Teak Salon and Aft Deck Floor cover - Varnish?

[Vincentc]

I have ordered tongue and groove teak (real wood 2 2/4" wide face, 1/2 thick) to cover the salon on our 43 DC. Any recommendations on what to use to finish the flooring. I like the look of varnish but am concerned about scratches. Would a hard urethane be more scratch resistant?

Also wondering about what kind of finish to use on the teak to be used on the aft deck. I am also going to use the same teak material to cover the aft deck, but instead of attaching the teak to the FG deck I am going to create "mat sections" each roughly 6x6 which will allow the flooring to be removed if necessary, kind of like the rug I now have but in 4 sections. Sooner or later I may need to address the aft deck coring and do not want to put anything permanent down.

The T&G planks will be held together with beads of flexible sealant / caulk running down each groove. Also, I am going to glue a synthetic woven material to to the underside of the teak mat sections which will allow some air circulation between the teak and the fiberglass, provide a little cushion and help hold the planks together. The aft deck is covered by the hardtop and sort of protected by the side curtains but water does get in there pretty often. Any thoughts / experience with how to finish teak decking in this setting?

Thanks

[SKYCHENEY]

Brian recommended clear Awlgrip for my floor. I haven't got around to it yet, but I think that is the way I'll go when I refinish.

[GJH]

On our aft deck, we used Epifanes Wood Gloss when refinishing the teak and holly floor area a year and a half ago and it has held up very well to the elements and traffic. We also used it on the custom wood staircase to the flying bridge. It is slick though, one might consider putting a very light dusting of fine glass bead anti skid into the mix.

On the interior, their two part poly-urethane gloss is recommended.

http://www.epifanes.com/eproducts.htm

[chris]

I have ordered tongue and groove teak (real wood 2 2/4" wide face, 1/2 thick) to cover the salon on our 43 DC. Any recommendations on what to use to finish the flooring. I like the look of varnish but am concerned about scratches. Would a hard urethane be more scratch resistant?

Also wondering about what kind of finish to use on the teak to be used on the aft deck. I am also going to use the same teak material to cover the aft deck, but instead of attaching the teak to the FG deck I am going to create "mat sections" each roughly 6x6 which will allow the flooring to be removed if necessary, kind of like the rug I now have but in 4 sections. Sooner or later I may need to address the aft deck coring and do not want to put anything permanent down.

The T&G planks will be held together with beads of flexible sealant / caulk running down each groove. Also, I am going to glue a synthetic woven material to to the underside of the teak mat sections which will allow some air circulation between the teak and the fiberglass, provide a little cushion and help hold the planks together. The aft deck is covered by the hardtop and sort of protected by the side curtains but water does get in there pretty often. Any thoughts / experience with how to finish teak decking in this setting?

Thanks
I like the 2 part Epifanes. I used it on mine 3 yrs ago and still looks like new.
Chris

[TopHattandTails]

How timely a question! I just laid out a new teak frame that will have a "wall to wall" carpet installed inside the teak frame - making a nice 8" drip channel along the aft and two bulkheads in the aft salon. I have the teak all routed and ready to lay, but want to match the new frame to the existing afromosia teak paneling along the walls. I would like to put a high gloss top coat. Any ideas on the color / product to use for the base stain and then the top coats? Sky - the carpet is a white wool. DON"T put that in your aft! The reason I'm putting the teak drip frame in, is to be able to cut out the water stained (now brown) wool carpet, where water got and in ran through the drains. My aft is hard enclosed, but water still entered (like the first time I forgot to close the wing doors in active seas). Wool is great - but once it gets wet - its stained for good. Need the stain and varnish judges to speak up! First coat goes on tomorrow...

[GJH]

See my post; my aft deck is set up just like yours. I have some sort of high quality all weather carpet in the middle. I'll try to dig up some pix in a bit.

[Canuck Dennis]

Our 43 dc has parquet in the saloon and no matter how hard you try, scratches are going to happen, specially when that centre hatch is up and the tools are all laid out on a nice protecting pad to protect the floor...you can guess....good luck with it, I'm sure it will look like a million bucks when done...hard to beat real wood well finished. We have been using a lot of Bristol Finish on our boat in Vancouver on selected test spots, and it is great stuff, I would think even better in protected areas, and is easy to overcoat if scratched or damaged, no blending required, worth investigating...

[SKYCHENEY]

I used Bristol on my parquet but it still got scratched up from the dog. I would rather get rid of the dog, but I think the Admiral would rather get rid of me than that dog. So......the dog stays, but the floor needs something harder and more resistant to scratching. This is where the clear Awlgrip recommendation came in. Hopefully that will do the trick.

[Vincentc]

Thanks,
2 part poly sound like a good choice for the interior. I've read that 2 part finishes hold up well but are a problem to strip if that need ever arises.
I let my handrails go too long and will have to strip them, however, that is conventional varnish. Don't think the salon should have that problem... the aft deck might be another matter.

[Angela]

I used Ultimate Sole where I have some interior teak flooring. Not a scratch or any signs of wear in over three years, other than something that fell off the wall when we went "outside" and left a dent.

[Vincentc]

Angela,
Ultimate sole sounds good and I found their web site but cannot find where to buy it. Can you let me know where to purchase?
Thanks

[Angela]

I thought I had bought it directly from Ultimate Sole. And could have been - it was about 3 or more years ago. Maybe they changed their retail structure and don't sell it directly anymore.

Over the weekend, I'll try to dig up my receipt and see where I got it. Don't hesitate to prod me with reminders via posts, PMs or email (or all of those methods)! I've got a lot of projects going on and I may forget! I've got a couple of canvas projects to do for Pascal this weekend and may forget to look for the receipt. But I do have every single receipt for every penny I've ever spent on this boat.

[GJH]

"Top Hatt": here is what my set up looks like:

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_93kGAIj1p_I/S5lbG1gfSXI/AAAAAAAAA3o/miaiu87IiEk/s720/DSC_0416.JPG

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_93kGAIj1p_I/S5lbFLNATjI/AAAAAAAAA3g/J4K8lHDSIOY/s720/DSC_0414.JPG

Those two areas take a lot of abuse as the aft EZ2CY panel is usually open and we are on and off the swim platform frequently; we keep the Whaler "docked" there, so that dodger board panel is also usually off, and the wing doors are usually open and get a bunch of traffic. (We are on the boat full time).

[TopHattandTails]

George - looks great! I'm only putting a 6" wide channel around the far edges of the port, aft, stbd areas. It will be (brand new, fresh non-skid) and then a teak border of 1, 1" thick teak board as the border. The carpet then lays inside. Our aft salon has plexiglass sides, corners, back, and aft door with very little traffic. The rear wing doors are almost never open, unless I open them to see if the still work. We used to have the carpet edge to edge all the way around. If I could figure out how to attached pics - I'd put a few up. I think we are going to go with a plain gloss varnish on the teak - no stain. That way it will match the rest of the teak paneling in the interior under the windows (where you have dodger board, I have teak paneling). Love the teak floor up to the border though. Nice touch.

[Angela]

Vincent, I found my records and in 2007, I did purchase the collection of Ultimate Sole products I needed diectly from Ultimate Sole's website. Now, when you try to see the product on their website, it comes back with the "no matching product found" message. I have to wonder if they've gone out of buinsess or whether they are having unresolved website issues. I sent a message through the "contact us" link. You might want do do the same. I'll let you know what their response is if I get one.

[GJH]

Why not just go with widely proven, well supported and readily available products like Awl Grip or Epifanes?

[George]

Brian recommended clear Awlgrip for my floor. I haven't got around to it yet, but I think that is the way I'll go when I refinish.

Awlbrite is used by a lot of the custom boat builders for the 1st five or so coats of finish on the brite work. on top of that then put on the Bristol or your favorite finish. figure every few years, put a fresh coat on

[egaito]

Wow...I'll miss Ultimate Sole. It was, in it's day, considered the best on interior wear surfaces. It was popular with sailors for it's wet traction and durability properties. Power Boat Reports even loved it as I recall. Last I looked/heard, they were working on a UV stabilized product for outdoor use. It wasn't ready, so we went with Bristol. As Ang mentioned, the line appears to be completely missing from their web site....a shame.

[Vincentc]

Angela,
I went through the same process, got on the web site, could not pull up the product and sent them an email.

Makes sense to consider Awlgrip or Epiphanes. However, I looked Awlgrip up on Jamestown and the product information indicates I would need about 2 gallons to put down the recommended 10 coats on the salon and aft deck. I was impressed with the cost, $425 for a 224 ounce kit which might not be enough. 2 gallons of Epiphanes was over $600.

Robby advised me about BLP Paints Mothane clear polyuthane Stock no 63AF-1 Industral and marine coating at $225 for a 5 gallon pail. Since it will be a while before we put down the flooring I am going to look into BLP.

Thanks all for the comments.

[GJH]

10 coats / 2 gallons sounds way high. You should give Epifanes a call, they are in Maine. http://www.epifanes.com/home.htm

[Vincentc]

George,
I agree, but 10 coat is what the product info states and it also states coverage as 93 sq ft per gallon at the recommended coverage. The salon is about 100 sf and the aft deck a little more.
Thanks for the Epiphanes contact.

[rrrestorer]

They are probably talking about ten coats of sprayed on finish. You are probably going to roll or brush on. The efficiancy of brushing or rolling is pretty much 100% material on the product, whereas spraying you will put on maybe 65% with a high quality low pressure high volume gun, and using an old siphen gun your transfer is more like 35%.
There is a big differance between spraying and brushing, make sure your talking apples to apples.
Also be carefull about differant brands as some of this stuff comes thick and some is like water, mostly the cheaper brands are watery. They can vary the amount of solids in the material and it seams cheaper, but doesn't cover worth a damn. Also some brands are much harder than others. Another thing is to always use a system, one brand, and do not mix reducers and hardners from differant brands, regardless of what the salesman, or your pocketbook says. These are high tech paints and need to be mixed in pretty much as the book says proportions, otherwise you may wind up with an expensive mess, and urethanes don't clean up real easy if you screw up.
The reason good shops use the expensive brands is not because they can charge you more for them , but because they don't have any problems with them ,and can guarantee thair finished product, our motto and most quality shops has always been "no redos".

[stormchaser]

I used Ultimate Sole where I have some interior teak flooring. Not a scratch or any signs of wear in over three years, other than something that fell off the wall when we went "outside" and left a dent.


Another vote for Ultimate Sole. INCRERDIBLE stuff. And the nice thing is you can even walk in your SOCKS and not slip. It was designed for use on sailboat soles and to be anti-slip even when wet or healed over. Fantastic stuff, too bad you cant use it outside on things like rails or swim platforms (no UV protection in it).