TEK-DEK - just started laying it...

[Guest]

...this weekend, and I have to say, it's the bollocks. I was going to have someone do it for me, but the labour quote was a bit steep, so I thought I'd have a go myself.

Very easy to lay, you just need a brain, stanley knife, plasters, steel straight edge, mastic gun, sandpaper and a lot of weights. Andy (the guy who invented the stuff) uses lead ingots to hold the edges down while the glue sets, but I'm using bricks.

Got two more areas to do, but I'll post a link to some photos next weekend. Meantime, the URL for the TekDek people is www.southernocean.net. They'll be at SIBS, FWIW.

 

[trev]

I hope you're 'being cautious' with that stanley knife ! and getting your edges nice and square !.
Looking forward to your 'report' on the finished result - what sort of area have you covered and what's it like around curves ?
Do you run a strip around the border and then fill in ?
Please let us know the full story. I was going to do my boat cockpit and bathing platform in teak, but this sounds cheaper, easier, and more durable.
Cheers.

Trev

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

Graham, I'm thinking of laying teak decking on my aft deck and this sounds an interesting alternative
How does it compare on cost to buy?
What sort of labour cost are we talking about?
How does it look compared to the real stuff?
How does it resist stains eg red wine?
Can it be cleaned with normal boat cleaning stuff?

 

[Guest]

I was indeed taught to be cautious, as I trust you were. To answer the various questions...

1) 6.3 sq metres cost me around £700 inc VAT, including all the adhesive, edging stuff and a couple of tubes of Sikaflex. I don't know how this compares to teak, but I understand that you would bee talking thousands for teak.

2) Labour costs. I was quoted a couple of grand to lay this (this included digging out the existing teak from the bathing platform, and sorting out any horrors that may lurk below it), but decided to do it myself.

3) Well I reckon it looks almost identical. You can tell the difference when comparing teak and Tek Dek side by side, but on a boat with only Tek Dek... Wait for the piccies, or look at the Southern Ocean site.

4) Stains. It's PVC. Red wine just runs off, or you wash it with washing up liquid. If you make a real mess, you sand it down with 40 grit sandpaper, just like teak.

5) Area. I covered about 1.5 sq m on the first go. It took me around 4 hours, including all the buggering about deciding where to start. The next day, I caulked it in around 30 minutes.

6) Corners. Two options here: you can heat the stuff up with a heat gun, and bend it to fit, or you can stick two or more pieces of the uncaulked stuff together, and cut out your curves like real teak (so the grain doesn't go round the corner).

7) Yes, the edges get cut first, then the planking to fill in. Pile it all up somewhere, and spread the glue, put down the edges, then the middle. Weight everything down and leave it. Next day, use a straight edge to trim the 5mm gap between the ends of the planks and the edge strip, then caulk it.

G

 

[Guest]

Hmm, I'm unconvinced, or at least I was before your gushing praise, so I will have to check it out at sbs.

Only drawback is y'know, resale.... It's got teak decks and 2X diesels. Oooh teak. Well, not real teak, PVC teak. Hmm, are the engines real, or are they plastic too?

But anyway, if looks fab, who cares?

The real teak, if in open sun, can be a bugger in the med, friend with new azimut spraying water in aft cockpit ooh owch so hot on the feet. The plyood type much easier on the feet, thinner. Wonder what this is like?

 

[Guest]

Yeah , well. Did your Targa 48 have Fairline's delightful cockpit carpets, or was that teak? If you had the carpets, you'd realise that broken glass would be an improvement underfoot!

I take your point, but most of the Targas I looked at shagged out carpets, and looked awful. But then again, we're only in the baby Targa, so you wouldn't necessarily expect to find real teak ( I know they do it as a factory option, but I've only ever seen it on a boat show model...)

Wait and see, I guess - I'll put up plenty of piccies, so make your own mind up.

BTW the Tek Dek man says they're now fitting it on some super yachts as decking in the 'sports' area, since it doesn't mark like teak does if you drop dumbells on it.

But I expect you wouldn't have an exercise area on the Leopard, as they probably provide someone to keep fit for you...

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

Try superheated treadmaster (yes, we did have a 9 day summer in the UK) for that broken glass foot massage effect hence my interest in Tek-Dek

 

[Guest]

ooh owch raw nerves all round. I'm certainly not paying for anyone to keep fit, becos yorkshire types are too skinflinty, as opposed to those profigate scots who can afford a coloured flag: nice white roses much cheaper.

Anyway. I hope I wasnae being horrid abt the teak, just abt the possibly woodist (?) attitude at resale.

The T48 has pretend teak. Well, it's teak, but 2mm thick as the outer sking of plywood. Like the cherry is cherry as the outer skin of plywood too. Spose indoors it makes sense. Outside, the swim platform gets a beating from the sun and another beating from anyone cleaning it scrub jif jif scrub i'll do this bit and leave the rest then it'll look good from the quayside.

Marking teak, don't tell me. Spraying water all over before fuelling, and argh the stupid git egr put a can of oil down here, even suntan oil is sucked up and looks a mess. No crisps on a teak-decked boat. Hmm. Praps plastic engines wd be quieter too and much lighter?

 

[Guest]

No offense taken - it's a valid point. I'd probably think twice about doing it on a bigger boat, but the T29 is 'entry level' and prospective buyers are unlikely to suffer from woodist attitudes.

I suspect once we all get over our woodist prejudices, we'll find PVC's a bloody site more practical.

Why are you worrying about vacuuming carpets, BTW? Can't you just insist on having a maid fitted?

 

[Guest]

Re: TEK-DEK + carpet

Twill look rather decent on T29, which are a bit too WHITE. Older t36 (and prob other no-teak targas too) suffer from this too, so you are right, and I'm wrong. Nice slab in the cockpit, maybe poss on swimplatform, all excellent, and you can have red wine too. Wd suggest at frist don't get carried away all up the sides like daft sunseeker cos that will be naff. Incidentally, you are def doing the right thing , cos realteak warps unless v old: saw this on a 96 sealine, screwd bit lumps of engine hatch, which would not close cos of warped teak.

Teakishness much easier than white to not bother cleaning, cos looks fab even a bit grimy. But I'm unsure of the acreages of near-teak on that 48 sealine. Mind you I am unsure of that anyway with the moving swim platform- won't it seize up one day?

The indoor carpet issue. It's not the hoovering it, it's that it gets a bit grimy, noticeable by the fact that some bits (stairs and swivel spot) get hammered whereas under the table is nice and clean. Repalcement the only poss for newish look. Wet salty feet don't help. So, indoor wood it'll be. If total ballsup (either of us) I'll meet you at Allied Rubbish, who sell boat-sized lumps of carpet for less than turf, a handy idea for the garden praps?

 

[Guest]

Re: TEK-DEK + carpet

White gel decks would be a bit much, I agree. In my case F'line had fitted their spectacular outdoor cockpit carpet, which appears to be woven from wire wool. It started a out a nice dark blue, but gradually disintegrated into blue powder which clogged the cockpit drains, leaving an unpleasant black mesh with green rubber lumps on the bottom where the carpet used to be.

The Tek Dek's only going where the carpet was, plus on the swim platform and the little step to starboard where you get up onto the side deck. Will probably replace the cabin carpet with, erm, carpet, since it's a little faded where the feet go, and pristine under the table...

Or I may turf it, of course...

 

[jfm]

Re: Don\'t do foredeck, but query the cost

Agree you must go careful and not do sidedecks. Even worse the foredeck - the Windy range is sold by Express cruisers in Lymington and apparently they come into the UK from Norway wiv no teak decks, then Berthon add teak decks for the UK market (ie the 3mm teak on plywood panels, like fairline et al). Anyway, becuase of this customers can choose extra if they want. One has just been delivered, a 30foot targa style model, pontoon A of Berthon, with teak everywhere, including side decks all the way to the pulpit and a massive triangular piece on the whole foredeck. Looks like a roller skating arena. Yuk!! No, stick to just the cockpit and swim platform.

Graham I was surprised about cost. We're in process of doing teak flybridge on Fairline phantom 42, to replace the wire wool carpet. A firm is making the 3mm teak-on-plywood panel, including making a template in plywood, with all nice curvy edged bits and black caulking just like the rest of the boat, for £1000. The labour of having it glued on, caulked, and a reweld of one stainless handrail bit is then £500. Looking at your posting I'm not sure this is much different from your TEK-DEK stuff, which seems to need much more labour??? Also the firm we are using is one of the two OE suppliers to Fairline and they have loads of templates already made up for Fairlines.

JFM

 

[Guest]

Re: Don\'t do foredeck, but query the cost

I've also seen the photos of the Bavaria range, complete with teak side decks and I think they look crap, too.

Interested in the cost argument. The labour quote I had was horrendous, which is why I am DIYing it, but I thought £700 was not bad for all the materials for 6.5 sq metres of decking. How big's the area you're doing? I suspect amy number of people would be interested in the details of your supplier...

 

[dancrane]

Have any of you gents any words of encouragement or warning about Tek-Dek, with the benefit of retrospect?

 

[madabouttheboat]

Have any of you gents any words of encouragement or warning about Tek-Dek, with the benefit of retrospect?

This post is over 20 years old. Not one of the previous participants are still active on here. Perhaps start a new post.

 

[dancrane]

Cripes, you're right.
Pity, that'd be valuable insight.

 

[Rafiki]

OK I will give you said words of encouragement. I used Tek Dek to replace what I would call "flat treadmaster" on my cockpit seats over last spring. I templated the four panels with a type of commercial tracing paper, sent it to the Tek Dek people who made up the panels. I chose "margined panels" which look so much nicer than panels without margins. Removing the old treadmaster with a vibrating multi tool type thingy from screwfix was a bit time consuming but not too difficult. Next stage making good any dings I made getting the old stuff off and removing screws that were showing through from underneath. Gluing it down with the adhesives, spreaders and roller provided was not difficult, but I waited for warmer weather. Plenty of weights required for circa 15 hours. Result -- really really good. In fact it makes the surrounding parts look so poor I'm likely to do the tops of the sides of the cockpit next.
One criticism I read was that the stuff gets very hot in the sun, well I didn't notice that even during the summer we had in the UK. Certainly no hotter than treadmaster or polyester fibreglass decks, maybe hotter to the touch than real teak, but that wasn't my baseline.

 

[harvey38]

We had them template, make and fit this to our upper helm, they are coming back later this month to fit the ring deck. Easy on the eye, easy under foot and so easy to look after.

Pretty sure they will be commissioned to do the coach roof at a later date too.

 

[Greg2]

We have done the deck in the wheelhouse section of our saloon and the internal steps with Flexiteek and are very happy with it. We have previously researched Tek-Dek and similar products for a similar project on a previous boat and I even went to the lengths of testing how spills might affect it using the likes of red wine and cooking oil. All were pretty good and there wasn’t much between them as I recall.

The only problem I have ever come across is larger panels coming un-stuck over time so I guess that good installation is key.
.

 

[harvey38]

We have done the deck in the wheelhouse section of our saloon and the internal steps with Flexiteek and are very happy with it. We have previously researched Tek-Dek and similar products for a similar project on a previous boat and I even went to the lengths of testing how spills might affect it using the likes of red wine and cooking oil. All were pretty good and there wasn’t much between them as I recall.

The only problem I have ever come across is larger panels coming un-stuck over time so I guess that good installation is key.
.

For the extra money spent on Tek Dek installing it, they then provide a 5 year warranty which is peace of mind, well, for five years anyway......