Sheathing a wooden deck

[Jeep]

Hi all, forgive me for the repetition, I posted this over on the 'Reader to reader' page but it dropped off the bottom very quickly and I need as much advice as possible . . . . . . . .

I am sheathing the wooden deck of a Folkboat. It appears to be caulked planking (very light colour, could even be softwood like pine though I hope not), it is currently covered in a very thin and brittle plastic sheet which isn't bonded to the wood and has let in a lot of water (rain) which is then trapped, there is definitely at least a little rot around the stern area. I am quite happy removing all the deck hardware and stripping/cleaning/preparing/filling everything but want to get a good idea of all the options if the deck is sound. I have considered canvas or sand-paint but am not a traditionalist and am more concerned with strength and durability (I'd like to do this only the once!) so have decided to epoxy.

I have removed all the deck fittings and have started stripping the old plastic off, first question, how do I find out exactly what the wood is?

Thanks in advance


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[Dirk]

Would not be suprised is it is pine. Its not unusual. Could also be pitch pine, which has darker streaks in it and smells of liquorice when you cut it.

How thick is the deck and what is it caulked with?

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[Mirelle]

NOT epoxy!!

Epoxy will fail within a few weeks, if applied to normal wood; it cannot cope with the movement of the timber.

However, I think you may find that Coelan is the answer; it is expensive (but no dearer than that amount of epoxy!) but a Folkboat's deck is not that big. Treated my laid teak decks with it seven years ago and not a drop has leaked in since.

Coelan is remarkable in that it is microporous (the wood can still "breathe") it expands and contracts to an amazing degree and it bonds extremely well to timber.

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[Jeep]

Re: NOT epoxy!!

Thanks chaps, pine it is then. I have found out a bit about Coalan from the web but my deck isn't very pretty so needs something over it (covering shiny metal in coelan sounds like a good idea though). I have been looking at the West System which is meant to have a certain amount of flexibility, one reason being that the planks have bowed a little and the middles need building up slightly (or the corners need sanding).



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[Dirk]

Re: NOT epoxy!!

Since you are taking all the fittings off, you could go the whole way and cover the lot with 6mm marine ply (see Robins timbers for the good stuff) and then sheath with woven glass and epoxy. NOT polyester resin cos it dont stick to wood that well.

You would have to bed the ply down well to avoid any voids. not sure what though. Maybe some sort of polysulphide rubber (sikaflex)

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[Mirelle]

Re: NOT epoxy!!

Paint the Coelan with nonslip deck paint, which is what I did, or use the coloured version.

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[Woodpile]

Re: NOT epoxy!!

Mirelle - I've been contemplating Coelan for my old lifeboat. The teak decks are solid but pretty scrappy. Removing old, failed fibreglass sheathing left them splintered, and with nail heads exposed here and there, etc. They'll improve visually after sanding but they still leak in places, despite careful application of countless tubes of Sikaflex.

Anyway, Coelans sounds like the perfect remedy, but I don't think the planks will do justice to a clear Coelans finish, especially if I use wood filler in some of the splintery surfaces. So I was interested to note you painted your Coelan with non-slip. Will any old deck paint stick properly to it? Why didn't you use coloured Coelan and the grippy glass bead additive?

Any thoughts appreciated.
Chris

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[Mirelle]

Re: NOT epoxy!!

Funnily enough there is a large Dunkirk-veteran lifeboat in Woodbridge with Coelan sheathed decks; she has had them for quite a few years now and all seems fine. In her case they are finished bright, so I reckon I know exactly the deck construction that you have got!

I used clear Coelan because I wanted to see if it was going on OK; I then used Blakes ordinary chlorinated rubber deck paint over that; no adhesion problems. I dont think they had the glass bead additive when I did mine, in 1996.

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[simonhansen]

Hello
I come from one of the countries of the Folkboats (the boat was built as an initiative from the nordic sailing unions) - Denmark. Its said in the classrules for the wooden folkboat, that the deck should be built of min. 15 mm spruce or pine. This is an excellent type of wood for decking - light and strong. But it has to be preperated with lots of linseed oil and then painted with zinkoxide linseed paint (white) before sheeted with min. 250 g canvas. It is common to place socalled oceanpaper between the painted wood and the canvas before painting the canvas. The canvas should be treated with linseed oil several times and then painted with soft paint. The linseed oil will strech the canvas.
This is the traditional way to do this, and it is still used here i Scandinavia.
Dont try to use epoxy on the deck, and dont use other new magic formulas. If you want an epoxydeck, the replace the wood with plywood - 9 mm - and treat this with epoxy. It looks almost like a canvased deck. There godd adwice on replacing canvas in George Buchanan book, The Boat Repair Manual.
Simon

I have a 32' trad sailboat from 1946 - my website is in danish, but there are lots of pictures. www.saxon.simonhansen.dk

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