Teak Deck Renovation

If the teak is epoxied down to ply, why is breaker tape essential? Hear this a lot, just wondering. Totally agree with the get the grooves spotless clean, then the caulking will stick, priming also helps.
 
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After an hour, with only two tubes squeezed and wrists numb with pain, we re-assessed the situation. “Let’s warm the tubes up,” said John. We did. That helped. “More” said John. We did. That helped more. We laid a heap of tubes in front of the fan heater and brought them up to about 35°C. Each was snapped quickly into the squeeze gun and wrapped in a towel to keep it warm. Wonderful! The caulking flowed into the grooves with no effort at all. We checked with Sikaflex – “Ah, yes. That’s how most people do it. What matters is the temperature of the surface you’re filling – that shouldn’t be over 25°C.”


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Watched a guy doing this kept the tubes of caulking warm by immersing in a bucket of warm water
 
Slightly off theme but if the teak is just cosmetic (ie layed on top of a GRP deck) does the condition of the caulking really matter? I ask because I've noticed a couple of places where the teak is lifting but have managed to stick it back down again with epoxy.This seems to have worked for a couple of seasons but am I encouraging possible problems with the GRP deck?
 
Breaker tape is vital!! It stops the caulking adhering to the bottom of the groove so that as the groove expands and retracts with temp/humidity the adhesion to the sides of the teak is not strained, in essence the caulking can slide over the breaker tape giving it more chance to stick on the sides of the groove where watertight adhesion is essential
 
Where the teak is just a cosmetic glued down layer then water ingress is less of a problem. There may be an issue with trapped water freezing and causing more lifting etc or finding its way into the boat via through deck fittings but generally much less of a problem than with a wooden subdeck especially when screws hold the teak to the subdeck.
 
Don't assume a GRP deck will be OK. Most teak is screwed down. That makes lots of holes in your deck. If water penetrates and freezes it can crack the grp and/or find its way below. Worse still if you have a balsa cored deck, where the balsa will rot if wet. Then you could be looking at very major repairs.
 
OK, I understand your point, but on a proper laid deck, as in no subdeck, they dont use "breaker tape" below the caulking on top of the cotton caulking. Also my deck has no breaker tape and is 43 years old now, the caulking has gone hard and is just now beggining to seperate from the sides of the grooves, because its hard. Why should the teak move and the grooves open up when it is all basically an epoxied mass, plywwod/teak? I ask these questions, because I am about to re-caulk my decks and re-plug, no worries with mine, they are 3/4" ply, with 1" teak on top of that, they have worn, but only about 1/8-3/16". So I was wondering whether to fit breaker tape or not. It's not cheap, especially the amount I will need for a 57' boat!
 
I gather that your teak is 3/4" thick and epoxied to the sub deck. You may be right when thinking that the breaker tape may not be required as there should be little sideways pull exerted on the caulking by the teak expanding/contracting 3/4" down. More important I would suggest is the cleaning of the teak edges especially where the caulking has already come away. Cleaning off any gunge, de oiling with acetone and then priming are very important.
Cost of caulking will be significant on your job I guess!!
Good luck
 
Teak is 3/4" now or a bit over and yes caulking is gonna cost!! But I will use an air powered gun and hot tubes of sika or equivalent. Waste not, want not! Yeah and I will deffo clean the grooves really well. Got about 3000 plugs to do as well!
 
It has always seemed to me bizarre to make a deck out of GRP and then put hundreds of screw holes in it - when one of the best features of GRP is that it can be made monolithic and watertight. Then to attach an unstable material (relatively) such as teak in many pieces with the gaps filled with another material. All have different rates of expansion, made worse when the teak is thick.

Not surprising such decks don't last in the harsh environment - 10 years seems to be good and then a big job to repair or replace.

I am not against teak, I have skinned the plywood cockpit seats of my Eventide in a veneer, epoxied down and even the "seams" filled with epoxy. Been there for 15 years. The cockpit seats and sole of my Bavaria are also faced in a veneer (about 3mm) glued, not sure with what, to the GRP and Sika type seams. Still good after 7 years. Maybe this is the way to go. You can do 3 to 4 boats for the same volume of teak and when it wears out just peel it off and replace with a new venweer panel - and no holes in the deck.

Or, shock horror! Tek Dek
 
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Not surprising such decks don't last in the harsh environment - 10 years seems to be good and then a big job to repair or replace.

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Mine is 12 years old, having spent several years baking in the Med sun, and showing no sign of needing replacement - I am hoping for at least 5 years more, touch wood. (Pardon the pun!)
 
Run, don't walk, away from this boat. Aging teak decks are an abomination with problems that will keep you awake at nights.

They have little to recommend them other than cosmetically appealing to yachting snobbery and perhaps a good foothold whether wet or dry. They are ponderously heavy at an unsuitably high point to lower stability and the maintenance problems and longevity are well recorded here - I just wish I had read this forum before I bought my HR with the moldering teak deck some three years ago. Only now, after a disappointing Coelan treatment, do I realise that the best solution is to tear it all off for firewood, epoxy the screw holes and lay treadmaster or just paint. Anything but using a diminishing natural resource that would cost almost half what I paid for the entire boat originally with a ticking countdown to the next set of headaches.
 
But if it just needs refurbishing, £10k, replacing £25k - something like 25-40% of the value of a 20 year old boat! Nothing on a boat contributes so little and costs so much. Remember this style of deck only came in in volume around 20 years ago, and based on performance so far is a ticking time bomb for owners.

Who will be the first to start a fashion of stripping them back, re-surfacing with pigmented epoxy and non-slip sand in the last coat - or even leave the weave of a layer of glass cloth exposed. Good deal if you can pick up a £100k boat for £75k, spend £5k on it and have a deck that will last the life of the boat.
 
No point in picking on just teak decks. Re-rig every 10 - 15 years. Serious engine expense (with average maintenance) every 20 years. Hull repaint 10 years. Life rafts! - don't even talk of those servicing costs. Sails, 10 years. We won't discuss UK marina costs - that's just unfair.

The general depreciation cost is going to be about 10% pa of the price when new.

Much better to give up sailing and take up property development. Well, perhaps not just at the moment . . . but let's be tolerant of those of us who don't mind the cost, and enjoy the luxury of teak decks. Lets face it, the whole of sailing activities are a luxury for most participants.
 
No, Jim they are not all in the same category. You need sails, engines, mast rigging etc to function. You can buy a whole new rig, mast and sails and an engine for less than a new deck. You don't need teak decks. They will be the new "osmosis". Boats with dodgy teak decks will be unsaleable because there are no half measures unless you are prepared to DIY. And the new deck will have the same built in problems the old one had.
 
It is very common practice especiqally in the meddy, to remove worn out teak decks, fill the screw holes and cover with glass and or paint and or trakmark. Seen 6 boats doen in the last year in Barcelona. Very common to do it in the states, but not an option with my deck, plus I have lots of depth to go yet before I would consider it. Once I have doen it this time, it will see me out no worries and probably the next owner too!!
 
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