Removed teak on GRP/bals sandwich, what next?

[snowleopard]

I did my decks with a proprietory yacht non-slip paint a few years ago. First time out with a bit of spray on the decks and my habitual trainers were sliding about all over the place. Switching to deckies helped but few guests own them. I switched to Sandtex and I've had no more skids (though its tendency to stain is a big minus).

 

[late-night-lochin]

Yeah, some of the proprietory yacht non-slip paints are a bit smooth but you can always add non slip granules, I know people like International sell them separately and I think you can mix them into most other paints

You can probably get a better off the shelf colour range with Sandtex. The likes of International and Blakes seem to think we only want blue or blue - grey decks!

 

[npf1]

Scotty - I've put Kiwigrip over vast areas of my deck and coachroof. It's very easy to apply, would hide a multitude of imperfections and, 12 months later, looks good.

But ... it is a b****r to clean - more so than the previous two part non slip paint - although I've read soemwhere about putting some sealing type snake oil on it which makes it easier to clean.

My boat's on the Hamble if you want to pop over at some time to have a look.

 

[Boathook]

I did my decks with a proprietory yacht non-slip paint a few years ago. First time out with a bit of spray on the decks and my habitual trainers were sliding about all over the place. Switching to deckies helped but few guests own them. I switched to Sandtex and I've had no more skids (though its tendency to stain is a big minus).

I've started a trial with Dulux maisonary trade paint. Seems to wear ok so far though use has been limited. I have a feeling though that staining is also going to be a problem.

 

[seanfoster]

Just thought I'd add something,

For scraping you really can't beat an electric scraper. I've got a Bosch one (PSE 180), unfortunately they are discontinued but can still get the blades. I got mine on ebay for £30.

 

[Boathook]

.....

You can probably get a better off the shelf colour range with Sandtex. The likes of International and Blakes seem to think we only want blue or blue - grey decks!

My local trade paint supplier is happy to add colours to any paint even though they did not supply them. Dulux do a 'base' maisonary paint to have colours added so pick up the colour cards and choose.

 

[late-night-lochin]

I've started a trial with Dulux maisonary trade paint. Seems to wear ok so far though use has been limited. I have a feeling though that staining is also going to be a problem.

I wouder if the staining is to do with the actual chemistry of the paint or whether it's just due to the rougher surface holding the dirt more

 

[Scotty_Tradewind]

Just thought I'd add something,

For scraping you really can't beat an electric scraper. I've got a Bosch one (PSE 180), unfortunately they are discontinued but can still get the blades. I got mine on ebay for £30.

Ah forgot to add in power tools used..... i have a Fein Multimaster. It's been invaluable doing some jobs previously but not so far useful on this job.
I briefly tried a straight scraper but possibly could do with a 'pull towards you' scraper blade rather than 'push away' which can dig in too easily?

Does the Bosch pull towards and scrape? I notice they are still available at around £107 +

 

[Robin]

Aside from the need you have already identified to cover any stress cracks with a glass mat and epoxy, I would look at using two pack poly paint with non slip grit added to the last coat. There is a Co32 in our club where the owner used International 2 pack with added grit and it not only looks very good will outlast anything else by many years. The grip I'm told is really superb and it cerainly looks like it would be but I wouldn't want to be sliding bum down on it without armour plated underwear.

 

[late-night-lochin]

No angle grinder Scotty?

One of my favorite tools!

 

[late-night-lochin]

Aside from the need you have already identified to cover any stress cracks with a glass mat and epoxy, I would look at using two pack poly paint with non slip grit added to the last coat. There is a Co32 in our club where the owner used International 2 pack with added grit and it not only looks very good will outlast anything else by many years. The grip I'm told is really superb and it cerainly looks like it would be but I wouldn't want to be sliding bum down on it without armour plated underwear.

That's the problem with "non-slip".

That fine balance balance between the danger of "slipping over" and the danger of "grinding your elbows down to the bone" when you land

 

[Scotty_Tradewind]

No angle grinder Scotty?

One of my favorite tools!

Yes it's in one of my toolboxes....
I've not had the pleasure of using it since owning a boat in the last 6 years though.
A bit coarse for this job??

 

[Scotty_Tradewind]

That's the problem with "non-slip".

That fine balance balance between the danger of "slipping over" and the danger of "grinding your elbows down to the bone" when you land

I've heard that the coarse peel ply (originaly mentioned by Tranona) can produce a non slip finish to epoxy etc...?
Any experiences, what grade?

 

[late-night-lochin]

Yes it's in one of my toolboxes....
I've not had the pleasure of using it since owning a boat in the last 6 years though.
A bit coarse for this job??

Use it with a 125mm velcro sanding backing pad and sanding discs between 40 and 180 grit.

You've got to be quick and carefull but once you try it you'll kick yourself for leaving it in your tool-box all these years.

Probably the single tool I have used most on my boat

 

[Poignard]

Scotty

Is any of the teak you have removed re-usable?

I could do with some thin T&G teak to line my cockpit-well with.

 

[Scotty_Tradewind]

Scotty

Is any of the teak you have removed re-usable?

I could do with some thin T&G teak to line my cockpit-well with.

I've a handful of short bits you'r welcome to come see but I'm not hopeful, mostly its all very splintered and short I'm sad to say. The epoxy really seemed well soaked into the bottom millimetre.
Otherwise it would be fun to have a collection for making the odd attachment for when I'm retired too.

Use it with a 125mm velcro sanding backing pad and sanding discs between 40 and 180 grit.

You've got to be quick and carefull but once you try it you'll kick yourself for leaving it in your tool-box all these years.

Probably the single tool I have used most on my boat

I reckon the orbital is safer for me to get a flatter surface as that has a 150mm pad and disc. Also with a Henry vacuum attached their is little or no epoxy/GRP dust, although I do wear a mask to make sure.

 

[seanfoster]

Ah forgot to add in power tools used..... i have a Fein Multimaster. It's been invaluable doing some jobs previously but not so far useful on this job.
I briefly tried a straight scraper but possibly could do with a 'pull towards you' scraper blade rather than 'push away' which can dig in too easily?

Does the Bosch pull towards and scrape? I notice they are still available at around £107 +

They 'push'. I've used it mainly for scraping a/f off and found that the sharp edges (on the sides if you see what I mean) dug in regularly and gouged a bit of gelcoat out. To solve this I rounded them with a bench grinder (a file would do!). You can buy 6 genuine blades on ebay for £10, although one blade will last days if you keep it sharp with a file.

I've also used it for removing Sikaflex (the really, really hard one!) from hatch frames. Came off really easy with the power scraper.
If you can find one on ebay I'd give it a go!

 

[Scotty_Tradewind]

I tried a scraper on the Fein at the weekend. It was not suitable i'm afraid. The expoy that glued down the teak is so hard that to find the space between that and the gel coat to make a start was extremely difficult and meant it dug into the gel too much too often.

The Fein did come into its own when I had to clean off the upright GRP area just inside and below the toe rail though. With a special sanding attachment that allows you to get into confined narrow spaces, I spent half the weekend on my side with mask and goggles on, with Henry sucking up excess dust and the whining and fibrations of the Fein.
It's good that it has the emmense speed control as it meant that a 60 grit paper lasted longer and needed little pressure.
With the whole foredeck looking almost white now, it makes the boat look an emmense width from standing in the cockpit.

Just a lot of tidying of areas of epoxy and then some cleaning and filling and hopefully the prep' part of the front end is done.

Still the side deck and stern teak to chisel off yet though and I think those narrower bits may be more difficult to work on.

 

[late-night-lochin]

I reckon the orbital is safer for me to get a flatter surface as that has a 150mm pad and disc. Also with a Henry vacuum attached their is little or no epoxy/GRP dust, although I do wear a mask to make sure.

I've got a 150mm random orbitll sander as well but that would be laborious work on the old epoxy over the whole deck.

If I was doing your job, I'd use the angle grinder with 120 grit pads to get the surface of the old epoxy glue clean, then epoxy prime it, then fair in the low points with watertight epoxy filler, then sand with the orbital prior to re-priming.

 

[Scotty_Tradewind]

Since my last posting and after a ‘session’ of 9 consecutive days work from my son and me and much assistance and consultancy from yard professionals Ben of
BW-Seacat and Rob of Classic Marine Services, the project gained speed this last week.

All the remaining teak deck was off in the first 2 days with the scarred epoxy and teak coming off mostly with electric planer and belt sander.
The grinder with sanding disc came into its own when cleaning and rough levelling into restricted areas. We bought the discs and backing plates the week before having taken advice from 'late-night' The angle grinder fitted with a slit wheel also took off the genoa tracks whose bolts were both corroded to the track and held fast into the grp. New bolts and positions will be given as when rigged as a cutter we needed the track to be farther for'ard to carry the sheets for the yankee.
The grp then required careful sanding and grinding out to get level.
There were thankfully very few of these small areas and after a clean off with acetone they were filled with light flexible grp filler which unfortunately took a day to go off. When sanded down a harder filler was applied to the smaller areas and again sanded level.
A thick grp matt was then added to a layer of resin containing white pigment over the whole of the deck. Soft mop rollers were used first, then more resin rolled with hard rollers into the matt in sections from the bows, finished off lightly again with the soft rollers.

We had now used up 7 days of our present ‘session’ sometimes with 3 of us going at it all day working flat out. After early starts on a couple of the days, we were forced to rest in the afternoons waiting for resins to go off, so we then worked at night.
On two other occasions we had to postpone work for the humidity to drop to allow ‘safe’ use of resins

The last 2 days were spent drilling out the holes for deck fittings such as cleats, chain plates, inner forestay, pushpit, pullpit, gantry, water and diesel fillers, winch supports, cable runs etc, and then clearing up both the inside and outside of the boat, and the surrounds of the huge lean-to shed around the boat.

Still to do……… New ventilators and 5 deck hatches have to be chosen, marked up and areas opened up in the deck to make fit. Taped tramlines have to be applied to the deck to mark out the non slip and the gel flowcoat areas to then be applied by BW Seacat. This should give us the final finish to what will be a slightly strengthened deck with no leaks.