WHAT IS THE BEST NON-SKID ??

[scottwilliams]

I AM ABOUT TO PAINT MY DECK AND CABIN TOP . hAVE 2 COATS OF UNDERCOATER ON. i WANT TO GET THE NON-SKID RIGHT THE FIRST TIME I HAVE SANDED THE DECKS SMOOTH. I HAVE SOME PETTIT BRAND SKIDLESS COUMPOUND IS THIS OK OR IS THERE SOMETHING BETTER. ??

[ebb]

Also what is the best way to approach application. Has to be maintainable and kind to knees - so sand is out - and walnut shells is ugly. So if you decide on polypropolene (?) beads do ypu put it on with epoxy and paint over? or mix it in the paint?

In the 'old' days we mixed pumice (cheap!) into enamel with great success. But maybe that antislip is not aggressive enough?

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LATER EDIT: more than a decade later, but imco worth mentioning: There is a fairly new anti-skid called Kiwi-Grip. It's a waterborne acrylic
paint with no added anti-skid particles. You create the texture in its application with a special poly roller. It's thick enough to be spread on with a toothed trowel. Roller is then applied to create the texture. Tape has to be pulled immediately, and a few more bell curves to learn. I've just seen a deck job that is considered a failure. The texture roll person put it on too smooth. It is also rather expensive. BUT, I bought a gallon of Ultra-Tuff years ago, which is rolled on with rubber granules already in the paint. Glad I did, decided that the rubber paint in itself was hard to apply evenly and dry is rather nasty. Imagining removal or patching worn areas, didn't like the idea of this rubberness that can't be dealt with in a normal fashion.

Maintaining hard grits in a paint also seems daunting. So when Kiwi-Grip came along, it seems like the answer. It's a good idea. It's a hard paint, but can be dealt with, with normal tools. The guy showed me what he thought of as a failed coating -- indeed it wasn't antiskid -- because it wasn't rolled on properly. It was his job. And he can fix it by rolling another coat with more texture. So I say, not having done it yet myself. See it as a straight-forward, much simpler coating. Hopefully it works, and hopefully works long term. Water clean up.

[commanderpete]

Here is a little something from Interlux about application methods:

http://us.yachtpaint.com/usa/boat_painting_guide/bpg2001/boaters_guides/pages/p40.htm

They forgot to tell you that you have to keep mixing the paint as you apply it.

Not sure of the differences between the various non-skid compounds.

If you're painting the whole deck, the non skid areas are painted last, because its hard to tape off the finished non skid to prevent paint from running into it.