deck repairs

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monkey_trousers

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bf494.co.uk
gonna embark on the onerous task of stripping off the tarmac (well thats what it looks and feels like) and repairing and resealing the deck

most of it's ok, going to be a few planks to replace where long term leakage has rotted the deck beam underneath and everything it touches

looking for suggestions as to the best or alternative timbers for the new bits, I think the old is either larch/pitch pine, might be douglas fir

and more crucially the best materials to seal the bugger up again, caulked with cotton initially I guess but then what on top as a sealer?? don't fancy traditional pitch (but not ruling it out), looking for something along the lines of 'Acme Universal Never leaks easy to apply and lasts forever' type products, well I can wish I suppose
 
You might consider using Jeffries Glue for sealing the seams. It is very cheap compared to modern mastics. I think you should use it in two pourings on the deck seams.
What you might consider, depending on how much timber you need, is to salvage it from a wreck. My old pilot boat had pitch pine decks and I was very impressed how rot resistant the wood was.
You might want to consider installing a deck wash system for your boat once you have repaired the deck. This will keep the seems nice and tight. I know the fishing boats didn't have them but as they were using them almost everyday the sea did the job for them.
Best of luck.
 
got a deck wash already, hooked up to a big jabsco driven off the engine, I think the rot is secondary, from being in contact with the rotten deck beam, everywhere else where its leakign the wood is still pretty sound
 
Dont use pitch or Jeffries, an abomination!! There are lots of much better systems to use to seal your seams, sikaflex type sealants. This is one of many areas, where technology has superceded the old ways and are much better. jeffries was used, because it's all they had, like boiled up cows and horses hooves for glue, yuck!
 
Of course many of the new systems are much better than the traditional ones, but look at the difference in cost.
When I resealed my forward deck with sikaflex I used about 3 boxes of 12 tubes to do it, well thats about £350 worth. A block of Jeffries glue to repair large areas would be under £30.
An old boy I know, who as a youngster worked on Thames sailing barges showed me how they used to caulk them. Get a trailer load of straw and horse droppings free from a stable and mix in some pitch with it. Its a smelly messy job but it sealed an old barge, to use sikaflex on that job would have cost thousands of pounds.
If you are the proud owner of a traditional boat, unless you have very deep pockets, these old systems can be a great help.
 
Very very hard to get seams clean enough for a change from pitch to synthetic sealants. Make good the timber, re-caulk with oakum, re-pitch properly, and re-tarmac!

All available from TBS.
 
Didnt say it was easy! But my bruv did a morcambe bay prawner with sika, which was previously jeffries, yes, it did take a lot of work to clean up the grooves, but they needed doing anyway. (edges chipped etc) I guess it depends on, as you say, what is to go back on top of the deck. If tarmac, then sika is a waste of money and the tarmac will stick to the pitch.
 
just waking this one up for a bit, as its time to get radical with my religious deck (its a bit Holy!)

and the age old chestnut of getting the flippin' nails out, so came up with this idea...

http://ebgb.net/misc/nailpuller.pdf

looks a good idea in principle, obviously some big pads of something solid needed at each end...

or is it just a really silly idea?
 
I rather suspect you will just end up pulling the heads off if the nails are corroded or fatigued. (They will be.) I have seen a kind of hollow drill used to extract corroded screws but I think it was custom made, and the holes would need to be plugged after wards.
 
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