Cockpit make over with teak?

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David52

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Hello all,

Having recently given up smoking and started eating salads I thought I would turn my hand to something equally ludicrous - primarily to stop the fidgeting.. I am looking at my cockpit which is a normal gel coat affair with horizontals picked out in a grip pattern. It is, to say the least, a little battle scarred, I was wondering about possibilities of laying teak or similar - I have seen other cruisers with just the cockpit picked out like this. I imagine this wont add too much of a weight problem as not he whole deck. Has anyone attempted this before - any experience with different materials (I remember a thread put about by a TekDek Rep at some point) any observations or advice gratefully received.

Regards,

GB
 
yep, just done our side steps to complement the teak floor.

Buy some 48mm x 6mm (or 8, or 10, or 12mm) pre-rebated teak from KJ Howells or Robbins timber peeps. Make a cardboard or plywood template of the bit you want to teak, make it as accurate as you possible can. Take the template home and play around with a black marker pen to see how the caulking will look when finished. Cut the teak with a decent quality mitre saw whatsit. The pre-rebated bits will fit together nicely but obviously you will have no rebate on the corners so you need to get the router going and route out 2-3mm on each side of the corner. Put your template onto a big board and put nails all round the edge, try and fit the pieces of teak in, they won't quite fit so do some sanding. When they fit get some Sika Primer and 'paint' the grooves with it. Let it dry for a hour or two and then squeeze some Sikaflex 290dc into the grooves, cut the nozzle to the exact size of the groove so you don't get any bubbles down the edges. Put loads more 290dc in the grooves than you think because bubbles are very very annoying. Let it dry for 4 days. Get a sharp chisel and cut the excess caulking off. Clamp the teak down and set to work with an orbital sander until it's all nice and smooth. Rinse it off and admire your handywork. Spend a few more days admiring how nice it is and feeling very smug that you didn't use plastic teak, smell the teak occasionally if you must. When your suitable contented take a paint brush and paint the whole underside of the teak with the sika primer. Go down to the boat, stopping at b&q on the way to buy a 6mm depth spreading thing. Buy some Sikaflex 298 bedding compound and spread it out evenly (not too thickly) over the bit you are going to stick the teak too, lay the teak down and put some pans full of hot water on it to weight it down. Use hot water because the 298 stuff dries on contact with airborne moisture so it dries quicker. Leave it for 24hrs and then come back with your 290dc and seal the edges with it. Let that dry for 4 days and then finish it off as best you can. Step back and admire your work again and feel very very smug about not buying plastic teak.
 
no problem with tek dek (ahem) but you won't be able to sit in the cockpit and tell stories about how that plank over there was pulled through the forest by an elephant that had a sore trunk so it got a bit of a bashing and all those chips in the side aren't actually chisel marks but are tooth marks from the hungry elephant.
elephant-trunk.jpg
 
I re furbed my cockpit seating with Tek dek , easy to do , looks great on a plastic boat. From a distance and in some cases not so distance ie. sitting on it ,some people have actually thought it teak, asking 'what I seal it with?' All depends on your view point, plastic on plastic seems ok to me, can never really understand why people are so stuffy about real teak anyway.( I am ready to duck)
 
Hi,
I recently had the cockpit of my Beneteau 32s5 completely re-teaked by Solent Shipwrights, telephone number 07832 100391. Ask for Steve. they charged me £675, which was a very good price - far cheaper than Tekdek and far far better. I was really pleased with their workmanship and can rally recommend them
 
Must've been cheap teak. I'll get you a quote for Tek-Dek and Teak, the price difference is normally a third (ish). The higher price you pay the better quality the Teak, sorry, but that is the truth and everyone knows it, unless you get a cowboy who charges next to nothing for bad quality sapling teak which lifts and cracks within a year. Invest your money wisely.

For a powerboat I will recommend Tek-Dek for bathing platforms, for Cockpit areas, if your doing alot of fishing or dirty work I would still recommend TD, if not then go for Teak.

Sail boats and the other traditionalists amongst us will prefer to use TD professional or Teak for the long swept decks etc...

Let me know your thoughts.PM
 
Afternoon Dacosta
I take it from your "cheap teak" jibe that 675 is under the market rate? I really have no idea - Also, although I admit to rubbing the metaphorical Tek-Dek lamp are there any other materials - I might as well have a balanced idea? And thanks Moose for your overview, I am, of course in awe of any one who can fit a hungry elephant in their cockpit whether to mark their teak seats or helm in foul weather.
 
Ive been thinking about the cheap teak thing for a while now and the only thing i can think of is teak with defects in it . This would be seen when picking the timber and not bought .
As for the sapling comment , why would someone cut down a sapling in a forest full of fully grown trees that are worth more money ? It wouldnt happen .
 
Generally the sapling (not as young as you are probably thinking) trees are used for furniture, like tables, chairs etc. It has been known to use the same wood for decks, it cracks very early cos its not kiln dried, as it would crack virtually straight any way. Robbins and Howells teak is a very good quality, its also from sustainable sources - that aren't owned by Tamil Tigers or such like. The cheap Teak thing was more of a jibe rather than a serious comment, 675, good on ya. I presume its 5-6mm teak (burma?) with no margins. I would also suggest at that price that its no more than 2-3 m2??, otherwise I'm leaving the business!!

Other materials? I presume you mean other decking products? TBS non-slip flooring (tech kit), this is a diy kit, brown rubber strips with separate black 'caulking' lines, self adhesive, ideal for steps and transoms and stuff. The other one as a possible deck could be that cork deck that moody used to supply, marinedeck 2000, looks ok from a distance but not my top choice or practical sailor.com's top choice either.

Regards,

Nick
 
hm, at the risk of getting into another teak discussion....
I think your tekdek suffers from the major problem of it being a set price because it cannot be self-made. £675 buys a lot of teak and caulking if you are happy to do the job yourself and it can be modified easily if you decide the 'shapes' don't look right.
 
Is that right? Tek Dek is not available without exclusive labour costs? Is that why 675 seems cheap?

I was considering the job myself, I find that I earn a lot less per hour than most than the average marine contractor charges. Having done done two jobs last year which for the yard quoted £12K which I was able to complete, over spec, for a little over 2K for materials, I imagine this will continue!
 
Tables and chairs are made out of seasoned timber . Turning can be done with green timber , maybe thats what you meen ?
The splitting is caused when the timber dries out and can be stopped by dipping the ends of the log in paint , wax , etc .
Anyway after the timber has been dried its graded and the finest timber is picked for joinery such as tables and chairs . The rest is for things like flooring and decks as it doesnt need to be as good . If i was given joinery graded timber to lay on my deck id be very happy about it .
By the way Air dried timber is better for decking .
 
As Tek-Dek is a DIY product I don't quite follow what you mean with regard to exclusive labour. The material in question is £10.00 per 2.25 metre length in 50mm planking i.e. £89.00 per sq.m plus the adhiesive which brings the price roughly to £117.50 inc vat per square metre. The labour is then offered at a set price or we can offer a fitting service using subbies (and we all know how much they cost!!)

I don't know how much teak was used or how it has been laid, so i am probably wrong in commenting on the price. But I quoted a similar boat using traditionally laid teak and it was ever so slightly more, using 6mm burma teak and it was less wood than 2-3 sq.m

No mass debating here on either products, just factual information. I'm far too busy to get into the normal arguments.

I hope this helps with the discussion.

Nick
 
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