Making decking non-slip

[utterlydiy]

The decking has always this time of year become slippery, as it tends to be shaded by the house most of the day.

Has anyone attempted to use dry sand sprinkled onto glue applied by a roller applying the glue to the surface of the grooved decking board with success.

thanks

 

[ktuludays]

When I worked in industry we used to mix sand with floor paint and recoat annually to create non slip areas. Always worked well

 

[kingandy2nd]

Why don’t you just buy some purpose made stuff?

https://www.screwfix.com/p/nemesis-anti-slip-decking-oil-clear-5ltr/8256t

 

[elcaro]

Yeah I have this problem with wooden surfaces. I've tried various fixes.

Some say what you're slipping on is algae which has grown on the decking so it is improved by just cleaning it. Hmm, not sure about that.

Abrasive strips are great, seem to continue to be effective over time, and the screw-down ones don't need the decking to be dry to fit them. I put some down while it was actually raining! But for anything other than maybe a flight of a few steps, for example for a few square metres of area they get very expensive. You can also get thin abrasive strips - 5 or 6 mil - which you glue into grooves in the decking boards (but older boards may not have that large groove profile.) Or buy decking boards with these already fitted.

Paint with sand or similar stuff in it, either you mix paint and sand or you buy it with stuff already mixed in: at the time this seemed the only economical option for a verandah of about 20 square metres. Can't paint in rain or too soon after rain obviously so that's a problem. The drawback seems to be that you have to keep re-painting it. The surface is nearly as bad as ever after 2 or 3 years and I notice ktuludays says he used to re-paint annually.

So my experience suggests a choice of pay lots and fit once (abrasives) or pay a lot less but re-do every year or two (non-slip paint). Might be worth re-checking abrasives prices though, cos I'm now leaning towards something where you only need to do once!

Terry.

 

[elcaro]

Aaargh!! Just looked, it would cost £710 to re-board the verandah area with those boards with the narrow abrasive strips in them! That versus £30 or £40 quid for non-slip paint .... so looks like another annual or two-year job of painting could be back on the cards!
- Terry.