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Anyone who's installed seadek swimpad HELP


wakeboarder3780

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Hey guys. I ordered a custom swimdeck pad through seadek last year and have had nothing but trouble with the adhesive they use. The seadek pad is essentially a foam pad with an adhesive layer on the underside. The problem I had with the first pad is they sent it to me rolled up and when I unrolled it the adhesive layer pulled right off the pad the first time. I contacted them and told them about the issue.

Eventually they flat shipped me a pad without being rolled up which worked better, but here I am less than a year later and the pad is peeling up around the entire right side of my pad. Mind you I baby my boat a *lot* and I even have a swim pad cover on whenever it's not being used to protect it from the elements.

2 Questions:

1) Has anyone else had adhesive issues with seadek pads?

2) Has anyone found a remedy that works?

I love the seadek pad but the sucker just won't stick and that's unacceptable to me. I will be calling them today but just wanted to get in touch with the community to see if anyone had a home grown solution because this is my 3rd go around with seadek trying to fix it.

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wb3780, I had the same issues with rolling from the 2x 18"x32" sheets that I ordered from Seadek, but not the adhesion issues. What I have used in the past on my knee and surfboard pads was contact cement. To date it has worked great and I have to keep fixing the areas of the old glue around where I repaired with the new glue. I would buy some 3M spray adhesive, clean off the old adhesive from the deck with acetone, tape off the area to be glued and lightly scuff inside the area with 220 grit and reclean with acetone. Clean the old glue off of the pad as well as you can, then use the adhesive as directed on both sides. The biggest thing would be to work from the middle out so you don't get bubbles and place some weight on the pad until it fully sets. Almost forgot, cover everything you don't want glue on!

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Talked to Susan at seadek (last year it was Kevin), I will certainly say their customer support people are very nice and willing to help which makes me also really want to stick with seadek. Their response was that they had a bad batch of foam around the August - September range that wasn't allowing the adhesive to stick to the foam itself (which is exactly the problem I'm having) as where it's peeling up the adhesive is still rock solid on the deck, but just not present at all on the pad (ie it's completely letting go of the foam and still sticking to the fiberglass).

I don't know how certain they are that there was a bad batch or if it's more of an educated guess. The problem is I only have myself for data points. I know seadek is a popular brand on this site, who else out there can get me some data on how long you've had your pad, if it's still sticking and generally when you bought it.

If anyone else has had one stop sticking and you found a solution to keep it down (like liquid nails or something) let me know.

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wb3780, I had the same issues with rolling from the 2x 18"x32" sheets that I ordered from Seadek, but not the adhesion issues. What I have used in the past on my knee and surfboard pads was contact cement. To date it has worked great and I have to keep fixing the areas of the old glue around where I repaired with the new glue. I would buy some 3M spray adhesive, clean off the old adhesive from the deck with acetone, tape off the area to be glued and lightly scuff inside the area with 220 grit and reclean with acetone. Clean the old glue off of the pad as well as you can, then use the adhesive as directed on both sides. The biggest thing would be to work from the middle out so you don't get bubbles and place some weight on the pad until it fully sets. Almost forgot, cover everything you don't want glue on!

A couple questions on this post. I see two things being mentioned. Contact cement and 3m spray adhesive. Which one are you actually using to keep the pad down? Did you mean 3m spray adhesive remover (as in to help clean up the sticky residue)? Also do you have a particular marine grade version that you work with since this will be in the water often? I'm assuming you use contact cement to keep it down, curious if there is a particular brand specifically.

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Look up your local floor covering distributor and see if they are Durabond or Bostik Distributors....

This stuff works great...on So many things.... I have used it for years on Peeling Wake Surfboard decks, carpet coming loose in the boats, trim pieces coming loose, etc... in a marine environment....as well as its intended uses on the can...

http://www.bostik-us.com/sites/default/files/D815.pdf

D815.gif

D-815 Carpet Seam and Multi-Use Adhesive

D-815™ Carpet Seam & Multi-Use Adhesive (formerly D-15) is a fast-grab, non-flammable adhesive for seaming and bonding carpet edges, tack strips, rubber cove base, rubber/metal reducers, or stair treads. D-815 is suitable for use over dry surfaces including concrete and plywood.

  • As a carpet seam adhesive, D-815 works well with many types of backings, including hot melt, latex unitary, woven, Axminster®, enhancer, ActionBac®, jute, rubber and outdoor carpet.
  • As a tack strip adhesive, D-815 quickly adheres tack strip to concrete or plywood and can be power stretched in as little as one hour.
  • As a rubber and metal adhesive, D-815 acts as a fast-setting contact cement.

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The adhesive they use is called PSA..... or pressure sensitive adhesive. And it also happens to be heat sensitive. So what you can do is flip the pad over, heat it up with a hair dryer or heat gun (even leave it out in the hot sun for a bit), then apply it to a clean, dry swimdeck. Then I take a piece of plywood & put it down on top, and then a bunch of weight on top of that (spreads the load out over the whole surface). Then leave it over night.

Done a ton of swim steps this way & rarely had problems.

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I can't remember the contact cement I used I would have to go look at the bottle, I beleive it is from Durabond as JB mentioned. I have only been fixing rolled edges and cuts not large areas like you are going to. I would go with Bills experience on the large projects. I would lean toward the Durabond instead of a lighter PSA, especially if your are in a high heat area (AZ,TX,CA) although 3M may have something that will work just as well. Bottom line is, just like body work and paint, the finished product is only as good as the prep work.

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I installed one on my old boat followed the directions on the sea deck website clean the old adhesive off with acetone, scotch brite pad to scuff, having two people to peel and apply helps and I used a rolling pin to help smooth the thing out. Just like a big sticker take your time and avoid air bubbles. Also make sure all the acetone is dry.

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I installed one on my old boat followed the directions on the sea deck website clean the old adhesive off with acetone, scotch brite pad to scuff, having two people to peel and apply helps and I used a rolling pin to help smooth the thing out. Just like a big sticker take your time and avoid air bubbles. Also make sure all the acetone is dry.

Same process I did, how long has your application been installed without problems? Maybe I truly did just get a bad batch of foam during that short period they were quoting.

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Was on for 2 seasons with no issues (sold the boat) also put a buddies on at the same time and his is still holding strong. It may be a bad run for sea deck dunno.

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Response from seadek was that they would create a new pad for me. Susan stated they have put procedures in place to make sure it won't happen again and then she again stated the appropriate installation process which I know by heart anyway (if you don't know what the procedure is visit seadek's site, they have very good installation documentation).

I'm guessing they're going to ship it to me rolled up. I'm a little nervous that when I get it it will be just like the first time where the PSA is peeling off the foam already, but fingers crossed. If this next pad is problematic I'm contact cementing the thing to kingdom come. If anyone wants lessons learned from my installs of seadek it would be:

1) Wear grubby clothes. When cleaning off the old PSA it's very gunky and gets on your clothes and never comes off

2) Back the trailer onto the grass, the old PSA that comes off in gunky globs does not weather off your concrete later (like i originally thought).

3) Have a gallon of mineral spirits, gallon of acetone, and *plastic* putty knife to scrape off the PSA after being left to soak in mineral spirits for about 10 mins.

Edit: Bill in the meantime I will try your advice with my heat gun and see how it holds while I'm waiting for the replacement. Since the adhesive is SO unattached from the foam I don't have much hope but I'm certainly willing to try this.

Edited by wakeboarder3780
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The heat will aid in the unrolling process too. Softens the materials up & makes them more manageable.

Also, the pressure applied to it for a day is absolutely necessary.

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Well, I tried bills method and while I can still tell the edges are a little loose (can still lift them a bit), this method certainly helped a ton. Before i could bend up about 6 inches of material, now i can only feel the very edge is loose (so small it's immeasurable). I would recommend at least trying this method before the contact cement. However I do think the contact cement is a very good option and I think I will personally be trying it.

I found that wearing gloves and using a heat gun worked well for me and allowed me to really heat up both materials (foam and swimdeck).

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Use gorilla glue, that stuff is bulletproof. It reacts with water, use a spray bottle and evenly distribute. I guarantee it will never peel up again.

Mine was peeling up in multiple spots, after gorilla it is definitely not going anywhere.

Edited by Fman
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How do spray that stuff? Isn't it way too thick to spray? Do you thin it out with something first? Only problem i could forsee is that "foam blowout" thing gorilla glue does. Would definitely want to tape everywhere you didn't want blown out glue and cut it off carefully with a razor later. I could see trying this.

I actually went with some crazy 3m product. Supposed to be some pretty mean stuff. I'll let you know how the product does IF it's effective.

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Yes, you need to spread it around in a very thin pattern. As you mentioned it will expand when water reacts with it. I left about a 1-1.5" gap around the edge for expansion. If you do have it blow out the sides it can be trimmed with a razor knife afterwards. You can also use masking tape to protect your platform. It will not "stick" to your platform if it does expand. You will also need some good clamps with 2x4's to distribute throughout the patform. Taking the platform off is the best way to do it so you can have access all sides of the platform. It takes a little work, but it will hold and not let go.

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