Tuesday, July 26, 2022

Refinishing the Non-Skid on deck

Refinishing the Non-skid deck surface.

The Non-skid on deck of Eximius is crying to get refinished and it's time.

Sometimes, things become a lot easier when I take the time to write out the details of the job, and that's why I'm writing this post. Of course, it might help others and that's a benefit. if you would rather read about some of our cruising antics then skip this one, but if you need to refinish your boat deck, it may be worth the read.

Port side Anchor Locker Cover

Stbd midships deck


After discussing the project with the guys from Catalina Yachts, I concluded that the following is a process I can handle.

As the non-skid is a diamond embossed surface and the masking tape will not affix so neatly, I anticipate that it will be easier to refinish the areas outside of the Flat Grey and Grey Non-Skid first and then refinish the Grey flat and Non-skid areas second.

Get the materials.

  • 3M 233+ High Performance Masking Tape
  • 3M 2090 Scotch Blue Painter's Tape
  • TotalBoat Dewaxer & Surface Prep.
  • Awlgrip Polyester Urethane Topcoat Base Quart
  • Awlgrip Awlcat #3 Topcoat Brush Converter
  • Awlgrip Flattening agent
  • Scotch Green Pad Scouring pads.
  • Paper towels - lots of them.
The epoxy paints:


The 545 Epoxy Primer will be used where necessary. I could only find it in 1 gallon cans and coverage should require about 1.5 Quarts, I'm sure I'll find a use for it elsewhere on the boat.






Refinishing the regular (flat) areas of the deck.

This is probably the difficult part of this project. I'm leaving the hardware on the deck in place but making sure that it's well masked off and any chips or hairline cracks repaired as necessary. 


Step 2: Prep the Deck

The non-skid on the deck could be original, it's a diamond pattern however, the finish is badly worn due to frequent foot traffic, in some areas there appears to be roller marks. ie. Swaths of the surface color about the width of a paint roller are obvious. In other areas, the surface is actually worn away - particularly, the tops of the Anchor Locker Covers. On those covers, the underlying fiberglass strands can be seen. The good news is that the covers are solid fiberglass so there's no risk of damage below the fiberglass. The rest of the deck is in great shape, it's just that the non-skid surface is worn away.

I spoke (online chat) with guys from Jamestowndistributors.com and they were very helpful, they even had a guy that had done a technical course with Alwgrip, so my confidence in their help was high. Matthew sent me a link to the document that covers the Alwgrip application process if very granular details. (link to manual

The preparation sounds pretty simple but the manual indicates that there's a few tests that should be done to ensure really good adhesion. (It's on Page 17), so I'll be doing that test on the worst part of the deck. I expect the job will require priming, hence the addition of the Primer to the list of materials.

  • Mask off the area to be processed.
  • scrub the area to be painted with the Scotch Green Pad Scouring Pads, it's a lot of work. 
  • Apply Alwgrip Primer.
  • Apply 2 coats of Alwgrip Paint with flattening agent ( prevents glossy finish)
The good news is that the deck can be processed in clearly defined areas, so it does not have to be completed in a single step. I'll break it down into 13 areas. 6 Port Side, 6 Stbd Side and the Center panel above the cabin access cover. The 6 areas are listed below. Each area is demarked with a plain finish strip between the Non-skid areas. All of the Non-skid areas have edges of the same color but plain finish.
    1. Anchor Locker Cover
    2. Foredeck 
    3. Mid deck 
    4. Aft Deck 
    5. Cabin Top
Ok, so all the products are in and I have the plan, but have to wait till it's cooler, so plan is to do this sometime after September. So stay tuned :)

So, the weather seems to be cooling down to below the mid 90ºF and I should be able to start this project. Plan is to bring half of the anchor locker cover home and practice in the Garage - why risk overheating at the boat, a week or two and it should be much cooler.
The paint has sat in the garage for quite a while, so I'll have to give it all a really good shake up.

I called Jamestown Distributors and they confirmed that the products should be ok even after two years but are only warranted for 12 months.

I brought the Port side Anchor Locker Lid home and followed the plan: Came out great. Issues? Yes, the brushes can only be used once. So I purchased half a dozen 2" brushes after the 1st natural bristle ( twice the price ) was useless after one coat of primer.

Oh! Always needing paint stirrers, I found if I cut the metal and bristles off of the dead brushes, they handles make really good paint stirrers for quart cans! 

I did buy some can 'Spouts' but they really didn't fit the quart cans very well so I used painters tape to create a pour spout that was really easy to clean up.

Priming and painting took 5 coats and mixing small quantities really doesn't work very well but when I work on the main deck areas then I expect the mixed quantity to be more cost effective.


This photo shows the two Anchor Locker lids reinstalled after 2 coats of primer and 3 coats of top coat.

The difference is remarkable! There is no indication of the damaged surface whereas the deck area immediately aft of the lids clearly show the damage.

Click on the image to zoom in.

Update on the areas to be worked on.
Each side has 6 defined areas that should be able to be processed using about the same quantity of primer and topcoat as I used for the anchor locker lids - that's because I could not mix a very small amount and get the ratios correct and the lid undersides were also refinished.  

I have a quart of primer, a quart of primer converter so that's a half gallon of primer mix.
Also a quart of topcoat base and a pint of topcoat converter, a quart of topcoat flattening agent. That's over a half gallon of top coat.

I also have a quart of brush reducer which is mixed at about 20% for both the primer and topcoat.

So I'm pretty confident that I'll have enough to finish the job.

I have a bunch of sewing jobs coming up over the next few weeks so the deck finish will be on hold till at least the 2nd week of December. ( Boat is going into the yard for a bottom paint -- etc. the first week of December. )








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