Wild teak is now so hard to get hold of that even some hardened fitters are moving away from the wood. And the quality of farmed teak is distinctly suspect, according to Chris Groves of Eco Marine Deck in Plymouth. “It is grown faster than wild teak,” he says. “It splits and moves and costs more to machine out the problems. That means the longest planking you can get is around 6ft because the grain isn’t straight.”
This in turn pushes up the costs, because so much wood has to be rejected, and there can be remedial works required after fitting. Luckily, there is a whole clutch of alternative options available. The most common is PVC decking, like Permateek and Flexiteek, shaped and coloured to resemble teak. Groves himself swears by sustainable cork decking, which is also seeing a surge of interest. And then there are composite ‘woods’ and EVA foams as well.
Each have different properties – soundproofing, heat insulation and ease of installation. But whatever material you choose, you’ll need to have the deck templated first. This is something you can do yourself with a kit costing less than £50, or you can pay a pro to do it – around £400-500 for a 40ft boat.
After that, you can elect to fit the new deck yourself, or again shell out for a fitter. All the brands below say that DIY installation is possible, although in some cases, this will restrict you to a
