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Synthetic Teak Decking Teak Decks are a luxury these days. Many years ago Teak Decks were the norm. The teak was laid on the deck frames and then caulking was used to seal the gap between the planks. Nowadays with composite construction teak decking is now a symbol of a good quality boat not a form of construction. Teak Decks are very expensive in both materials and labor. A quick estimate for a custom deck is $150-175 per square foot for the top end. If you like the look and feel of a teak deck then you may want to look at the many alternatives which are cropping up on the market. Synthetic teak decking are becoming much more prevalent appearing on mega yachts, cruise liners, production boats and now DIY owners . There are 3 main reasons, when looking to replace or add teak decks, to consider synthetic alternatives. First is cost then the availability of Teak, and finally if you are looking to be environmentally conscious. In some parts of the world there is a shortage or ban on teak imports. Synthetic Teak Decking & Flooring The advantage of modern synthetic teak alternatives are. Ease of installation due to flexibility of the 5mm flexible strips Material cost Labor cost Color retention; real Teak fades from golden brown to silver after only a few months. Non skid properties of these synthetic teaks are good and are due to the rough wood like finish that is applied by sanding the finished product with 40 grit sandpaper. Synthetic Teak Decking Links We look at the manufacturers of Synthetic teak decking; Marine Deck 2000 TEK-DEK PlasDECK Flexiteek First we look at synthetic floorboards for below deck conclusion Synthetic Floors Boards World panel World panel make Teak & Holly synthetic alternatives. MarineLam is sold in sheets like plywood and Lonseal is a veneer sold in 6 inch widths. MarineLam 
Lonseal 
2mm rolls of veneerRoll Width: 6ft (1830mm) Roll Length: 60ft (18m) Sold by the linear yard. Thickness: 80 mil (2.0mm) available through World Panel or defender at cut lengths TEK-DEK interior also make a veneer for interior use to replace teak and holly floorboards. Supplied in 2mm veneers and in 12 colors Manufacturers if synthetic teak decking Marine Deck 2000  Cork Decking is one replacement for teak decks. Here is an example of Marine Deck 2000 on the mega yacht Sherakhan. Production boats include the Etap 46 use Marine Deck 2000. Cheaper and easier to install Marine Deck is made from Cork, taking advantage of a greener product one that does not kill trees as it is formed from the bark which grows back. The cork is granulated and mixed with a urethane as a binder. A UV inhibitor is also added, before the mixture is cured in 20 ton presses. There are many new products on the market which are a substitute for Teak decks. Most of them are synthetic PVC like products. Teak is a very expensive option for a deck and these alternatives save in material and labor costs. Marine Deck is flexible and easy to cut.
Marine Deck 2000 is produced in normal, narrow, margin and king plank widths. The planks are 74 inches long. You can coat the cork with a finishing product, but its best left bare. The bare surface is better for traction and grip as well as cooler.
Marine Deck 2000 features
TEK-DEK international Nuteak is the US distributor for TEK-DEK Tek-Dek has two decking products, both of which are primarily designed to function as exterior, non-slip surfaces for marine teak decking substitute and applications. They have also been used for some exterior residential decks like patio and pool decks where the non-slip surface adds an element of safety and aesthetics of a strip deck.  The products are
Tek-Dek "Flexible", more suited to DIY and professional
installation, and Tek-Dek "Professional". The latter is a rigid extrusion
that is targeted for the professional shipwright, teak decking installer,
carpenter or DIY installer that has the appropriate carpentry power tools to
cut the decking, and PVC heating equipment to bend it.Both are virgin PVC, tongue and groove extrusions (please see the specifications) with unique dovetailed channels on the underside. These channels not only increase the surface area for chemical adhesion. but provide a mechanical grip to the bedding adhesive. The "Professional" product is unique. It is made of PVC with real wood fibres mixed in. This allows it to be cut and shaped with power tools e.g. there is no need to specifically extrude strips with rounded over edges like the "Flexible" product. The "Professional" decking strips can be cut with table saws and scroll saws etc. to shape custom margin widths and pieces like the elbows around hatch corners... and then routered with a quarter round bit to finish an edge. The "Flexible" product can be bent at normal day-time temperatures without special heating equipment to conform to curves e.g. the curves around the side decks, toe rails, bulwarks or coach houses of sailboats, and trawlers yachts etc... Along with the use of hand tools, this is one of the reasons that the "Flexible" decking is suited to DIY installations.
See the tongue and groove joining system of TEC-DEK
TEK-DEK features
Installation;
Once the strips have been shaped and dry fitted they are ready for gluing
together.
News from Tek-Dek 5/14/08;
British composite deck manufacturer Tek-Dek has moved to new larger premises
in Four Marks, Hampshire, after increases in sales saw the firm outgrow its
previous premises. The new building incorporates a warehouse where Tek-Dek
stocks can be stored in racks, and two large 'panel building' floors with
enough space to construct pre-manufactured decks for boats of up to 30m
(98ft) in length. A dedicated cutting and machining area, a showroom and
larger offices also feature at the new sites.
PlasDECK is made from a flexible PVC polyvinyl chloride. PVC can be bonded with adhesives and caulking compounds. PlasDECK is a flexible PVC alternative to teak decking planks. PlasDECK comes in 6 inch strips up to 32 ft long.
PlasDECK is manufactured with chamfered edges that allow the planks to be laid down in an interlocking fashion. One edge is black assuming you choose black. There are options for plain teak looking or teak and white or black caulking.
PlasDECK is produced in two variations;
600 series is made to order from supplied templates. The sections are heat welded together to create the complete panel
500 series is for the DIY handyman and have a Shiplaps edge. The 500 series is cut with a razor knife and the overlapping edges make for easy fitting.
PlasDECK material has a shiplap edge for ease of use and was designed
with the Do-It-Yourselfer in mind. Each panel is fit to the next to form the
body of the deck. As the panels are pushed together the glue fills the small
crevice between, making it a solid panel. Each piece is 6” wide and 32’ long
(16 square feet, 1.5 square meters).
PlasDECK features
Installation
This detail shot is of a strip of PlasDECK being fitted around a King Plank.
You can see the look color and finish in this picture.
To see how PlasDECK gets installed look at this PlasDECK installation video.
Video Travis Tea "TT Custom Marine" this video (you will have to watch several minutes before you get to PlasDECK) shows a PlasDECK installation where the decking is not glued down but looks like a carpeted fit.
Flexiteek Flexiteek is a composite PVC based marine decking system with a surprising similarity to teak.Flexiteek Material Properties (Swedish PVC Product)
Four Winns (shown left), and Regal are among the production cruisers using Flexiteek.
Flexiteek comes as flexible synthetic planking of continuous length, with integral caulking strip in black or white and slightly larger border planking. The planking is curved by rising its temperature slightly, whilst curving. A sunny day is sufficient, with tighter bends being induced with a hot airgun. planks are 9.5 meters long with 45 or 60mm strips in various plank widths.
Flexiteek features;
Installation;  This
image shows some of the tools needed for installation.Typically patterns are made of the deck required. These are then sent to a Flexiteek distributor where the panels are made. The panels are made from the Flexiteek planks heat welded or glued together. Professional installation is recommend.
With material costs and environmental concerns plus ease of installation, these synthetic teak deck alternatives are worth considering.
To get an idea of how each of the PVC alternatives look this image courtesy of TT Custom marine and demonstrates the look of each of these synthetic teak decking alternatives.
Each of the PVC products are fairly similar but with a few differences. The major difference between TEK-DEK and PlasDECK is the underside. PlasDECK has a flat roughened finish, while TEK-DEK has grooves.
Marine Deck teak decking substitutes is unique due to the environmental use of cork.
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Installation;
PlasDECK has a good set of instructions to follow with a list of tools you
will need. Although this is a mini teak deck install the time and effort is
much simpler due to the ease of cutting of the material.
