Re-painting over non-slip deck paint

[Breizh]

Well, it looks like we won't be buying a Folk boat after all. The ones we've found are just too badly restored/finished and would take way to long to rectify… We just want to sail, not spend so much time restoring/re-fitting a botched job already completed. We have found, purely by accident, a loverly Westerly GK24 which ticks all the boxes for us just starting out. As we are really only learning we want to get some practice in for a couple of seasons, then we'll have a better idea of what we really want, and should have saved enough to buy it, hopefully. Many thanks for the advise regarding timber boats, much appreciated.

The GK24 does still require some TLC to get her right, but nothing major, mostly cosmetic, but no doubt we will find things that will require fixing!. So finally coming to the reason for this post, how best to repaint the deck with non-slip paint. It already has been painted with non-slip a few times by the look of it, it has flakes which need to be removed. It is grey in colour, and we would like to have it white instead. Can we just remove the loose paint, sand and then over paint with the new white paint? Obviously it would be cleaned down first & dried off, but is there anything else that would require doing? We are thinking of using International Interdeck.

Thanks in advance,

Breizh

 

[Breizh]

Picture of the deck with old paint and flakes, pitted paint…

 

[Seajet]

It depends how wonderful a finish you want; in a perfect world I suppose it should be stripped and sanded completely before painting, while some people would be content to just remove the loose stuff.

 

[Poignard]

That looks like my deck. The only real solution is to strip the old paint off and start again. A lousy job and hard work because the grit in the deck paint rapidly blunts scrapers.

The other day I had to strip deck paint off a hatch top that had been epoxy coated and sheathed with coarse scrim cloth. After scraping away for ages with little to show for it I decided to try some Nitromors stripper on 'an inconspicuous area'.

This worked brilliantly and I was able to easily get every trace of deck paint out of the weave of the scrim cloth, using a green Scotchbrite pad and an old toothbrush. It didn't harm the epoxy in any way, although I took care to rinse it off well afterwards.

I haven't yet tried it on a polyester resin deck though. Maybe someone else here has and can say whether it's safe.

The only problem is that Nitromors is hellish expensive and using it would probably cost at least £100 to strip the entire deck of my 28-footer.

ps Question for VicS. What's in Nitromors? Is it practicable to make your own?

 

[Seajet]

Unless they've stopped making it there used to be a version of Nitromors safe to use on grp, think it had a yellow rather than green top; there's also Dilunet grp safe stripper though I find it rather feeble.

I wouldn't use ' normal ' Nitromors on grp.

 

[Poignard]

Unless they've stopped making it there used to be a version of Nitromors safe to use on grp, think it had a yellow rather than green top; there's also Dilunet grp safe stripper though I find it rather feeble.

I wouldn't use ' normal ' Nitromors on grp.

I used the type of Nitromors that's in a green tin. But, as I said, that was on epoxy. I'm a bit wary of trying it on polyester resin but as the deck is going to be repainted anyway, it probably won't matter if it only causes slight damage.

 

[Breizh]

I was afraid I'd get get back these answers! Why do people use grey paint on a white deck??? I have to say I'm not looking forward to stripping off the old paint, there's a lot of it, the previous owner must have got a job lot cheap!!!

 

[VicS]

It might be a question of trying various paint strippers to see what works best.

Nitromors no longer contains dichloromethane (aka methylene chloride) so is now safe to use on GRP but how effective the new formulations are I dont know.

One I would definitely try is Owatrol Marine Strip ( previously known as Dilunett) which is caustic soda based.

A solution of caustic soda thickened with wallpaper paste should make an inexpensive substitute for Dilunett / Marine Strp.

Care and appropriate protective clothing obviously needed when handling and using caustic soda based mixtures.

I have in the back of my mind something about one of the common deck paints being a chlorinated rubber, at one time in the past if not now. Chlorinated rubber is fairly resistant to chemical attack so if that has been used it might be difficult to remove with a chemical paint stripper.
It is unlikely that a 2 part polyurethane has been used on the deck but that is highly resistant to chemical attack as well

 

[ripvan1]

I was afraid I'd get get back these answers! Why do people use grey paint on a white deck??? I have to say I'm not looking forward to stripping off the old paint, there's a lot of it, the previous owner must have got a job lot cheap!!!

I've just painted my white deck with a grey deckpaint , as I do on any white boat I acquire - reason can't stand the glare and secondly white shows up all dirt whereas grey, cream etc is more forgiving. I'd personally just fair in the flaking bits by sanding and slap on some new - sandtex textured is a cheap alternative available in many colours and then get out sailing.

 

[wooslehunter]

Be careful what you get into. My deck's like that in places & I'm slowly getting it right. It's hard work.

There are lots of layers of deck paint on my boat & one was applied badly. So, it's peeling in places. Some places it's solid too. So, I can easily get some areas clean leaving the older good layers. On some areas however, where the bond is good, the only option is to remove the whole stack of layers. So the result is, I have to remove the lot if I want to have a reasonable finish.

I've tried hand scraping with a tungston scraper & also power sanding with a very coarse disk. The best way I found is a power scraper I got from Axminster tools. The scrapers themselves need sharpening regularly because of the grit in the paint.

I would not recommend using any chemicals. Some will attack the polyester & those that don't still leave a noxious mess to clean up.

Painting new is easy with a reasonable masking tape & a roller.

 

[VicS]

I would not recommend using any chemicals. Some will attack the polyester

Given that paint strippers containing dichloromethane are no longer available ( except maybe to commercial users) what chemicals in paint strippers are likely to attack polyester resin.

 

[sailorbaz]

One I would definitely try is Owatrol Marine Strip ( previously known as Dilunett) which is caustic soda based.

A solution of caustic soda thickened with wallpaper paste should make an inexpensive substitute for Dilunett / Marine Strp.

Care and appropriate protective clothing obviously needed when handling and using caustic soda based mixtures.

If you use anything with caustic soda in, be very careful if there is any Aluminium around - it will eat it in no time!
Sailorbaz

 

[reeac]

I repainted our Sadler 29 deck about 8-9 years ago using Interdeck and it's still good. I used white but blended in a bit of blue [can't remember what make of paint] to reduce the glare.

 

[contessaman]

Why do people use grey paint on a white deck???!!!

for a very good reason. on a sunny day you will be blinded by light reflected off white paint. A moulded GRP deck with a moulded non slip pattern in the gelcoat is fine as it doesnt reflect that much. But even with a matt finish and the non slip granules in it you will find that white paint reflects too much and dazzles you. light grey or off white makes all the difference and still wont get too hot to walk on barefoot.

not sure about your GK but most boats had a pattern in the gelcoat from new. if the deck is lightly made (they always are) over the years the gelcoat flexes and cracks and looks awful so somebody has painted it to keep it neat and cover repairs and filler. You might strip it all off only to find you need to repaint it. Its a huge job to strip it and if you did I would suggest taking the opportunity to replace it with 2 pack paint as this is much more durable. (you can't put this over the existing 1 pack paint)

If you have bought the GK at a modest price to learn to sail on, my advice to you is to do the bare minimum and get sailing. get a sharp scraper and remove the loose flakes. give it a quick sand with some high quality coarse aluminium oxide paper, and then just slap some more light grey deck paint on and use the boat. It goes on pretty thick so you'll be surprised how many of the undulations get hidden anyway. Dont spend more than a day on it. a 750 ml tin should do your GK.

good choice of boat to start with by the way. its a conservative 1/4 tonner which will give you a good feel for things. the lack of headroom will drive you to something bigger in a few years anyway so dont spend a lot of time and money on it.

enjoy!!

 

[Breizh]

Many thanks for the information & advice folks, very helpful indeed! I think we'll be following the advice of removing the flakes, sanding and re-painting over the top, and go sailing. Not sure about using grey again though, it just looks too much like my garage floor!

I have to say though, this site is truly helpful with friendly, patient members, thanks again!

Breizh

 

[lpdsn]

for a very good reason. on a sunny day you will be blinded by light reflected off white paint...

and at night with wet decks it is very handy to be able to see exactly where the non-slip patches are.

I agree with the OP though that the grey Interdeck is a bit too much. I used white with half a tin of grey mixed in to get a shade I preferred.

 

[JumbleDuck]

Given that paint strippers containing dichloromethane are no longer available ( except maybe to commercial users) what chemicals in paint strippers are likely to attack polyester resin.

Rustin's Strypit used to contain dichloromethane and say explicitly that it could be used on GRP. Perhaps that indicates braver lawyers rather than better chemists. I used it on a GRP job and found no problem as long as it was removed promptly and not allowed to pool on the GRP, in which case you got local softening of the gel coat which reversed after the stripper was removed. All a bit stressful, though, and now I use Removall for GRP.

 

[bert49uk]

last winter i removed all deck paint on my Westerly Fulmar as they were flaking with an electric scraper but used tungston blades. . wasnt looking forward to the job but did it in now time

 

[contessaman]

Not sure about using grey again though, it just looks too much like my garage floor!

Breizh

agree re: looks of grey. I think light blue looks nice **HOWEVER** if you change the colour then it will notice loads when bits flake off. If you keep it similar it will not. Im fortunate to have had a boat with gelcoat decks for a while now so im a little out of touch but if my memory serves me correctly the international grey was too dark and looked nasty, I used a blakes light grey which was very light grey indeed- looked good. I think its called hempel now and with that brand you buy the tin of smooth deck paint and a tub of granules that give it the non slip texture. You could even mix your own shade of grey if you liked before adding the granules.

a tip -make sure you stir in the granules for about 10 times longer than you think you need too - this is particularly important if you go for a light colour deck paint. if they're not mixed in super well you will get patches on your deck that have much more granules than opthers and these patches will look much darker than the rest. Learn from my mistakes on that one! me and the wife spent hours doing it and it was only when we stepped back to look at the finished job that we noticed. It was at that point that I vowed that I would never buy another boat that had paint on it (above the waterline) again! (so theres another tip when the time comes for you to move up!).

happy sailing! its been a while since I have been, but you have some of the best cruising grounds going in southern ireland. dont forget to pop over to wales when your ready!

contessaman

 

[Poignard]

I think light blue looks nice **HOWEVER** if you change the colour then it will notice loads when bits flake off. If you keep it similar it will not.

It would be nice if one could keep the same deck paint colour BUT when the fatheads at International Paints decide to withdraw the Light Blue Interdeck you (and many other of their customers) have used for years, you have no choice but to change colour!

http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthrea...y-well-leave-things-alone&highlight=interdeck