Alternative Teak Decking system

    I have had a lot of questions and comments on my earlier posting about installing a teak deck, it seems that many readers are either thinking about or have already had a go at installing a teak deck to their boats.

    The photo above is from Tek-Dek a synthetic teak decking system that I have seen in the past. Although I have never actually laid any large panels of this stuff myself I have seen a demonstration and it looks impressive. From more than five or six feet away this stuff looks very much like real teak. I remember seeing this stuff laid on an Edey and Duff Sakonnet 23 and I remember actually asking the guy on the booth how they managed to bend teak to such a degree at the stern where it came together in the king plank. It was only when he grinned and asked me to look closer that I saw it was not teak at all but this flexible alternative.

    When I did the decking on Mallard I did look very carefully at Tek-Dek but by my calculations I it came out to almost double the price of doing it with wood. Part of my thinking at the time was that i had the machinery to convert the lumber myself, I had the epoxy resin and all the other requirements so I would not have spend money on either converting the raw timber to deck planking nor would I have to buy adhesive. Also some of the other areas on the boat such as the cockpit area and so on was already done with teak and I wanted to make sure that with time all would match.

    Having said all that this does look like a good product and worth investigating, the website is well laid out, has an estimator and very clear step by step instructions for doing the work yourself, so providing you are reasonably competent, take your time and follow the instructions it should look great and I might well install it on my next build myself.

    A slightly different product can also be used on interiors too, here's the freshly completed interior of a power boat which looks good, the only thing jarring to my mind however is that I personally like to see margin boards around all the opening hatches and engine access panels. This involves more work but looks better, to my eye at any rate.

Comments

[Rich Merne]

Ever heard of a system called deckit or dekit? Any comments on same

[Mark]

I can't say that I have ever heard of either. The only synthetic products I have used have been Flexiteek (sic) and the products by teak decking systems.