Published on: 01 September 2022
Beautiful Marine Floors has launched an exterior composite cork product in response to greater interest in environmentally sustainable products compared to plastics and teak hardwoods.
Composite cork is a durable, non-slip deck covering with excellent eco-credentials that only require a little annual maintenance. Annual teak oil staining ensures a teak effect appearance. Its unique properties should appeal to many, including insulating against condensation and being soft underfoot. For DIY it has the added attraction of potential cost savings on installation costs.
Cork normally comes in sheet form and is brittle and inflexible. To overcome the brittleness and inflexibility, cork granules are mixed with rubber and a binding agent. This changes the cork from a typical 6ft x 4ft sheet to a roll product 13m x 1 metre long and 5mm thick. This is perfect for a large wooden or steel leisure boat to cut to shape and bond to the deck.
The cork rolls can be grooved normally using a router tool. Once grooved they are filled by masking up either side of the groove and spreading an ms polymer sealant/adhesive into the channels. This provides a non-slip deck and together with the oiling of the deck in a teak stain, a more traditional marine deck effect. A skilled fitter or DIY tradesman will easily cut the cork to shape straight off the roll with a stanley knife. Joining the composite cork at the edge is also easy as well as hiding joins.
Using cork composite for larger boats is only around £50 per sq metre but it disguises the fact that considerably more fitting work is required compared to ready-made PVC synthetic teak panels. Laying the plain cork composite is a similar amount of work to a PVC synthetic deck but the fitter will need to router the grooves, mask and fill the channels which is labour intensive work. However, it does mean that a competent DIY tradesman can make considerable savings should he choose to fit a composite cork deck himself.
To find out more visit www.beautifulmarinefloors.com
