How to fill screw holes in grp after lifting teak deck

I put a countersink drill bit on the end of my drill and opened the holes out.
Then poured Epoxy into the larger hole that the countersink bit had created.
I think, just trying to fill a small hole won't give the Epoxy a chance to plug any future water ingress.
I don't remember the Epoxy running through so my old screws holes probably didn't go all the way through.
I remember sanding them off after to get a nice smooth finish.
But I'm please that I spent the time filling them properly.

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Hurricane said:
I put a countersink drill bit on the end of my drill and opened the holes out.
Then poured Epoxy into the larger hole that the countersink bit had created.
I think, just trying to fill a small hole won't give the Epoxy a chance to plug any future water ingress.
I don't remember the Epoxy running through so my old screws holes probably didn't go all the way through.
I remember sanding them off after to get a nice smooth finish.
But I'm please that I spent the time filling them properly.

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Thanks for this. How deep did you take the countersink?
 
DavidJ said:
Educate me
What are the holes for. I thought the teak was just Sika‘ed (or similar) onto the GRP.
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Don't be fooled.
The boat builders tend to screw down the bits that don't stick very well.
Here's an example (same on both sides) where the teak side decks where 2 factory panels didn't stick very well.
Water got underneath - hence the brown colour.
But you can also see where they had tried to screw them down as well.
I was shocked and pleased that I've now covered it all with plastic teak after repairing the screw holes.
More sanding was done after that pic.

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DavidJ said:
Educate me
What are the holes for. I thought the teak was just Sika‘ed (or similar) onto the GRP.
Click to expand...
Back in La Napoule the HQ for Sunseeker .Fr and many others inc Fairline a very new FL 48 towed up beside me in a rental berth .
I witnessed the hand over to the proud owner one week end .Busy fellow he disappeared on sunday night .
During the week a batch of ply preformed what looked like templates turned up at the dock .One side was teak veneered .I know because our dog 9issed on them and I in hast turned one over in the sun in an attempt to dry it .Thinking it was a ply template to rough out the shape or something .Not the stuff that was actually going on the boat permanently.

Tuesday a troupe of local gorillas arrived and proceeded to machine sand / remove the OEM gel tread diamond like anti slip finish of the decking .
Next day Wednesday they finished the teak ply sheets , they were not a perfect fit from the factory and needed a bit of attention to seat down .
Then ……this is the point the screw hole thingy vs plane sika method ……they self used tappers and sika to glue / fit them down .
Remember curves in all planes .
The self tappers went in with a air compressor gun between the veneers , ie in where caulk would be .
They used weights as well over night .
Thursday was spent back filing the self tappers holes with squirt in sika .
Friday was spent doing the final light sand of the squidgy blobs over the self tappers .

Sat arrives the concessionaire shows off the new dealer fit teak to the punter .

The teak veneer was paper thin on ply sheets self tapered down .

Water ingress ? Well those that have been around boats long enough know Sod’s law , water and leaks are just around the next corner .
 
Hurricane said:
Don't be fooled.
The boat builders tend to screw down the bits that don't stick very well.
Here's an example (same on both sides) where the teak side decks where 2 factory panels didn't stick very well.
Water got underneath - hence the brown colour.
But you can also see where they had tried to screw them down as well.
I was shocked and pleased that I've now covered it all with plastic teak after repairing the screw holes.
More sanding was done after that pic.

View attachment 141409
Click to expand...
Thanks
Plastic is great
I’ve just replaced decking at home with plastic including the beams and posts. I was amazed how similar to wood it was in cutting drilling and screwing.
No more maintenance… more boat time.
 
Hurricane said:
I suppose about 10mm to 12mm at the deck surface - tapering down to nothing.
It felt as though it was a good job - the epoxy set well and sanded back nicely.

EDIT - all covered up now - with plastic teak so very unlikely to leak anyway.

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Looks like a lovely job. Thanks for sharing the photos. I think our approach is going to be to remove a few (6?) planks at a time and then making good the holes .. of course we won't know if there's any surprises waiting for us till we get started. The reason for this approach is so we don't end up with hundreds of holes to fill in one go and then it's starts raining ...
Can you see any issues with this cautious approach.
Cheers
 
Big_Col said:
Looks like a lovely job. Thanks for sharing the photos. I think our approach is going to be to remove a few (6?) planks at a time and then making good the holes .. of course we won't know if there's any surprises waiting for us till we get started. The reason for this approach is so we don't end up with hundreds of holes to fill in one go and then it's starts raining ...
Can you see any issues with this cautious approach.
Cheers
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I wasn't aware of any leaks until I took the screws out.
You would hope that they would have dipped each screw in a sealant as the screwed them in..
For us, it was obvious before we removed the teak that water had got underneath those brown areas but even they didn't leak through.
Apart from that, I can't help - unless you want to replace the lot with plastic - there's a big thread on here about my teak replacement project.

The job so far - I still have the cockpit area to do - it doesn't need it yet though.

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Big_Col said:
Looks like a lovely job. Thanks for sharing the photos. I think our approach is going to be to remove a few (6?) planks at a time and then making good the holes .. of course we won't know if there's any surprises waiting for us till we get started. The reason for this approach is so we don't end up with hundreds of holes to fill in one go and then it's starts raining ...
Can you see any issues with this cautious approach.
Cheers
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Are you replacing or just repair.
 
Big_Col said:
In the olden days, each teak plank had a screw into the grp every 18" or so. Our boat is from Taiwan from the late 80s
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Most probably there will be some rot in sections of the deck substrate material, plywood/foam combination, from water ingress through the screw holes (hopefully minimal of course), rectified by the top GRP layer cut away, replace core material, then re-attach the old GRP layer or build a new top layer.
 
AndieMac said:
Most probably there will be some rot in sections of the deck substrate material, plywood/foam combination, from water ingress through the screw holes (hopefully minimal of course), rectified by the top GRP layer cut away, replace core material, then re-attach the old GRP layer or build a new top layer.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the tip. we've also watched a lot on good old YT - Sail Life goes into quite a bit of detail as does Andy on Boatworks. We need to learn this stuff and learn more about the boat.
 
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