DIY anti-slip solutions for trials obstacles

[marg26]

99% of my riding involves pallets in the back garden! Things are getting wet now and I want to continue riding through the winter.

I know there's a few options:

1) Sand in paint - no experience - which type of sand, which type of paint, what if the wood is already old and wet?

2) chickenwire - suspect durability issues having tried it once with some old chicken wire which didn't last five minutes

3) metal lath - available from diy stores, used by plasterers, no experience of it, suspect it might be sharp and unpleasant to fall onto, perhaps soft and non durable too?

What's you experience and have you got any tips please?
 

[cwtrials]

Sand in Paint I have a decent amount of experience with.  I actually did so on my demo platforms when I was doing shows too.  Just get cheap as possible exterior latex paint, but 100% make sure it is flat.  (exterior paint is just slightly less likely to mildew which helps too)  Sand, any play sand or bagged sand you can get from a home improvement store will do.  It can be hard to mix in the can, I mixed it in the roller tray, and put the paint on super thick with way more sand than I needed and spread it by hand on top a bit too.  Just do whatever it takes.  A bunch of it will rub off right away, but a decent amount will stick.  It won't last forever, but you probably need to paint outdoor obstacles once a year anyway.

[marg26]

Why flat latex in particular? Trying to find what to look for before going to diy store to pick it upp but nothing is turning up from usual suppliers I'd expect to find it at in the UK (Screwfix, Toolstation, B&Q, Amazon). This is what happened last year I think, I found a video on youtube for mixing sand with paint for anti-slip boat decking, which specified particular paints making it sound easy and then I look online and it seems to be hundreds of every other type of paint and none of it is cheap.

The cheapest thing seems anti-slip decking stain, £12 for 2.5l. I don't expect a stain would be much good at holding sand in place, but would anti-slip stain alone be enough for a bike tyre to find grip. Guess at £12 it's no great loss. But would rather have something solid I know could rely on, without wasting money on paints which don't work.

One of the options I thought Might work is barn paint, a flexible waterproof microporus acrylic (Bedec barn paint) - £38 for 2.5l so bit more outlay than the stain but more likely to hold sand I guess.

Edited September 12 by marg26

[cwtrials]

So flat paint is the least slippy. Semi-gloss is just naturally slick.  At least here latex is the cheapest and as it's water based it's really easy to use.  I normally just use spare paint. But the cheapest flat latex ever is what I use.  It simply comes down to cost, if I'm painting pallets that sit outdoors and are not a permanent structure than I want to the be as close to free as possible.