floor coating

Hey guys new to the site but love it. Im redoing my first boat its a 1981 smoker craft 14ft. im planning on installing casting decks in the front and rear but i want to coat the floors with somthing good. what do you guys think about the truck bed coating with kevlar? or is there somthing better to use. I know about steelflex but is that good for indide the boat?

What is the purpose for the coating?

Pretty much just for appearance I don't think I have any leaks ill find out tomorrow. It will be my first time takin the boat out.

Most people cover them in carpet. After i get a coat of resin on my deck i am gonna use carpet. But i have seen them with truck bed coating before. Im still debating if i want to do carpet on my boat floor or truck bed lining

I used this and it has worked great. Easy to clean and apply and pretty cheap.

That stuff looks pretty good. Do I have to strip the floor all the way to bare aluminum before applying?

im spraying mine with tuff coat tonight i have done a lil bit of it so far i like it almost like line x but not as expensive!

If it's just for appearance, I'd just rattle can it with the color of your choice. I used Tuff Coat, and like it alot, but I wouldn't use it on the floor of the boat then put decks above it unless budget wasn't a consideration. It will add some sound deadening to the hull.

jamrozy said:

That stuff looks pretty good. Do I have to strip the floor all the way to bare aluminum before applying?

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No. I just scuffed my floor with some 220 grit sandpaper and wiped the sanding dust. Brushed on and let dry. Been going strong for 2 years, and none of it has come up.

yea money is an issue so im not gonna deck it for a little while so i think i might go with the tough coat. do i get it at like lowes or somthing? it definatly needs somthing it has an ugly tan color inside.

yea i mean evercoat the skid no more stuff. how expensive is the tough coat? price may decide for me

If money is an issue you may not want to do Line-X with kevlar. I had one done and it was not cheap, but I believe it was worth it. I can tell you the worst part is the prep if carpet is all ready down. You have to get all the glue up before you have it sprayed. Most places you can call and they will tell you how much they charge a sq/ft. and you can figure how much it will be from that. I do not remember how much per sq/ft. it was but they said I had close to 650 sq/ft. to spray and the total was around 1000. I have heard of guys using other stuff and doing it their selves. Some have had good results and some not, but I believe it is more because of the prep not being done right. If you are going to do it, take the time to do a good prep job. Here are some pics of mine with Line-X.

jamrozy said:

yea i mean evercoat the skid no more stuff. how expensive is the tough coat? price may decide for me

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i bought the long bed kit off ebay more than enough to coat a 14' v hull, was about 170 bucks but that was primer, coating and spray gun, goes on nice cleans up better, if you where to go this route call them direct dont order from e bay i had a hell of a time getting ahold of anyone, but it wll be 2nd and 3rd coats tonight then carpet for the decks, and the old lady says im done for now... so a new fish finder is outta the question, oh well what she dont know wont hurt her...lol

Thanks for all the info guys.

I think the skid no more was about $40 a gallon. I did my front deck and the back seat and still have about a quart left. My front deck is 6' long.

cool at 40 bucks a gallon im definatly gonna check into it thanks.

I just looked into the Skid No More. Ace hardware has it on their website for $20/gallon, good source if you have an Ace nearby. I'm going to give that stuff a try in the project I'm about to start.

Nevermind...its $20 for the quart....sorry. Though that sounded cheap, still $40 a gallon is a good deal.

I have painted the deck of many boats I have worked on over the years. I have worked professionally on many scuba diving boats and have painted decks probably over 20 times this way: We always painted with a roller and would then sprinkle large grit sand on the wet paint and then roll over it again. Then sometimes we would repeat the process two or sometimes three times and you get a nice non-skid deck. We determined the thickness of the skid depending on the traffic in that area of the boat. Some of the pre made non skid paints are very similar. Some use crushed walnut shells for their non skid. I plan on doing the sand method when I pick up a boat of my own.