease what Bolidt from the Netherlands does for superyachts and the cruise industriy with their synthetics.

http://www.bolidt.com/root_uk/pdf/persberichten/CruiseIndustrie.en.09-03-30.pdf

Hi,

A link to the company was also provided in Post No 2 of this thread.

Installation methods for the synthetic teak decking

...happened across this info on another forum, and thought there might be interest here as well....

I'm preparing for a home-craftsman-implemented replacement of a real wood teak deck (35 years old) presently screwed to fiberglass, with one of the synthetics. I have accepted the concept and general appearance of the PVC materials.

Notwithstanding the arguments among FlexiTeek, Tek-Dek, PlasTEAK and NuTeak, I'm uncertain about the installation methods they all seem to recommend, which I'll abbreviate as follows: Make templates of large portions of the deck, build panels to match these templates, glue them down as complete panels, roll and weight them, move to the next panel, etc. BUT: don't let the bedding cement beyond the edges, don't let any of it sit more than (in my hot climate) about 15 minutes before covering it with the PVC panel, don't overlap the bedding cement spreads. My personal sentiment is quite at variance with that, and better matches the methodology indicated by travesty42 in his post #36 on this thread: installation plank-by-plank.

My own major concern, despite the obvious fact that this will be a very large job, is going to be appearance and durability of the result, not efficiency. I'd like the deck condition to NOT be the reason for the next major refit of this yacht. And I'd like the next major deck problem to be long after my time.

I'd be grateful for some comments on the pitfalls of the plank-by-plank installation approach. I see the need for craftsmanship being greater using that method, with mistakes having more noticeable or more expensive consequences. I see the same problems with getting the PVC down onto the wet glue quickly, etc.; but because the panels can be kept so much smaller, I anticipate less difficulty doing so.

Any other issues or arguments? Then why are all 4 suppliers recommending the large-panel-from-a-template method? Even the real teak deck replacement advocates seem to use that method. Is it just efficiency?

Reply to Installation

I beleive that the lat technique is preferred because of the set time for the glue used. It is much easier to lay an even coat of adheasive over a reasonable area in the amount of time that is allowed for working that glue. The single plank method tends to produce inconsistant glue coverings between planks.

I cannot state to the faux teak decking, but I have applied the treadmaster product onto a deck (twice).

The first time was using the recommended epoxy glue method and it was a horrible mess. In less than a year patches had come loose and it needed ot be replaced. Getting it off was worse than putting it on.

The lessons I learned were invaluable though.

Make templates of all the areas.
Cut the material to match the template.
Mask the general outline of the area leaving plenty of room on both sides of the edge.
Mark the outline of each piece onto the masking tape and cut/remove the tape from the glue side.
Use a better glue than epoxy, I used 3M 5200 and it worked wonderfully.
Spread the glue over the entire area to be covered with a fine toothed adhesive trowel and overlap the masking tape by about 1/4".
Lay the material over the area and weight evenly (sandbags layed close upon each other and overlapping all edges).
Once the glue has dried to a firm film, use a razor to score arond the edge of the mat and pull up the masking tape to create a nice clean edge.

This is the method I used last time and none of it ever showed the least inclination to coming loose.

Decking alternatives

I've just gone through an intensive investigation of the various decking alternatives, be it Teak, plastics, carpet, etc. Firstly, let me say that my boating is in Western Australia, where it gets BL**DY HOT!! The boat is a Riviera 34 flybridge cruiser. Here's what I've come up up with 'till now:

While real teak is nice, the maintenance aspect is a turn off. I have enough maintenance to do already, and would really prefer and product that could be installed and then largely fogotten.

At one time I thought that Flexiteek, Tek-Dek, and similar products might be the answer. They look good, albeit not the same as real teak - so you have to accept that. Yes, they are expensive and installation is probably not a do-it-yourself job. BUT, after seeing the product in action on a few boats around here, I now don't like it. If the gluing is not done just right, the covering will lift and bubble in the intense heat. Once that happens, it's almost impossible to fix except to rip it up and start again. The decking also gets quite uncomfortably hot underfoot. However, it is probably a very good option where it does not get too hot and is well shaded.

Cork - a few boats around here have it and it looks pretty good. Some have white caulking, which looks dirty after a while, so black would be better. But, the black caulking lines get very hot and uncomfortable on your foot, though cork otherwise feels good underfoot. The cork itself seems to hold up quite well - and is red wine proof. An avid fisherman though says that fish guts on the deck make it as slippery as ice - so may not be a good solution for those boats.

Outdoor Carpet - the boat came with that when I bought it. I've since replaced the carpeting a few times for a relatively low cost. The downside is that it looks good for 1, maybe 2 years. After that, it begins to rapidly deteriorate and looks like crap. But, it's cheap and an easy do-it-yourself job. The only nuisnace is getting most of the old glue off each time.

The solution: Right now, I'm trying to get all the old glue off and will stay with the original moulded in non-skid finish. It's cool underfoot and can be pressure washed to get any grime out. If I can't clean the old glue off sufficiently, I have been toying with painting the deck with some sort of finish - need to look more into that one. The gelcoat has also been damaged in quite a few places, so painting is probably the only alternative. I know there would be wear issues, but repainting every few years might be pretty easy to do.