Re: Got me a Starchief
I'm not sure if it's the same as Azek?
Here's the link:
http://www.certainteed.com/products/trim/sheets/317655
I used it on a smaller boat as a deck, in 3/4", but had a 'sample' sheet that someone had damaged on one edge. I was told that it wouldn't hold any weight but it's held up just fine. I wouldn't use it as flooring in a house but in a small boat where weight is distributed evenly on the water, it's been fine. It's far lighter than wood, it floats, and is super rigid. It don't hold screws well but I riveted mine down. It takes paint fine, and the wood grain version is less slippery.
I called today to verify the price and it's $366.79 per 4x8" sheet of 3/4" at a local lumber yard, and they only carry 3/4" with the wood grain.
Is Azek a cellular PVC sheet? I was told by a buddy that he thought Lowe's or Home Depot sold something similar to the Certainteed pvc sheet but I've never seen it there. At $366 per sheet, I'd use aluminum first.
I'm about to re-deck a boat I've got here and have been seriously considering aluminum diamond plate over tubular aluminum cross braces. The goal would be to eliminate all wood from the boat, and maybe even save some weight at the same time.
What I liked about the Certainteed sheeting is that it's super rigid, it's got far less flex than comparable wood. If you look at a cross section, it looks almost like foam with a hard skin on both sides but its molded or extruded, so it's all one material throughout. I liked the idea that it floats, the boat I'm working on is aluminum with no lower flotation foam, and no room to add very much foam. Every little bit of flotation would help.
Cost wise I still think aluminum will be cheaper, the only price info I could find online was on a few contractor forums which talked about 3/8" being over $200 per sheet in Azek, so my bet would be that it's on par cost wise with the stuff I found.
My biggest issue with aluminum is both that it's slippery when wet, and its a conductor of heat and without the proper coating could make the boat very hot in the sun. The last thing I want is to be standing out on the water atop a giant heat reflector on a hot day. The cost of properly painting and priming aluminum has to be considered as well.
For my rear wall on the SC, the PVC sheet sounded like a suitable option but I also thought about just building a rear wall much like you would in an RV, with 1x1" tubing and a lighter sheeting, maybe even fiberglass.
Mine is done with wood for now and just painted with deck paint as is the floor. It was what I had, and still have. (Someone gave me about 40 gallons of old oil base porch and floor enamel. It's a no name paint but what ever it is, it don't seem to wear. I painted a wood engine stand I built with the stuff, and some got on the concrete on the loading dock at work, right in front of the main overhead door where it gets driven over all day long and those spots look the same 3 years after the fact. It took a week for it to dry but it's there for ever. I only wish it were a shade or two lighter. It's a medium gray, sort of a charcoal gray color. I sprinkled floor grip 'sand' over the second coat real light and got good results. The nice part about paint is that all it takes to make it look good again is a brush or roller and some drying time.
