Painting non-skid

[MarkSF]

What are people using to paint the non-skid surfaces? I looked at what's on there now, it looks like ordinary matt/semi-matt exterior paint, and it's worked fine.

Do you really have to use the fancy non-skid deck paint?

I like the idea of ordinary exterior paint as it's available in 1500 colours, rather than the 4 that Pettit make! If I go with Pettit et al I can forget matching what I have, so I'd have to do the whole boat. If I can get a good match, I can do just the cockpit.

[Faster]

We've gotten a good 3-4 years service on our cockpit sole with Interdeck, a premixed nonskid. Went on easy, looked good and has good grip. We were less impressed with Awlgrip with Griptex on a previous boat, but that might have been due to our (my) amateur application.

Plenty of people raving about kiwigrip (do a web search for more info)

Other traditional methods include simply adding sand or walnut shell to paint, or using thickened paint and a roller that 'pulls' the material into a pattern (can be effective but almost too coarse/rough - hard on skin and clothing). Some of these methods can be difficult to get a consistent appearance.

[peterchech]

Are you talking about removing the non-skid then painting on new non-skid, or simply painting over the existing non-skid?

[MarkSF]

Originally Posted by peterchech

Are you talking about removing the non-skid then painting on new non-skid, or simply painting over the existing non-skid?

Painting over the existing, which seems to be a pattern formed in the fibreglass, that has then been painted over with ordinary paint.

[SloopJonB]

Originally Posted by MarkSF

Painting over the existing, which seems to be a pattern formed in the fibreglass, that has then been painted over with ordinary paint.

I've used Sikkens Anti slip deck paint twice with very good results. It can be diifficult to get - last time the local Sikkens people didn't even know about it - I had to get it shipped from an Ontario retailer.

It goes on thin & flat, no trouble with it puckering, roller dragging or anything like that. It has a very fine abrasive or particulate in it that stays in suspension well and gives a very grippy surface with no visible texture. It is thin enough that I rolled it over a fairly bold nonskid with a thin foam roller and had no trouble with the paint reaching the bottom of the pattern.

AFAIK it only comes in 4 colours - white, grey, beige & blue. The grey is too dark for my taste - very "battleship". I used 3 parts white & 1 part grey which gave a nice pale dove grey - enough to cut glare and show definition in the non-skid panels but almost identical to the white gloss areas from any distance. Its texture is fine enough that it doesn't hurt to kneel on it, even bare legged but it will "sand through" jeans if you spend a lot of time kneeling on it - rebedding hardware etc. I have NEVER slipped on it.

I can highly recommend it.

[MarkSF]

Thanks for the info, for some reason it hadn't occurred to me to mix two colours to get the one I want! But that's exactly the shade I want, a very light grey.