Treadmaster decking has been around for many years and although not that well known on this side of the pond many boats in Europe were shipped from the factory with the diamond pattern decking applied. Although undoubtedly a good product it does have something of an industrial look to it, tough and hard wearing we even had it on the lifeboat that I used to crew on. Recently however the factory has started to bring out other products which are somewhat more suitable for the recreational market, one of which is called TKC. The picture above gives some idea of what the product looks like and as I write this I have a sample on my desk in front of me and I does look very good and close to the freshly laid teak appearance. It is about and eighth of an inch thick and has to be glued down to the deck with a two part epoxy which Treadmaster supply with the panels and if it is anything like the stuff that they have been using up till now once it is down it is down for life. Having tried to get up some 25 year old treadmaster up I know that this is strong stuff indeed. Panels are available in standard sizes with the seams 45 mm apart which will suit most boats although custom panels can be made from a customer supplied template and the seams which are routed in with a CNC machine can be placed anywhere so swept decks, margin boards and so on can be integrated into the design which you can just make out on the hatch lids in the picture.
There has been so much interest in teak decking on the On Board site that I am thinking that a comparison between real teak and all the different brands currently available may be in order, ease of laying, durability, cost and appearance. Let me know what you think
Comments
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.