Nautolex vinyl on a new fiberglass deck.

[tallcanadian]

I am rebuilding my '78 Gypsy and am thinking about going the nautolex route. It looks nice and should last years. My question is how level does the deck have to be? Does it need to be sanded smooth? Has anyone installed this stuff? It's this or snap in carpet, one of the two. And yes, I know the carpet deal will bring up opinions not to use it. LOL. I like carpet myself. Any input is appreciated.

 

[tallcanadian]

Re: Nautolex vinyl on a new fiberglass deck.

I hope no one minds but I thought I would bump this up to see if anyone has any insight on this stuff. It looks awesome but I'm not sure about how smooth the deck has to be....

 

[jsimms724]

Re: Nautolex vinyl on a new fiberglass deck.

Nautalex shows every bump and crack, in a spot that gets a lot of wear it will make a hole

 

[jigngrub]

Re: Nautolex vinyl on a new fiberglass deck.

Nautalex shows every bump and crack, in a spot that gets a lot of wear it will make a hole

Actually it doesn't, I was pleasantly surprised to find this out when I installed mine.

The pebble grain finish hides more than you think it would, but you do need to do prep work like filling cracks and holes, and sanding. You do want your deck to be fairly flat, smooth, and free of voids.

If you put it over a deck job that looks like caca-doody, it'll look like caca-doody wrapped in vinyl when you're done.

 

[jsimms724]

Re: Nautolex vinyl on a new fiberglass deck.

It never smalls like dead fish or mildew

 

[JimS123]

Re: Nautolex vinyl on a new fiberglass deck.

Slight depressions will even out when you put the adhesive on. Rolling non-even surfaces won't even show because of the texture of the vinyl. All you need to avoid is any "bump" or protrusion in the substrate. For example, throw a penny on the floor and then lay down the vinyl over it and you'll have a problem. The defect will show and the texture will wear down at that spot with normal traffic.

Now, if you finish the job and found that you DID leave some debris behind, just cut the vinyl, remove the bump and seal it back down. You won't even know the cut was ever made.

 

[snowman48047]

Re: Nautolex vinyl on a new fiberglass deck.

I was unsure at first but I used it on the forward deck of my Lund when the wood rotted. Turned out great once I got past my impatience. Skip the carpet. Vinyl is so easy to keep clean.

 

[ajgraz]

Re: Nautolex vinyl on a new fiberglass deck.

I tried Nautolex in my fiberglass trihull. It was nice and grippy and looked good and was easy to hose down, but I found three major problems with it:
1) Cut very easily (as in, drop something on it and it cuts)
2) Very difficult to get it to conform to anything that has a curve
3) Water got under it and never dried out completely

If I was doing a perfectly flat aluminum boat deck and could wrap and staple all edges, that would tend to make issue #2 (and probably thus #3) moot. And, in that situation, if I could put some sort of thin underlayment first to absorb shock, and some sort of wear trim (like aluminum angle) on hatch cover edges and such, that might help with issues #1 and #3.

(I did use leftover Nautolex to wrap wooden bulkheads and hatch covers on the trihull, all with wrap-and-staple and some landau foam underlayment, that's all turned out really nice.)

But on a fiberglass deck? I would not lay sheet vinyl again.

(For the record, I ultimately went with Interdeck 1-part polyurethane non-skid paint and could not be happier with the cost vs appearance / performance / ease of application / ease of care / ease to touch up.)

Ask respondents to this thread whether they did a tinny or a fiberglass; I bet 9 out of 10 who like Nautolex (or any sheet vinyl) did a tinny, and used wrap-and-staple (and perhaps underlayment) that you won't be able to do.