Cork Decking

[Brian Taylor]

Does any one have any experience of using cork for decking material. I am replacing teak decking on a 35 year old Hans Christian.
The web sites all say that cork is excellent sound proofing, better thermal insulation and has good grip qualities, but they are trying to sell it. I would love to hear from someone with hands on experience of applying it and living with it.
I would hate to go through the exercise of replacing the decking and having it fail in a year or two.
Thanks

[NSboatman]

I replaced all the teak sole and side boards around my cockpit with aquacork from Jelinek group, about 8 years ago. Easy peasy job, turned out really well; and I still love it. Warm and soft to sit and walk on (but not too hot in the sun); very tough and hasn’t stained, even with red wine spilled on it. Easy to clean. It will support mould, but a quick wipe with some cleaner cleans it. I’ve had 2” of ice and 3’ of snow sitting on it (I sail year round in Nova Scotia); and it didn’t care. Fish guts, dropped tools, spilled food- all no problem.

Very highly recommended. I did use their proprietary glue and caulking system, and would recommend doing the same.

[nuku34]

I had Treadmaster (a cork sheet material) on the deck of my steel 12m ketch for 17 years. I used a 3M contact cement type product to stick it down (make sure you get a glue that's impervious to diesel and will hold tightly under high temperature!).

The Treadmaster has a raised diamond pattern. It was very nonskid, impervious to anything, petrol and diesel included, could be scrubbed clean. It was still going strong when I sold the boat. It was brown in color, did heat up in the tropics, but not as bad as teak (the absolute worst deck covering IMHO). It and other similar material does come in off-white. Not cheap as paint, but way cheaper than replacing that teak!