Jump to content

Plastic Deckboards


TerryC

Featured Posts

Its new deckboard time, the old ones that came with my Liverpool boats cruiser stern boat have disintegrated.  I have fashioned some temporary ones from hardwood ply while I researched materials but they won't last long I'm sure!  i know the usual material is the resin bonded ply, that what the originals were made from, I just don't fancy doing it all again in 10 years time.

So my question is has anyone tried using 20mm thick Polyethylene sheet?

I've found somewhere that supplies it cut to size (rectangular that is) so it won't take long to trim and prepare them.  The spec sheet says the material is good for -30 to + 70 deg C, I think that will be sufficient, does anyone know better?

The top surface though will be a little slippery when wet, not ideal, so I've been looking at info on painting this type of material, and am thinking of painting them with acrylic houshold paint, apparently that sticks fairly well, so mixed with some sharp sand for anti-slip it may be a good solution.

So would they work??? 

Comments please :)

Terry

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thermoplastics, including polyethylene all tend to creep under load, including their own weight. The rate of creep is accelerated with temperature. Even light coloured surfaces get quite hot under direct sunlight. I think you will be faced with a gradually deepening trough developing between it's supports. For this reason I have never seen it ever being used as floor panels and do not think it would be successful.

Getting anything, including paint, to stick to it's waxy surface is problematic.

Edited by DandV
Added "never" seen
  • Greenie 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you decide to try it, rather than painting it for non-slip rout a series of V-grooves about 2 or 3mm deep in a pretty pattern so that it looks like DITY diamond plate in reverse.

Rather than polyethylene, or even worse polypropylene, what about what the architects call 'solid surface'  ( Corian clones).  Not cheap though.

N

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I thought about this to when mine needed replacing. But decided not to. 

I opted for buffalo board bought a big 8x4 sheet from

http://www.advancedtechnicalpanels.co.uk/products/buffalo-board-birch-plywood

they delivered it to my house I had enough wood to make two engine covers one split one, one whole one which I will use winter time when the boat is not in use so much. And four new seats. Two front and two at the rear 

ive left a small off cut untreated in the garden to see how it lasts it's been there a few months. Ow and compared to the so called marine ply I had it's not been affected at all. 

Edited by rustydiver
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I would recommend you NOT to use polyethylene as your flooring material for deck board. I have spent a large part of my career in a senior technical capacity for one of the UK's largest PE supply companies.  It is not the right material.

As others have said:

-it cannot be painted. Paint will not adhere to Polyethylene without flame or oxidation treatment.

- it creeps. I'd be interested in the spec sheet for the product you were thinking of and in particular the density and melt index of the PE used. Creep happens over a long period and it will look awful. Maybe UHDPE (ultra high density PE) would be ok but that would be very very expensive.

Not mentioned by others are 2 key properties:

- resistance to UV. PE is not UV resistant and will degrade in sunlight. This can be offset by the manufacturer of the sheet adding UV stabiliser but this is expensive and if it is a 'cheap' product then it is likely to have very little stabiliser. A 'cheap' product may last a year or two, a well speced product may give 5-10 years but not more. For 10-20 year performance you need a cross linked system ie a cured resin (epoxy, polyester etc).

- stress crack resistance. This is linked to UV resistance and is basicallly slow crack growth which causes crack failures over a year or so - particularly where there is stress on the product.

People are using PE as the basis for WPC - wood reinforced plastic - which is basically wood fibre embedded in Polyethylene. It does work but it suffers the same problem as a above but does last longer. UV stabilisation, creep and stress crack resistance are still big problems.

Polypropylene is not a good idea as it's impact strength is very poor at low temps - so drop a hammer on it when below freezing and it could crack.

We have buffalo board on our newly purchased NB which is now 15 years old. Buffalo board is light years better than PE would be. Maybe other things are better but keep clear of PE.

PE is also very flammable.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, Ex Brummie said:

I used an Ecoboard recycled plastic material which was OK on small pieces, but on bigger parts would not take any weight. Also, the light weight on locker covers made them unstable. Went back to Buffalo Board.

Beware of any 'recycled' polyethylene applications for boards etc. Polyethylene comes in all sorts of grades and stuff for structural use needs to be high density , low melt index, good stress crack resistance and good UV stabilisation.

The easiest polyethylene to recycle is plastic milk bottles which are designed to be very stiff (so very thin sections) and have incredibly poor stress crack resistance and no UV stabilisation. Recyclers just use it as it is PE and so make product that are basically useless if a long life in the sun is needed. Anyone buying this type of product should try and find out what type of recycled PE is being used. This is not always easy.

PE is a great material but not for structural decking boards.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.