We have a 2006 16' cruiser, and the ceiling, walls, and deck are very bumpy and striated. I don't care about the ceiling and walls, but it would be nice to flatten out the deck by screeding some product in, in at least the aft bilge area for easy cleaning, but without raising the height of the deck so that water is impeded from flowing to the bilge, and something that's paintable. Anyone have product suggestions for doing this? thanks!
Leveling the deck on a 16"
- Thread starter zuunami
- Start date
I was thinking maybe just a couple of layers of elastomeric paint, we could then do the sides and ceiling as well, and add some insulation by doing so. Not sure that would do it though, just trying to get rid of all of the small divots that collect dirt, without making the deck slippery
I am not sure what you are wanting, but many of us have used "dry Deck" these lock together are flat, and can allow water to flow under. Also American Floor Mat, Pool vinyl loop mat is flat, allows any material to flow to the bilge and is easy on the feet. These raise the floor by about 1/2" to 5/8".
Here is an assortment of American Floor mat material like dri deck.. You can link to other products there.
If you want to 'Paint" out the floor--you can sand, then paint with a deck paint and add some non skid to the paint. I usually used glass micro beads. Sand or ground walnut shells are too abrasive . You don't want any boat deck to be slippery. Some folks have sprayed or rolled in truck bed liner. There are deck paints which have non skid which is very rough--and I suspect you may want to avoid that.
In some C Dorys the floor non skid is thickened gel coat (using Cabosil) which leaves peaks and valleys and can be hard to clean..My guess is that is what you may have.
So there are all sorts of ways to treat the cockpit floor
Here is an assortment of American Floor mat material like dri deck.. You can link to other products there.
If you want to 'Paint" out the floor--you can sand, then paint with a deck paint and add some non skid to the paint. I usually used glass micro beads. Sand or ground walnut shells are too abrasive . You don't want any boat deck to be slippery. Some folks have sprayed or rolled in truck bed liner. There are deck paints which have non skid which is very rough--and I suspect you may want to avoid that.
In some C Dorys the floor non skid is thickened gel coat (using Cabosil) which leaves peaks and valleys and can be hard to clean..My guess is that is what you may have.
So there are all sorts of ways to treat the cockpit floor
zuunami":3jpi6n43 said:We have dri deck that we are going to lay down, but I'm wanting to do away with the majority of the "peaks and valleys" underneath as well for cleaning. I'll take a look at deck paint, maybe with enough coats it will even out a bit
Just curious, what are you looking at for altitude, and depth of those "peaks and valleys"? The standard interior of the C-Dorys are like a heave orange peal texture, and there is nothing close to 1/8th inch, Most likely about 1/16th. IF you are looking at more than that, it may be left overs from some FG-ed modifications that were there and are gone now. If that is the case, a belt sander might take out the lumps and humps, then it would need to be sealed and fine sanded, or paint with some mild texture.
Harvey
SleepyC :moon
Now that I look more closely, it's not all that bumpy, maybe 1/8 inch, but that 1/8 holds a lot of dirt. Maybe just a good coat of deck paint will even things out enough. I looked at both Kiwi and Awlgrip, mostly good reviews, but a lot of people said it was very hard to clean and/or didn't adhere well. I like the flat look of the current paint, maybe I should just use some good latex flat, and call it good until it needs to be repainted Here's a pic - excuse the hair
Here's a pic - excuse the hair 
What you are seeing in the photo is 24 Oz woven roving with a minimal of gel coat over it. That is part of the structure of the boat--so don't sand it down! You can lay in any number of products or you can give a good deep cleaning periodically. Best to just lay down the Dri-Dek.
zuunami":3rkvqkgs said:
It might be possible, but the issue is getting the area between the groves in the woven roving, will be very difficult--plus getting gelcoat to stick and cure well will also be difficult. It would have to be thick enough to trowel on--and then you would have to fair it (done all of the time on custom boats outside of hull, but first Laying down an epoxy primer, then comparable tie coat. I would not do that.
Media blasting-glass micro beads would get it clean and enough tooth--but that gets expensive and difficult to do.
Heck you could lay fake teak/vinyl planking, real teak, etc--but is it worth that?
Do like most-put either a mat or the Dry-Dek. Then love your boat.
zuunami":jumqm5uu said:I'm resigned the peaks and valleys, but I'd really like to get rid of the ugly beige
Any good deck paint will do. I happen to like either a light gray or a sand color--not too bright.
I would use a pressure washer, after soaking it with a solution of bleach and dawn soap (You can also use something like "Simple Green", if you want to be more environmental friendly--in any case make sure the boat is rinsed out and dry. You also want the temperature to be at least in the 60's..
A two part paint will last much better, especially if put on over an epoxy primer base. I have successfully used Awlgrip. But that is complicated in its application. I might even consider a two part epoxy garage floor paint IF the boat's cockpit will be covered much of the time. Many of the epoxies will degrade in the UV light. The best are going to be two part polyurethane paints. Also one to consider is Durabak, similar to a bed liner--can be touched up easily and in many colors. I know of a boater who used it many years ago over his leaking teak decks and it held up well. Here is a link
On the other hand there are a number of very good single part paints--you may just have to paint it over in a few years. I have no experience with water based paints in this type of application, so cannot advise it they would be acceptable.
After much research, we decided to do TotalBoats Bilge paint, in the bilge area, mostly because they had other colors of deck paint that we could do a final finish with to make the whole deck one color. But the TotalBoats deck color was just a bit too yellow, so we went with Rustoleum oyster white for the rest of the deck, and just used the bilge coat under the splashwell. Hopefully, we can run a final coat of the Rustoleum over the bilge coat.
The hard part has been keeping everything warm enough as it cures, but so far both are doing good, and I'm impressed with the hardness of the bilge coat (if you keep it warm,and wait a week or so between coatings). In this pic, the color of the deck paint looks a little off, and it looks whiter on the floor than around the sides, but it doesn't in person And the beige will finally be gone when we can do the middle section
The hard part has been keeping everything warm enough as it cures, but so far both are doing good, and I'm impressed with the hardness of the bilge coat (if you keep it warm,and wait a week or so between coatings). In this pic, the color of the deck paint looks a little off, and it looks whiter on the floor than around the sides, but it doesn't in person
And the beige will finally be gone when we can do the middle section