(Repost of my post at Freedom Owners’ Group)
I used Skid-No-More (West Marine & Defender carry it). Single part,
acrylic based. Smells like latex house paint.
I didn’t tint it, but I will “next time”…to a lighter color than
the “wet cement gray” that it comes in. The gray is great for glare,
but hard on bare feet in tropical summer sun in South Texas.
Likewise, it has ground up black rubber particles which do shed in
much the same way that ashphalt driveways “shed rocks”
Great from a non-skid perspective, wet or dry, and I get lots of
compliments on how good it looks.
I didn’t roll it, instead I applied it with chip brushes
by “dragging” it with the brush laid almost flat. The first coat got
very little coverage, and I didn’t attempt to avoid “brush marks”,
but it built up the “altitude” to give me something to “fill to” with
subsequent coat applied (the same way) at a 90 degree angle to the
original. The first coat was “across the boat”, the second “the long
way”.
The ONLY peeling I got was what was inadequately cured when I pulled
the double-layered masking tape immediately after applying the second
coat. Touch up was easy & un-noticeable.
I mixed it with the HEAVY paint-stir sticks and poured it into a
roller tray to apply it, stirring and boxing regularly.
Preparation is key. My original non-skid had been overcoated and was
chalking badly. I used a serious solvent and lots of paper towels to
get it back down to the “factory beige” color (which had “worn
through” in many places prior to the first overcoat.
I wouldn’t call it “very tough”…if you “drag your feet”, you have
the sensation that you’re abrading the surface. Probably, you are.
The alternative is that you’ll be “sandpapering” your feet and
knees…one or the other is gonna give.
I clean it with a hose, a deck brush & bucket of water with West
Marine deck soap slopped in. It gets a lot dirtier than it LOOKS like
it is, judging from the filth that washes out of it (with the soap,
but doesn’t just “rinse out” with the hose), but cleans up nicely and
looks good dirty (unlike the adjacent white gelcoat). No stains
evident from anything (including my blood, bird poop, or burn marks
from cigarettes (see next paragraph).
I’m in a marina with a parking lot and a Joe’s Crab Shack almost
immediately adjacent. Lots of dust & dirt & sand (and cigarette
butts) find their way onto the deck. Why do people stand at the edge
of the water and flick their cigarette butts onto boats floating two
slips away? Penis envy, I guess, but it happens ALL the time.
Conclusion: Hard to screw up the installation when “doing it
yourself”, reasonable endurance (4 years later), I won’t have to
remove it to bring it back to “new”…I’ll just (rolling this time,
since I don’t need more thickness) overcoat what’s there with the
same thing in a lighter color. Cost…CHEAP in comparison to paying
somebody multi-megabucks for an alternative.
