Paint.. go premium, or go cheap ?

[Fr J Hackett]

You could do worse than look at the videos this guy did in painting his deck, here is the first, there are others following and previous ones dealing with building a new deck and preparation. He's a perfectionist and obsessive but the work is exemplary. His later ones have got a bit more along the lines of look what wizzy techie electrical gizmos I have installed.

 

[Kelpie]

Another vote for SML 2 pack- I used their own 'Lustre' rather than Jotun- it's night and day compared to something like Toplac. The only downsides are the slightly higher cost and the need to mix it, which makes touching up more fiddly. Somebody should start selling it in twin-syringe packs (like Araldite), they'd definitely get my business!

2 pack is only an option if you're painting over a clean, paint free, surface, but if you are removing all the old paint anyway I would definitely go with it.

 

[StefanSG]

You could do worse than look at the videos this guy did in painting his deck,

Good old Mads ! Inspiring dedication and the perfectionism !

 

[Airscrew]

+1 for SML.
Excellent antifoul at great price.
Even better, their tech support line give real and valuable advice.
Much of their 'own brand' goes to yacht brand paint at retail outlets with a massive uplift.
And its the same paint.

Despite that, for our deck, I used B&Q masonry paint with a bit of added/stirred texture for grip, and colour tinted to our needs.
Why get more complicated, and why pay more??

 

[Neeves]

Coincidentally

Refinishing Your Boat's Non-skid Deck - Practical Sailor

Jonathan

 

[lustyd]

Painting with a 2 pack is a summer task

Not so. In summer decks are WAY too hot to properly apply outside. This is best left for autumn when there’s shade but not too much dew.

Things I like about Masonry paint :

1. Price .

Only cheap if you have cheap oilies. The sandtex eats oilies fast so would cost me more in clothing than if I hired a pro to paint with proper paint.


Don’t go for white on decks. It’s too reflective and you’ll blind yourself. My AWB Jeanneau from 1999 officially has a grey deck, it’s subtle but necessary. If you go for painted decks you’re in for painting every two years, go single pack and repaint before the sun gets at it too badly.

 

[lustyd]

You could do worse than look at the videos this guy did in painting his deck

More useful to see two years down the line. Uma did what I’d consider an excellent job on theirs and in their recent pattern videos showed the paint flaking due to UV damage. I had similar experience so now advise never to paint a boat until it’s the only option and to do so knowing it’s a regular job from then on. Moreover it’s one the next owner will curse you and your children for!

 

[andsarkit]

SML. Jotun 2 pack every time
With the right rollers and brushes and additives from them too , why not ?

+1, I used Jotun Hardtop AX which is not at all expensive. I only needed 5l. If you are saving pennies you can get exactly the same rollers from Toolststion for a little less.rollers
You will find that the mesh sanding disks last a lot longer and will be cheaper in the end.
I got a Lidl orbital sander with the intention of wearing it out and getting it replaced under their 3 year warranty. It was still fine at the end and I didn't manage to break it.

 

[Blueboatman]

+1, I used Jotun Hardtop AX which is not at all expensive. I only needed 5l. If you are saving pennies you can get exactly the same rollers from Toolststion for a little less.rollers
You will find that the mesh sanding disks last a lot longer and will be cheaper in the end.
I got a Lidl orbital sander with the intention of wearing it out and getting it replaced under their 3 year warranty. It was still fine at the end and I didn't manage to break it.

Sounds perfect to me ?
Lidl seem to definitely have an eye for the sweet spot on tools ( and 20v batteries ?)



I just don’t hear a really bad word about them.

And as we know , boats and boatyards = ultimate testing!

 

[Refueler]

Not so. In summer decks are WAY too hot to properly apply outside. This is best left for autumn when there’s shade but not too much dew.

Only cheap if you have cheap oilies. The sandtex eats oilies fast so would cost me more in clothing than if I hired a pro to paint with proper paint.

I quoted Sandtex - because that's what YBW used as test at that Boat Show ..... I used it once when Iived in UK.
Since moving to Baltic - I use a plain flat Masonry Paint that is less harsh .... and I g'tee will not hurt your Oilies ..... but still gives good non-slip.

Don’t go for white on decks. It’s too reflective and you’ll blind yourself. My AWB Jeanneau from 1999 officially has a grey deck, it’s subtle but necessary. If you go for painted decks you’re in for painting every two years, go single pack and repaint before the sun gets at it too badly.

My post about that ships deck ....

 

[Boathook]

Only cheap if you have cheap oilies. The sandtex eats oilies fast so would cost me more in clothing than if I hired a pro to paint with proper paint.

Never had a problem with my oilies or bare feet on decks painted with textured masonry paint. Lasts around 5 years and is jet washed possibly twice a year as I keep forgetting to scrub decks clean ......

 

[Refueler]

Never had a problem with my oilies or bare feet on decks painted with textured masonry paint. Lasts around 5 years and is jet washed possibly twice a year as I keep forgetting to scrub decks clean ......

Thank you ......

There are different grades of masonry paint with smooth through to highly abrasive. Sandtex in usual form people use on a house does have 'sharper grit' .... but the smoother types have very fine addition that is not abrasive.

 

[oldharry]

"all in a pretty rough state with bodged repairs, crappy old paint bodge, which I hope to smooth over, "

Unless you plan to spend an inordinate amount of time in preparation, like getting ALL the old paint off. forget using two packs. Any previous one part coat will ensure your expensive and time consuming 2 pot will lift in double quick time! End of!

Go 100% with those advocating use of Sandtex type acrylics: Easy to apply, durable, and will go over pretty well anything, and stay there. But avoid the cheap DIY supermarket own brands, watered down rubbish which wears through in no time in the high traffic areas, or if you have to scrub at all hard to get seagull and cormorant droppings off the deck. You will quickly go through the cheapo brand paint. Also the cheap ones tend to fade quickly, and look dirty.

SO much depends on the finish you want: its virtually impossible to get a 50 yo deck back to boat show finish in any reasonable amount of time. My last boat was 60, and although I could get her looking spick and span, she was always what we called a '10 foot boat' i.e one that looked really fine, until you got within 10 feet. I managed to upgrade mine to a 5 footer with quite a lot of hard work, but at her age, she was never going to be perfect!

So for a 10 foot finish, cheap and cheerful will do quite well, but still avoid the low price own brand DIY supermarket rubbish. Even domestic Dulux Weathershield with its '10 year guarantee' , Best bet I found was to go for 'Trade' grade domestic one coat paints. Only marginally more expensive, but MUCH more durable! I once painted an elderly GRP hull with Trade Weathershield to smarten it up a bit. Careful preparation meant that 8 years later it was still looking almost as good as the day I did it! It was dark blue, a colour notorious for fading and chalking , but this looked as though it had only been done the previous winter!

Equally I tried a DIY cheap grade Weathershield thinking to save money.... disaster! Couldn't get a decent finish to start with, and needed doing again by the middle of the second season. The cheap gloss paints are generally far too soft for boat use, and mark or scratch very easily; even coming alongside a bit hard with the with the inflatable dinghy left a lasting impression.... Also they dont flow so well, so that its harder/impossible to get a decent finish, even using a roller. In fact brushing was easier, because the cheapest paint flashes off before it has flowed properly, even in ideal painting conditions, and rolling it on leaves an ugly 'orange peel' effect, a bit like 70's woodchip wallpaper!

 

[geem]

"all in a pretty rough state with bodged repairs, crappy old paint bodge, which I hope to smooth over, "

Unless you plan to spend an inordinate amount of time in preparation, like getting ALL the old paint off. forget using two packs. Any previous one part coat will ensure your expensive and time consuming 2 pot will lift in double quick time! End of!

Go 100% with those advocating use of Sandtex type acrylics: Easy to apply, durable, and will go over pretty well anything, and stay there. But avoid the cheap DIY supermarket own brands, watered down rubbish which wears through in no time in the high traffic areas, or if you have to scrub at all hard to get seagull and cormorant droppings off the deck. You will quickly go through the cheapo brand paint. Also the cheap ones tend to fade quickly, and look dirty.

SO much depends on the finish you want: its virtually impossible to get a 50 yo deck back to boat show finish in any reasonable amount of time. My last boat was 60, and although I could get her looking spick and span, she was always what we called a '10 foot boat' i.e one that looked really fine, until you got within 10 feet. I managed to upgrade mine to a 5 footer with quite a lot of hard work, but at her age, she was never going to be perfect!

So for a 10 foot finish, cheap and cheerful will do quite well, but still avoid the low price own brand DIY supermarket rubbish. Even domestic Dulux Weathershield with its '10 year guarantee' , Best bet I found was to go for 'Trade' grade domestic one coat paints. Only marginally more expensive, but MUCH more durable! I once painted an elderly GRP hull with Trade Weathershield to smarten it up a bit. Careful preparation meant that 8 years later it was still looking almost as good as the day I did it! It was dark blue, a colour notorious for fading and chalking , but this looked as though it had only been done the previous winter!

Equally I tried a DIY cheap grade Weathershield thinking to save money.... disaster! Couldn't get a decent finish to start with, and needed doing again by the middle of the second season. The cheap gloss paints are generally far too soft for boat use, and mark or scratch very easily; even coming alongside a bit hard with the with the inflatable dinghy left a lasting impression.... Also they dont flow so well, so that its harder/impossible to get a decent finish, even using a roller. In fact brushing was easier, because the cheapest paint flashes off before it has flowed properly, even in ideal painting conditions, and rolling it on leaves an ugly 'orange peel' effect, a bit like 70's woodchip wallpaper!

I don't agree with this. We removed a too aggressive non slip deck completely using 40 grit flap sanders on a grinder. Was a big job to remove all that grit that was set in epoxy. We then filled and faired. Filled and faired. We then used Awlgrip two pack paint and their none slip additive. The deck looks perfect. Boat is 42 yrs old.
The non slip was applied to a depth onto wet paint and allowed to cure. Vacuum off excess then three coats of Awlgrip to seal the deck. After 12 months of hard constant live aboard use there is no noticeable wear on the deck.
How good a finish is entirely dependent on how good you want it to look, how much money you want to spend and how long you want it to last. We went for the best possible finish with no expense spared it cost a lot of money to do it right but it looks perfect

 

[oldharry]

Thats rather my point isnt it Geem? Good for you doing all that work on an older boat. But many of us would consider it more thyan the bat is worth. Liveaboard is a different ball game anyway. For the rest oif us who have to travel maybe quitea distance to our boats to work on them, a schedule like that is going to take a lot of sailing time. If OP wants to get a really tough decent finish then what you describe is the way to go, but if he is happy to settle for a '10 ft boat' he can save a lot of time, effort, and money.

He talks about 'smoothing over' a poor paint job. The only real rememdy is the work you undertook, stripping right back, then careful application of a long term solution, but is that what OP means by just 'smoothing over'?

 

[StefanSG]

He talks about 'smoothing over' a poor paint job. The only real rememdy is the work you undertook, stripping right back, then careful application of a long term solution, but is that what OP means by just 'smoothing over'?

Hi oldharry, OP here, I'm just talking about what painting does, don't want to bodge as the previous owner did, blobs of resin everywhere over chips in gelcoat that they didnt even bother sanding back, and then slapping paint over everything. Ive been at it 18 months and dont want to mess the finish up and want a hardwearing long lasting job. I like your analogy, a 10 foot boat is fine, but im ready to do the prep, and spend the money if it will give me more sailing time before having to do it all again...

 

[The Q]

Painting with a 2 pack is a summer task - you do not have much of summer left. . Once the temperatures cool you need to wait till the dew has evaporated and this curtails the length of your working day. Painting is also a 2 person task - one to lay down the paint, one to tip off.

You need to be well organised.

Jonathan

No way. I've just been outside, and the grass is sodden with dew, and if it's the same as yesterday, in the shelter from the sun it will remain so for most of the day, 28C here yesterday. Very humid all day.
A hot or even warm summer's day means you are rushing to keep a wet edge.
Me I'd choose spring or Autumn, just make sure forecast temperature should reach 15C plus.
Start early.
Dry off and clean surface of boat and get painting.
Finish by lunch time ish, surface will be dry enough by evening to not be affected by overnight temperature changes or weather.