A Guide to Laying Tek-Dek

Before You Start

Tools required: Craft Knife, 5-6mm Chisel, Small Square, Marking Pen, Glue Spreader, 12" Rule.

Remove any deck gear that you want to lay on top of the new deck, Tek-Dek is quite capable of supporting winches, stanchions etc. You may leave any large or hard to remove items and lay/cut around them. You should eventually end up with something like Fig. 1...

Margins

The first stage of any project is to lay the margins. See Fig 2 below. Either TD-7601 or TD-7602/3/5 are suitable, so how do I select which one to use? If you want to go close to a vertical edge and are going to caulk this gap, then the TD-7601 is the one. If you want a nice radiused edge effect then the TD-7602/3/5 should be used.

You first need to cut and fit every piece of Tek-Dek is cut and fitted in a "dry run" before it is glued down. Cut all the margins first, making sure that all joins are a reasonably good fit. Allow a gap of about 1-2mm as the caulking grooves will need to be cut later. Deck hatch corners and king planks are described in more detail later. It is important that the groove is showing inboard so the next strip will easily clip into the previous one.

Mark the outside edge of the margin on the decks with a pen or pencil then remove them and mask up to the pencil lines with 2" masking tape. This is to ensure that any excess glue can easily be removed before the next stage.

For the next part you will need plenty of weights. Lead is ideal but bricks, club hammers, small anvils, in fact anything heavy, would be fine.

Mix up enough glue to lay the margins. Spread out the glue and apply the margins. You will have approximately 30 minutes before the adhesive "starts to cure". This time will vary according to the ambient temperature, the warmer the temperature, the faster the cure.

Now weight the Tek-Dek making sure none is lifting, an ideal way to do this is by laying flat timber on top and then weighting this at regular intervals. Leave 24 hours to cure.

Filling In

Select which side you are going to work on and start with the outboard edge, work inwards feeding the TD-7600 into the margins' groove. "Dry lay" by cutting in as tight as possible to the margins. A 1-2mm gap is acceptable. Please read the relevant section below on King Planks now so enough material is left for the snapping. Once you have worked your way to the centre of the boat you will have finished the first side.

Now repeat for the other side. Your deck should look similar to Fig.3.

IMPORTANT - Do not join sections any larger than 2 square meters, as this is the limit in terms of working time and coverage of 2kg of adhesive. (Experienced users can lay up to 6 square meters in one go if well prepared).

On small areas it may be possible to join the strips temporarily with duct tape or similar. Once extrusions are joined, check fit once more.

Once everything is joined it is advisable to sweep or vacuum the deck to remove any dirt or Tek-Dek off cuts. Now spread the adhesive evenly using the recommended Tek-Dek spreader (between 1 - 1.5 sausages will cover approximately 1 square meter).

Now, the decking has to be laid. Unroll it onto the bed of adhesive and push tongue and grooves together. Check that all decking is a good fit.

Now that the main areas are down it is VERY IMPORTANT to make sure that the adhesive enters the dovetails in the underside of the Tek-Dek extrusion. Use a roller or similar to apply an even pressure over the whole area. Ends, corners and any difficult areas, will now have to be weighted to stop them lifting. Keep inspecting your project every hour for about four hours to check for (and remedy) any lifting. Allow 24 hours to cure.

Repeat until all areas are covered.

King Planks

A king plank runs down the centre of the boat and is made up from the TD-7606. See Fig 4 below. If a wider plank is required, then just join more widths together until desired width is achieved. This constant width plank is glued to the deck when the margins and hatch corners are being laid.

Once dry the main deck is "dry laid" leaving enough material to cover the king plank as seen in the photo. This extra will be enough to snape the ends of the main deck strips into the king plank. Snape main deck strips into king plank using Fig 4 as a guide.

There are many variations on this theme so have a look around to see how boat builders have done it. Keep the gap quite tight (1-2mm is ideal) as too large a gap will cause a problem later when you come to do the caulking.

Caulking

The areas left for caulking will be where the main decking meets the margins, the hatch and the king plank. Start by measuring a 5mm gap from the good edge (i.e. from an outside edge on a hatch radius) and marking onto the Tek-Dek with a pen or similar. Next cut along the line with a sharp craft knife using a curved blade.

The cut really needs to be down to the original deck to allow enough depth for the caulking. The gap now has to be chiselled out with a 5mm chisel. On a painted steel or aluminium boat it is advisable to paint in some Epiglass or similar to reseal the paint if the knife or chisel has gone through to the steel / aluminium.

All the edges of the gaps now need to be masked before caulking can be applied. Once masked, cut off the end of the caulking tube with a craft knife. Make sure the nozzle is small enough to enter the gap. Fill gap with caulking until it just becomes proud of the Tek-Dek.

Cut some small spreaders from an off cut of Tek-Dek and smooth the caulking out. Any excess will flow onto the masking tape. Remove masking tape immediately all gaps have been smoothed out.

Joining Extrusions

Once the deck has been dry laid it will need to be glued together using the Tek-Dek solvent glue. Apply glue to grooves, or tongues using the applicator supplied, and simply relay the deck pushing each piece together. Leave for 2 hours. The decking is now ready to be laid.

Hatch Corners

To deck round a hatch corner, join two or more pieces of TD-7601 together using Tek-Dek solvent glue until the resulting section is large enough to allow the appropriate corner radius to be cut out. Alternately TD-7608P or TD-7606 can be used. Make a template of the hatch corner required using thin ply, MDF or card. Place this template on the extrusion assembly and mark out with a pen or pencil.

Cut out corners with a Stanley knife or similar, using a curved blade* available from any DIY store or Tek-Dek.

* The curved blade is not essential but does eliminate a certain amount of friction, and makes intricate or curved cuts easier.