Leaks in Cabin Sides

[alb40]

As today is raining, ive had a opportunity to spot where some leaks are coming from.

Now having sealed the decks and the offending windows, im left with some minor dribbles which are coming in from the joints in the boards which form the cabin sides, like so:

Now these joints are everywhere, and almost all have opened up to some degree. Some are splined, others arent. The gaps are small, max 1mm, athough the bigger ones are say 8mm, but have the spline filling them.

I managed to solve the leaks last year by injecting some thickened epoxy into the gaps from outside. This worked, but the recent dry (ish) and sunny weather has caused them to open again.

So my question, anyone got any ideas on the best way to proceed to solve the leaks?

Many thanks
Alex

 

[KINGFISHER 9]

Captain Tolley's Creeping Crack Cure ... from most chandlers.

 

[alb40]

Thanks for the suggestion, but the gaps are too wide for captain tolleys to work. Its solved some other leaks successfully though, brillaint stuff on window leaks!

 

[Seagreen]

I've a simliar problem. Two thoughts: A), let the wood re-absorb moisture and swell again, then paint or varnish, or B), fill with a flexible filler or Epoxy, and varnish. I've just epoxied a big crack, (and then read how to do it in PBO... /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif ) I think, by the fact that the wood is unpainted, it'll dry out far more than if it had a coat of paint or varnish. Not seeing the situation up close, I'd epoxy it and then varnish. I know you've done that already, so you have to stabilise the shrinkage. Either the wood was too damp for the epoxy to bite well on the wood, or there just wasn't enough in the splits. You could cheat by filling the gaps with brown Sikaflex or similar. This would keep the water out whilst you let the wood get damp enough and swelled again.

 

[ccscott49]

I would be tempted to put a batten across the joins, inside the boat, set in sikaflex, so flexible and would seal the cracks for good.

 

[alb40]

Thanks for the replies guys.

I think i will fill with epoxy again, and paint inside to stabilise the shrinkage. The outside is already coated in Sikkens Cetol. I may also try battening the areas like in the picture where access is good enough to allow it.

I'm still open to other suggestions however should anyone have anymore ideas. I plugged the worst drips with some brummer yesterday afternoon, so hopefully that will keep the water out untill i do something more permanent.

Cheers
Alex

 

[andrewbodenham]

Ultimately this is going to need fixing properly. No amount of goo stuffed into the gaps will survive the seasonal movement of the timber. You'll have to look at WHY the joints open up, i.e. what is restraining the cabin sides so that the contraction cannot be taken up on the top edge rather than at the joint? If you can solve the structural problem then any repair you do may have some chance of lasting. I'd be thinking about routing out a generous channel (say 2" wide) and half way through the thickness of the material, and letting in a strip of timber with resorcinal/urea formaldehyde adhesive. Then repeating on the inside , but with a narrower strip. The effect being to form a lap-jointed insert with suitably large glue joint areas to resist future applied forces. You'll have to get the boat under cover and well dried out though, otherwise the glue doesn't stand a chance.

In the short term you could screw a batten over the join on the outside. Create a hollow in the back of the batten to fill with a non-setting mastic (maybe Arbokol polysulphide). This would be removable when you come to do the proper repair, but might effectively keep the water out of the joint meantime.
Probably a bigger job than you had hoped for!

 

[alb40]

[ QUOTE ]
Probably a bigger job than you had hoped for!

[/ QUOTE ]

Sounds that way!

I have no idea why it is opening up at the joints rather than the top edge. I guess the ultimate reason is that the design is a bit poor, with the cabin sides formed of butted joints, with no apparent fixings other than being attached to bulkheads and frames throught the boat.

At least most of the water is staying out now, there was a horrendous amount of damage caused by leaking windows and decks, where it simply hadn't been maintained sufficiently well in the past. I'm starting to think im beginning to win slowly but surely!