DIY synthetic teak decking

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amog000

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I need to replace the synthetic teak on my cockpit seats and floor. The previous owner had laid synthetic teak strips but had not made a good job of gluing them together. Water gets underneath the strips and is squirted out when you sit down - most unpleasant! I am a cheapskate so don't want to pay for custom made panels. Has anyone had any experience in making up their own panels who can give me some pointers on ease of installation and suppliers
 
As a new member and welcome to forum there is a search facility -if you put in suitable terms on say motorboat forum you will find various pictures of those who have used diy artifial teak . You could also find details of suppliers used with luck. No doubt any diy suppler will have advice on their websites. If you want to see how good fake teak can look have a look at oyster yachts website who has just fitted to one of their new deliveries. We have Flexiteak factory fitted but you might find they have a diy product .
 
amog000 said:
I need to replace the synthetic teak on my cockpit seats and floor. The previous owner had laid synthetic teak strips but had not made a good job of gluing them together. Water gets underneath the strips and is squirted out when you sit down - most unpleasant! I am a cheapskate so don't want to pay for custom made panels. Has anyone had any experience in making up their own panels who can give me some pointers on ease of installation and suppliers
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There is an article in the February 2025 PBO magazine, which came out a few days ago, on this subject
 
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I have seen the Trakmark and Iso teak websites that supply DIY systems . All the other suppliers seem only to provide custom made panels or non margined sheets. What I wanted to know was, if any members have had personal experience with Trakmark or Isoteak (or another supplie)r as they have different installation methods. Trakmark uses hot plastic welding whereas Isoteak just seem to bed the strips on a mastic.
 
amog000 said:
I need to replace the synthetic teak on my cockpit seats and floor. The previous owner had laid synthetic teak strips but had not made a good job of gluing them together. Water gets underneath the strips and is squirted out when you sit down - most unpleasant! I am a cheapskate so don't want to pay for custom made panels. Has anyone had any experience in making up their own panels who can give me some pointers on ease of installation and suppliers
Click to expand...
If you search Hurricane’s posts on the motorboat forum, you will find an excellent thread for DIY installation.
TEK DEK / Trak Mark have a DIY product range, or you can purchase their professional fit range for DIY fit
Tek-Dek - Synthetic Teak Decking

I completed my project with their prof range
 

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I am self taught and have done several boats using Dek-King. No longer available but Tek-Dek is the same. The planks are glued together using solvent cement from plumbers or the same stuff called Stelmax in small expensive tubes. The work is very easy, you just need care when measuring and cutting with vinyl snips and a Stanley knife.
A recent job on this home built boarding platform.
Lc7kBPmESAuCA6Ow8F_g4w.jpg
 
I suspect that Dek-King was used by the previous owner. The boat is a Woods catarmaran and the seats that have the synthetic teak on them are made from marine ply that has been treated with epoxy resin and covered with glass tissue and then faired with filler before being painted with a 2 pack paint. The problem is that the glued strips of synthetic teak have separated allowing water to get underneath. This is probably due to the marine ply construction being less stable than grp. I am thinking that a hot welded construction would be more able to cope with any movement of the ply.
 
Thanks. Actually water should not get under the decking as the adhesive sealant on the deck also seals the joints when laid. The adhesive between the planks is more to ease installation rather than as a waterproof seal. I use Sabatak 750 which was the one recommended by Wilks. Also epoxy coated ply shouldn't move enough to affect the decking. The deck on the bathing platform is epoxy and cloth sheathed ply.
If you are handy, you should have no problem doing it yourself and it is a very pleasing job to do!
 
OK thanks. That's interesting.. It may be that the previous owner used the wrong adhesive or didn't use enough. I will contact Tek-Dek and get some prices.
 
I used a Sikaflex type product to stick down Tredmaster to my deck and it made it quite easy to remove when the UV destroyed the Tredmaster.

The edges must be glued down very well to prevent edge lifting and water ingres
 
In contrast we had to take up a Dek-King deck to replace the ply and try as we might it would not come off the Dek-King. In fact it ripped the ply to bits and was impossible to clean off the Dek-King afterwards as we had hoped to relay it. (Being tightwads!).
The key to this job is to not to skimp on the sealant. It should be spread thickly and then rolled down to squeeze the sealant into the backing vanes of the decking.
I can certainly recommend the Sabatak 750.
With regard to the name on the bathing platform, this was done by printing out the name full size on the 'puter and sticking the paper to the piece of decking and then cutting it out using the scroll saw. It was finally filled with blue silicone sealant. Bit of a faff' but not difficult.
 
I recently used Tek-Dek to recover the bench seats in my cockpit. Their customer service was excellent, they pre-cut everything to my (quite rough) templates and fitting was much quicker and less messy than I feared. A thumbs up from me.
Bench seats.jpg
 
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