Most effective way to fair a deck?

[Norado]

Hey!

Looking for advice on how to fair the deck on my 34' sailboat without wasting too much time.

I have removed the old teak, recored well over half the deck, glassed over, faired with epoxy + low density filler and orbital sander. With a plethora of different colors on the deck (fairing compound, gelcoat, fiberglass and mix of all) I decided to give it a coat of white international interprotect to better assess the situation visually.

If I was to cover the deck with synthetic teak as I'd originally planned I could probably have called it by now as it is pretty neat and fair. For primarily financial reasons I've decided to paint the deck non skid instead, but I want it too look immaculate.

It's a pretty tedious job I have in front of me and I thus want to be as efficient as possible. How should I go about this? Still crank the orbital sander? Make myself a large fairing board? Is it faster to spread on excessively or do several sparse spreads and sand less?

[Copacabana]

Well, you've gotten through the worst part of the job already with the teak removal and recoring ... after that everything will feel like a birthday present.

Depending on the non-skid you use, you may not even have to fair the deck, except perhaps where you leave some smooth white paint between the non-skid panels.

You don't mention where you are located, but if you can get Kiwi-grip I think you'll be happy with the results over the unfaired deck (I wish I could get it here in Brazil!). I'm about to re-do my decks as well and will use some industrial non-skid paint for loading ramps and factory floors over my unfaired decks.

[waterman480]

Stay away from the grinder, unless you have some very high spots. Use Fart Rock sanding blocks.

[Bleemus]

Long board!

[44'cruisingcat]

Non skid hides a lot of imperfections!

[Gary Mc]

If you use Kiwi Grip it covers up many imperfections. It is easy to apply and looks great and is an effective non skid.
However it is somewhat soft and wears over time. You can however apply new over old it that gets to be a problem.

Good Luck

[Roy M]

Another option to the orbital sander or longboard is to rent a pneumatic tool used by auto body shops, a brand I'm familiar with is called a Rodac. Get a bunch of 36 grit paper and a good dust mask and Tyvek coverall, along with a powerful compressor. This will quickly take down the high spots and get you to a point where your high build primer will fill the lows. It doesn't have to be perfect because the non-skid, as others have noted, will mask a lot. But you don't want any low spots to collect water. Then figure out where you want your "waterways", the shiny strips between nonskid. These should be made fair because they are glossy, helping to bleed off moisture on the deck. Paint the trim and wateways first, then mask over a portion of the glossy sections to define the nonskid sectors. Then start installing the nonskid. It goes pretty quickly.

[Roy M]

Here are some pics of how I masked off the waterways and "sanded" the nonskid

[Lepke]

Belt sander if you don't want to be at it for days.

[chris95040]

Originally Posted by Lepke

Belt sander if you don't want to be at it for days.

I dunno about that.

[foufou]

Not all belt sanders do a suitable job. I have two and one makes surface flat, the other leaves small waves. Be careful. The auto body linear sanders mentioned above are designed for fairing

[Elie]

I've used Kiwigrip for the decks of my son's 30ft ssailbaot, with very good results. You need to be very carefull with your deck at the begining of usage: It takes a long time(let say weeks) to acquire its final toughness, but once completely cured, it is perfect. I used a paint roller with fairly short naps for the application: much better looks.
You said that you rejected the idea of synthetic teak decks, for economic reason. What was the product chosen?, An idea of its price?. I'm thinking of covering my own deck with this type of product.

[Cyrus Safdari]

Linear sanders require a pretty big compressor. In the end, there's nothing to replace a sanding block or torture board and sweat. You only need to fair the smooth areas, the nonskid will hide the rest.

Teak decks add weight and are hot underfoot, as well as a pain to install. Why?

[minaret]

Use a mud hog if you have lots of air. If you don't, make a hard pad sander. This is done by taking a standard 8" soft pad and tracing it onto door skin. Then cut out the door skin and use a high quality spray adhesive (hi strength 90 or better) to bond it to the soft pad. Be careful, it's a dangerous tool and will edge gouge. If you sand too aggressively and get it real hot, the adhesive will melt and you will sling the door skin disc like a frisbee through the side of your shed! It's a moderately hairy tool but will rough fair a deck faster than just about anything. JMHO.

[Norado]

Originally Posted by minaret

This is done by taking a standard 8" soft pad and tracing it onto door skin. Then cut out the door skin and use a high quality spray adhesive (JMHO.

I'm not familiar with door soon, googled it, kinda like thin plywood?

I have trashed one of the velcro pads for my orbital sander, I guess I could epoxy a piece of plywood onto it, or even sheet metal?