I went to Sherwin Williams with a sample piece of T&H
plywood. I heard so much about waterbase products recently, and in the past I was never impressed so I figure its time to give it a try again with the newer technology and all. I had some
acrylic brushed to about a 3" wide strip across the stripes and another 3" strip adjacent to it. Almost immediately, I came to the realization that I still was unimpressed with the 'look' of the
acrylic. The
oil based poly looked so much better that the acrylic was not even in the ballpark.
After that I drove down to a marine supply house and played dumb, which incidently, is not much of a leap for me. I asked them what the 'pros' used on
interior decks. They, meaning more than one person, told me that most of the pros in the area used several coats of marine
varnish and finished it off with a coat of acrylic finish such as Defthane for a harder surface. The logic was that the
varnish gave it the amber glow and the top coat of acrylic gave it a harder surface. This made absolutely no sense to me. The first thought that came to me is that I would make this analogous to placing a sheet of glass over a sheet of foam to make the foam harder. I think that if I were to walk on it the glass would break.
After all of this, I think I am going to just go ahead with a good
oil based poly floor finish. This will give me the amber and the protection. The only drawback is the longer drying time and I think I can live with that.
Idylles15.5
The reason I chose cabinet grade plywood was for several reasons. One - was the slightly lighter weight. My best guess is that the original boards were floor underlayment ply and these are heavy. These boards are relatively heavy and unweildy especially if my old wrinkled ass has to remove them to get to the engines in rough
weather. Two - there are no voids in good quality cabinet grade plywood and this would give me an excellent surface for epoxying the 1/4"
teak banding strips. Cost was not a factor in this decision.
I plan on painting the bottoms first with an acrylic to seal and protect the
wood while using a non flamable product. This underside surface area will also be covered with a sound proof/flame proof material. Not sure which one yet. BTW, this too will add more weight to the boards.
The edge trim is slightly proud of the surface for the added protection as you mentioned.