Getting salt water out of interior carpentry?

[Tim Good]

Had a rough ride back from the Azores and water seemed to get in places I’ve never seen it before. A lot of green water over the deck over a number Of days.

Anyway I’m back in port and have a dehumidifier but u know what salt is like... once the humidity gets high again then it’ll get damp.

Has anyone got a bright idea for getting salt out that penetrated woodwork? Or is it just a wipe down job and deal with it?

 

[pvb]

All you can do is wipe down thoroughly and hope for the best.

 

[Malish]

daily repeated wiping with a fresh water soaked cloth over for a few days might help, then infrequently over a longer period.

 

[[70521]]

Why was the woodwork penetrated?

 

[Tim Good]

Why was the woodwork penetrated?

You mean how did the water get in? God knows. Massive amounts of repeated water over the deck finds places to come in.

 

[Catalina36]

Had a rough ride back from the Azores and water seemed to get in places I’ve never seen it before. A lot of green water over the deck over a number Of days.

Anyway I’m back in port and have a dehumidifier but u know what salt is like... once the humidity gets high again then it’ll get damp.

Has anyone got a bright idea for getting salt out that penetrated woodwork? Or is it just a wipe down job and deal with it?

I'm guessing that maybe some woodwork got soaked via the end grain, possibly unsealed? To what extent is any of it removeable, ie screwed in place rather than glued? Any parts which can be removed might usefully be, so that they could be fresh-water rinsed or even soaked for an hour or two. Once thoroughly dry, seal the unsealed edges. It can't be done with bulkheads etc, but a lot of other panels are often just screwed in place rather than dowelled together and glued.

 

[Deleted member 36384]

Before the refit, I had a small leak from the lazaret that filled a locker. The leak was intermittent sometimes fresh, sometimes salty. Eventually I traced the leak and stopped it. However, the ply delaminated, despite being a quality ply for interior woodwork. However, this was over a period of say 4 or 5 years and in my first years if ownership the ply was sound when that locker was fully dry. It is therefore possible I think to save your wet woodwork by a strict regime of mopping up all water and drying out the boat. Damage is definitely related to time soaked. Ultimately, it was leaking things that cost my refit to be a lot more extensive than I would otherwise have hoped. Make sure you fix the sources of ingress.

 

[jwilson]

Once salt water gets into the unprotected end grain of a varnished or lacquered veneered ply panel you are heading for the well known dark staining though it may take a few years to materialise. Light veneers like maple seem to show the effect worst and fastest. If attacked early enough with lots and lots of fresh water and then really thorough drying (think dehumidifying for a few weeks) you may get away with it. Of course ideally no end grain should ever be unprotected, but very few boats have this done properly (curiously this is often good amateur built ones not typical factory built ones). The builders just (slightly cynically) expect the interior to always stay dry. I have never met a boat that sooner or later did not leak somewhere....

 

[[70521]]

You mean how did the water get in? God knows. Massive amounts of repeated water over the deck finds places to come in.

No, how did the water penetrate varnished or painted wood?

 

[Malish]

at a slight tangent - the only effective way I have found of removing salt from a limestone-rich fossil collected from the seashore has been to put it in the toilet cistern for 2-3 months and gradually 'flush' the salt out of it. Failing to do that usually results in the residual salt eventually breaking up the fossil. Not an easy option for interior timber.

 

[Quandary]

This probably will not help but back in my youth I trained as a glassblower in a chemical lab. We made models of processes in glass for testing. Some of the processes in the lab. required that the equipment must be totally dry, out the back they had a bath full of acetone, to dry stuff we immersed it the acetone and then dried it in air in a fume cupboard, the theory was that the acetone quickly absorbed any water and then evaporated. It did require the acetone to be replaced frequently but it used to come in by tanker.
The exposed surfaces that you do not want damaged can be cleaned traditionally but hidden battens, end grain etc. might benefit from a brushing on the acetone and leaving it to dry off, put your cigar out first and do not stay to breathe it.

 

[Rum Run]

This probably will not help but back in my youth I trained as a glassblower in a chemical lab. We made models of processes in glass for testing. Some of the processes in the lab. required that the equipment must be totally dry, out the back they had a bath full of acetone, to dry stuff we immersed it the acetone and then dried it in air in a fume cupboard, the theory was that the acetone quickly absorbed any water and then evaporated. It did require the acetone to be replaced frequently but it used to come in by tanker.
The exposed surfaces that you do not want damaged can be cleaned traditionally but hidden battens, end grain etc. might benefit from a brushing on the acetone and leaving it to dry off, put your cigar out first and do not stay to breathe it.

How about using lab-grade isopropyl alcohol rather than acetone? It grabs water molecules very readily and is less toxic iirc
Not sure I would like to explain to a coroners court why I was splashing such flammable liquids about though!

 

[Malish]

Neither acetone nor IPA will take up the salt with the water

 

[Rum Run]

Neither acetone nor IPA will take up the salt with the water

Perfectly true of course, so repeated rinsing with fresh water would be necessary first. Then splash the flammables about!
Being serious, fresh water rinsing followed by using a dehumidifier for some time would be safer.

 

[Concerto]

Perfectly true of course, so repeated rinsing with fresh water would be necessary first. Then splash the flammables about!
Being serious, fresh water rinsing followed by using a dehumidifier for some time would be safer.

I agree but a fan running directed at the stained area should dry the timer out just as quickly.

For any discoloured veneer you would need to remove any surface finish back to bare wood and bleach the stain out using cheap supermarket thin bleach diluted 6 parts water to 1 part bleach. Leave on for 20 minutes and wash off with fresh water. Leave to surface dry to see if the stain has been removed. If not, repeat bleaching until it disappears. Lightly sand the surface and refinish with original finish (probably lacquer not varnish).