teak deck questions/help needed

[Elessar]

Just coming to the end of my winter refit and I'm getting to the cosmetics now.

My teak decks are looking tired and in a couple of places they're lifting from the GRP.

My plan is to drill some holes in the black seams, force some epoxy down with a syringe then weight it overnight. Then fill the drill holes with sikaflex.

Comment or better ideas welcome.

The cockpit has some greasy stains from dropped food and things, I've bought A-Glaze cleaner for that at the boat show which looked good. The cockpit is all under canvass so not that weathered. Any experience of this product?

The exposed bathing platform is a lovely uniform silver colour but has some ridges and needs sanding. What's the best sander - a belt sander like floorboards at home or a gentler orbital?

One corner of a plank at the back edge of the bathing platform has a chunk out of it about the size of a pea. It's not that conspicuous if filled, any suggestions for a wood looking filler that will stick to teak?

Finally, 1 plank has a split in it about 8 inches long. It's stuck down but I can just ease the gap apart by a mm or so to get a thin adhesive in. It's the last plank on a step so I want to glue it or someone will catch it awkwardly and split it properly. Recommendations for a glue or method?

Many thanks!

 

[tcm]

No harm trying your approaches to start, but i think they may not work due to likely damp under the teak, hence things like epoxy or sika won't stick. Even in hot climes, once there's a gap it can take days for those gaps to dry out.

I think success more likely if you cut/dig caulk out to allow more drying out. Wherever the teak doesn't dry fast as other areas on a dry day, the caulk is leaky and driest conditions (ie not feb in uk) best imho.

Think rubber sika likely better than epoxy medium term- the rubber bed gives, whereas epoxy more rock solid so flexing on the epoxy will likely let go eventually?

The pro approach is to dig out individual strips of teak with hammer and chisel, and as much sika under it as possible, then new oiece of teak rebedded, and sand to level with other pieces

Belt sander is most brutal and likely most out of control. Orbital more weedy/gentle. For small areas you can sand by hand using summink like a simple 3m sanding block. You *will* need to hand sand the edges where belt der most dangerous and leaps on to the gel coat ooer. I recently sanded about 7 sq metres by hand, hard work but loads safer than power tools. Teak needs high quality pro power tools - the cheap b+q things npt much kop and need numerous paper chages etc etc. Whereas my 7 sq metres only used 2 sheets of sandpaper to get "new" by hand.

In any event, real ridgy teak can take 60grit by hand or with power 40grit will get it flat quicker. This sounds a bit horrifically too rough, but not so. 100-150 once you are at flat wood will begin to make it shine BUT you obviously "use" teak thickness faster using power tools and slips can be a bit (very) disastrous as the belt "catches" on grippy proud rubber caulk and leaps forward. Having used power tools in the past - i did 7 sqm by hand! Cos you can stop at exactly the chosen point that it looks good enough rather than whoops bit overdone here etc. Still hard work with power tools by the way!

Keep anypower tool moving fast, and extract dust frequently i wd suggest.

For pea-sized gap, black sika? Or shape a small piece of teak and bed it on black sika. PLastic wood filler will match when (say) teak is clean but then not match when wet or gone silvery?

 

[Elessar]

Thank you that's very helpful.

Seems to me like leave the bonding issue till summer (it's not a big area loose anyway) until I'm sure it's dry. I think I may be able to drill from underneath which will help drying out if the air is dry as well as raking the joins. Might also be a good way of getting the black stuff in under the plank - I was thinking epoxy as it would flow down but take your point that it's not flexible. I'm trying to avoid chiselling up the planks because they're long and loose for only a short part of their length.

If you did 7 sq M I'll definately sand the swim platform by hand as you suggest. The platform is small on an S37 I doubt if it's more than 2 sq M, and it's in sections so I can do it in bits.

Lump of teak bedded in black goo will sort my hole - good plan.

Taking the "make sure it's completely dry" advice as read, any thoughts on the hairline crack/split?

 

[tcm]

ooer even I wouldn't drill from underneath really - then there'll be a real hole in (plastic/grp?) deck and not-quite identifiable hole in the teak above - and the sika+teak (proven not too good medium/long term) is then only thing stopping water getting in? I wd try leave the teak as a cosmetic thing, rather than its watertightness becoming more critical?

A split in the teak is caused either by the wood itself splitting, or cos not bedded/supported properly and stood on. So splitting sometimes happens with new decks using not-properly-seasoned wood especially at ends, or if not fully bedded on sika/caulk, or sika fallen apart underneath somehow, or structural problem underneath, or if there are too-big overhangs eg on steps with thinner planks strips. In other words, there's a reason there's a split, either cos that piece of wood has had it, or cos of where it, or how it's fixed (or not fixed). So gluing the the thing is not solving the problem, really, just fixing the result. Heyho. Hence qucikest easy bodge is clear sika/silicon which will stop it showing too much for the time being i spose, that's what i'd do, until fuller fix possible/needed. Again that split isn't really important, the teak is all cosmetic - but it would be if you drilled from underneath...

 

[jfm]

The pro deck sanders on superyachts invariably use disc sanders. Never belt cos one mistake and you have a groove, and not orbital cos a bit crap. The disc sanders use those discs about 6 inch diameter and they run them at a sort of medium rpm

 

[tcm]

hm, well if they're orbital or spinning it'll be a bit of a not-that good a finish cos the machine will rub across the grain and that means a tw*tting from the woodwork teacher. M5 had a subcontract bloke with orbital sander in portsmouth if you remember? He wanted to use 40 grit but they toldim ooh no, just use 80 grit and it had taken him days...

 

[ccscott49]

A good belt sander at low speed in experienced hands is OK, But I'm with TCM on this if its a smaller area, or near edges, hand sand.
I'm about to start on my decks, replug and recaulk, thats about 2000 plugs and a lot of caulking, bought a leccy adjustable caulking gun and two fein multimasters, probably need a couple of hundred tubes of sika. A long job, but doing it in sections.

 

[absit_omen]

Big job. Lucky you in the sunshine!

Couple of questions as I am about to do similar.

By the time you have finished the final sanding you will have an overall thinner depth of teak to play with.

Before you re-plug, what are you going to do about the screws as, I assume, you will need a deeper counterbore to make up for the depth of teak lost? Use the same length screw or use a shorter screw? Or not make a deeper counterbore but use a shallower plug?

Are you making your own plugs? (I am often frightened by the wastage of timber involved in the process of plug making) -are you using real teak or iroko?

What do you plan to secure the plugs - a dab of varnish?

Ta. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif