Phenolic board versus marine ply?

Fishery Pokery · 04 April 2010, 00:35

Hi guys,
I am building a deck for my boat and was asking some people about marine ply when they told me about phenolic board as an alternative.

"Phenolic board is not made of wood - so nothing to rot its made of woven fabric that's pressure and pressed with phenolic resin under huge pressure, and is nigh on indestructable - attack a bit of ply with and axe it'll go through. with PB it'll bounce off

it never rots, is immune to UV so doesn't breakdown that way either and is resistant to almost all petrochemicals, it's fireproof as well so almost indestructable"

Is this a good material for boat use?
I understand it is used for truck beds.

Cheers,
Geoff

BogMonster · 04 April 2010, 01:12

All I can say is that the phenolic floor in my Ifor Williams is nowhere near indestructable!

Fishery Pokery · 06 April 2010, 19:07

For anyone looking into this in the future, I rang around today and found the price.
The phenolic board is £80 plus Vat for a 8x4ft sheet of 18mm,
The Marine ply is £40 all in.
For what I am using it for I am going with the marine ply, and have to treat it, but it would have been a bonus not having to treat the phenolic.
SOmeone has told me the phenolic is heavier.
It may be possible to get better prices, but thats what I was quoted over the phone.

Cheers,
Geoff

TangoTango · 07 April 2010, 13:35

Are you sure you haven't got your wires a bit crossed here? The product you describe sounds like Tufnol or similar and it is far more expensive that £80 plus VAT for an 8 x 4 sheet. A 4 x 4 sheet of 15mm Tufnol Whale is about £265. There is a phenolic coated plywood product available and my guess is that may be what you were quoted for?

Assuming I am wrong and the product is as good as you say, why would you not spend £94 per sheet instead of £40 (plus the cost of preservative). I'm assuming that as this is a RIB forum your deck would not be made out of more than 2 sheets, 3 at the most.

Dirk Diggler · 07 April 2010, 15:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by Geoff_Jubb

The Marine ply is £40 all in.

£40 !!!!!!

That's going to be pretty crap quality!

doggypaddle · 07 April 2010, 15:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by Geoff_Jubb

Hi guys,
I am building a deck for my boat and was asking some people about marine ply when they told me about phenolic board as an alternative.

"Phenolic board is not made of wood - so nothing to rot its made of woven fabric that's pressure and pressed with phenolic resin under huge pressure, and is nigh on indestructable - attack a bit of ply with and axe it'll go through. with PB it'll bounce off

it never rots, is immune to UV so doesn't breakdown that way either and is resistant to almost all petrochemicals, it's fireproof as well so almost indestructable"

Is this a good material for boat use?
I understand it is used for truck beds.

Cheers,
Geoff

Thats TUFNOL, not the board for trailer beds which is as far as i can tell TUFNOL faced marine ply. tufnol is very expensive,(and heavy) and the trailer deck board is very expensive compared to marine ply, and certainly not indestructible. ask any farmer with an Ifor williams trailer!
IMHO youre better off sticking to marine ply, unless you can get trailer deck offcuts FOC that are big enough to do what you want.

Fishery Pokery · 07 April 2010, 18:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by doggypaddle

Thats TUFNOL, not the board for trailer beds which is as far as i can tell TUFNOL faced marine ply. tufnol is very expensive,(and heavy) and the trailer deck board is very expensive compared to marine ply, and certainly not indestructible. ask any farmer with an Ifor williams trailer!
IMHO youre better off sticking to marine ply, unless you can get trailer deck offcuts FOC that are big enough to do what you want.

Thanks for clearing that up mate. As I say I think I will stick to marine ply.
Cheers,
Geoff

Fishery Pokery · 07 April 2010, 19:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by TangoTango

Are you sure you haven't got your wires a bit crossed here? The product you describe sounds like Tufnol or similar and it is far more expensive that £80 plus VAT for an 8 x 4 sheet. A 4 x 4 sheet of 15mm Tufnol Whale is about £265. There is a phenolic coated plywood product available and my guess is that may be what you were quoted for?

Assuming I am wrong and the product is as good as you say, why would you not spend £94 per sheet instead of £40 (plus the cost of preservative). I'm assuming that as this is a RIB forum your deck would not be made out of more than 2 sheets, 3 at the most.

Sorry I have not made myself clear, the bit between "" marks is what I was told by someone. obviously they were speaking about the stuff you mentioned, which as you say is a lot more than what I was quoted for.
If the stuff I was quoted for is phenolic faced ply, then it would still need treating, as would marine ply?
Cheers,
Geoff

Fishery Pokery · 07 April 2010, 19:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dirk Diggler

£40 !!!!!!

That's going to be pretty crap quality!

Thanks Dirk.
Any idea how to tell if it is crap quality, and how much should it be?
Cheers,
Geoff

Endeavour · 07 April 2010, 20:46

Boston whaler use a product called whaleboard which is a composite board manufactured in 8' x 4' sheets. Think it wouldn't (couldn't) be feesable to bring it over here, unless the manufcturer has a distributor....

http://www.whalelite.com

Steve