Boat Deck Repair: 7 Tips for Painting Your Deck

Painting is a very important part of your boat deck repair effort. Besides the fact that the paint can give a great look to your deck, it also has to protect it from the elements and keep it from being slippery. Needless to say, you cannot put any kind of exterior paint to a boat deck. There are a few good tips to keep in mind before undertaking the job of repairing and repainting your boat deck.

A wooden boat deck should be carefully scraped of any old paint, residues, glue, or anything that sticks to the surface. Make sure to remove as much hardware as possible to make the painting job easier later.

Any wooden boards that have damages on them, such as chipped edges or rotten areas, should be replaced before repainting. This is, of course, to avoid any injuries to you or your passengers.

Once the deck is cleaned up, dried and in good shape, use painting tape to cover everything around the deck that you don't want to get paint on. This will make your job faster and easier, and will allow you to use a roller instead of a brush around the edges.

Choosing a semigloss alkyd enamel house paint to do your deck will work well as long as you are adding a non-skid additive into it. Some people prefer to only paint the higher traffic area with the mix and the other areas with regular paint.

It is up to you to decide weather you want to take the chance of not covering the whole deck with the non skid mix. If you are going to have your kids and your dog on the boat with you, it may be a good idea to do the whole deck.

Use a small roller to do the edges first or a brush for small corners and crannies. Then move with a large roller to paint the middle area. Depending on the type of wood your deck is made of, it is possible that you need to put on a second coat of paint, once the first one is dried.

Try to attach a tarp over the deck, if possible, to avoid leaves and bugs landing on the wet paint and remaining stuck there. A boat shed is a great place to put the boat in while doing the work, if you have one. Once the paint has dried, remove all the tape around the edges.

How often you have to repaint your boat deck depends on how much you are using it, if you are using it on salty of soft water, and if you have a shed to store it in.