Re: Durabak any good?
I used Durabak on my deck (and up the insides of the hull) instead of the carpet that was in my boat prior to restoration. I was pretty careful about prepping the surface. I installed the Durabak over new fiberglass (on the deck) and over old, freshly ground fiberglass (sides of boat up to the gunwhales. (You can see the installation starting about post #169 in my resto thread.) I've had the Durabak in my boat for one season now; I use my boat to take day trips on the Mississippi and Illinois rivers, and it spends 2-3 weeks a year docked at a small lake in Ontario.
Installation of Durabak wasn't that bad, although it's pretty messy and if you use an accelerant to help it cure faster (or if you apply it at cooler temps than optimal) it has a pretty short pot life. You roll the stuff on with a special roller, let it cure, then recoat. There are both textured and smooth versions of Durabak, and some have UV protection (like you would need in a topcoat) and some don't have UV protection. The textured Durbak doesn't have hard grit in it, rather, the texturing comes from what feels like little bits of ground up rubber. It's very comfortable to walk or stand on, and it's not abrasive if you rub your skin against it. (It can be a bit 'sticky' if you rub skin across it, because the surface is a bit rubbery, but not to the point of causing abrasions; for toughened skin, like on your feet, it's very comfortable.)
I applied two coats of textured Durabak and one coat of smooth. This is what my deck looked like right after I applied the textured coats:
This is a close-up of the surface after adding a coat of smooth Durabak:
I liked the look and feel of it, and the surface has proven to be very skid resistant. Even with people climbing in and out of the boat for skiing, tubing, etc, the deck is never slippery. Hard goods, like coolers, tend not slide around, either.
There are some things about Durabak that I don't like, and to be honest, I'm not sure I'd go this route if I were to do it again. One problem I've noticed is that it holds dirt pretty well and is hard to clean. When we boat on the rivers, sand and silt gets tracked into the boat, and it's really hard to get it out, even with a brush and detergent. (The fine, clay-laden Mississippi silt is really bad, but the Durabak really holds dirt.) As a result, the deck often doesn't look that clean. It may be that another coat or two smooth Durabak would help, but I haven't tried yet. I may, just to see if it helps.
The Durabak hasn't been as durable as I would have liked. In a couple of places, it's worn through and you can see the fiberglass underneath. One of these places is around the ski locker opening, where the metal flange of the ski locker hatch sits on the deck:
The flange has actually cut into the Durabak. Similarly, some of the Durabak has worn/pulled off of a corner of the driver's seat pedestal base:
Finally, some types of rubber seem to bond to the Durabak surface, even after it has cured. I had a foam-type floor mat at the driver's station (for me to stand on while driving) and the foam rubber and the Durabak more or less fused together. When removing the mat, it actually pulled some of the Durabak off the decking:
Overally, Durabak was probably a bit cheaper than installing new carpet, and it was certainly less expensive than SeaDek or HydroTurf or one of these foam coverings. I don't feel that it's quite as durable and resistant to being cut as the manufacturer makes it out to be. One of the things I don't like about it at all is that, once you use Durabak, you are pretty much stuck with it. It is not coming out of the boat without a LOT of work, so this is the deck coating I will have. I am not even sure if I could use some sort of covering. I'd be worried about installing snap-in carpet over the Durbak, because carpet often has a rubber backing and I'd be afraid it would permanently bond with the Durabak like my rubber floor mat did. I might consider some foam covering like SeaDek, but I'm not sure how well the adhesive would stick to the textured surface.
I don't strongly dislike my Durabak, but I would be happier if it were a bit more durable and if it cleaned easier. If were starting over, I'd probably gel coat the deck and then apply a covering like snap-in carpeting or SeaDek or something similar.
Sorry for the long reply, but I know I couldn't find a lot of info about this when I was making my choice of flooring, and I'm hoping it can help you make a choice that will work for your boat.
Jim
