Advice needed : glassing the deck after teak removal

[gulfislandfred]

Big thumbs up to microballoons/light weight filler, and epoxy resin. Or polyester, if that's what you're using.


I have used microbaloons with oil based and acrylic paints, and yellow glue, with good results.

Paint stores sell microballoons, sometimes as light weight filler, for a lot less than marine outlets. Great stuff. The resulting mix is not as strong as with a structural filler, but it's pretty strong for most purposes.

[massnspace]

Some advice that may help you…..

If you can…..I would consider drilling small holes into your core from the top…..say 1/4” holes every 6”…..but NOT thru the bottom interior skin….careful drilling and a brad point drill bit with a collar is what I have used….then fill all the holes with resin/microfibers. Let gravity pull the resin down. Then a layer of cloth/resin on top.

Sounds like a lot of work but it is actually not….you can drill one hole every few seconds and fill them all easily by pouring resin out on the deck and using a squeegee to drag it into the holes. Quick work.

The reason for doing this is to LOCK the 2 skins together with resin channels. So even if the core is compromised, you can really minimize the chance of large scale delamination of the 2 skins later.

I did this on several decks I have worked on and all are still good as time goes on…

[Tanqueray]

Originally Posted by ttex

I have already drilled and filled all the holes with epoxy. The core is not rotten anywhere that I am aware of after I have fixed the spots that were rotten.

The foredeck still flexes.

I would being fiberglassing to fiberglass. The deck is fiberglass-balsa core-fiberglass. All of the deck is stiff except the foredeck and it barely flexes. From what I can tell it is not from the core being rotten but I am open to having my mind changed. I am not an expert but I am pretty good at this sort of stuff.

I have visually seen the core every few inches in every spot of the deck. I did this personally. All of it.



This is what the deck looks like currently.

I don’t know much about the glass cloth to use, but I would recommend drilling some larger holes in the foredeck where it seems to flex and verify that the core is dry. You sure don’t want to go to the trouble of laying new glass, finishing it, etc. just to find you have water in the core…

Trying to determine the condition of the core from a screw hole isn’t going to tell you much. Take a 1” core sample with a hole saw in a few of the most-suspect areas. If those are dry and in good condition, you should be good to go. If you find rot, move on to the second most suspect areas and check those…and so on.

If you think the side decks are dry, then doing just the foredeck wouldn’t be that bad.

Search You Tube for “Sail Life”. That guy repaired his whole deck (and then some). He is a bit of a perfectionist it seemed, but you can see the technique involved with re-coring the deck.


Good luck with the project.


Greg

[Scubaseas]

Originally Posted by Tanqueray

I don’t know much about the glass cloth to use, but I would recommend drilling some larger holes in the foredeck where it seems to flex and verify that the core is dry. You sure don’t want to go to the trouble of laying new glass, finishing it, etc. just to find you have water in the core…

Trying to determine the condition of the core from a screw hole isn’t going to tell you much. Take a 1” core sample with a hole saw in a few of the most-suspect areas. If those are dry and in good condition, you should be good to go. If you find rot, move on to the second most suspect areas and check those…and so on.

If you think the side decks are dry, then doing just the foredeck wouldn’t be that bad.

Search You Tube for “Sail Life”. That guy repaired his whole deck (and then some). He is a bit of a perfectionist it seemed, but you can see the technique involved with re-coring the deck.


Good luck with the project.


Greg

Maybe run a moisture meter over it first to get an idea of how wet it is before drilling a lot of core samples. But I agree it might be a lot wetter than the OP thinks it maybe. Babas are typically pretty stout boats and not known for springy decks unless they're delaminated.

[ttex]

Tentative plan at this point is to prep and paint the topside without laying glass down. Looks thick as is. Two-part paint including epoxy primer.

I suspect at least some moisture. I will test with the meter when possible. I have the bottom of the deck to bare fiberglass also so I can drill shallow holes into the core all over and let it dry out at my leisure. In theory...

For the slight spring to the deck I plan to, as suggested earlier, add a beam underneath.

This is my current working plan at this time.

Four year anniversary of the boat purchase a few days ago.

Ultimate goal is to get sailing as soon as possible. I can pull the boat out in Guatemala and work on it more. That sounds more fun than staying in Houston forever.

[Nicholson58]

Originally Posted by ttex

Tentative plan at this point is to prep and paint the topside without laying glass down. Looks thick as is. Two-part paint including epoxy primer.

I suspect at least some moisture. I will test with the meter when possible. I have the bottom of the deck to bare fiberglass also so I can drill shallow holes into the core all over and let it dry out at my leisure. In theory...

For the slight spring to the deck I plan to, as suggested earlier, add a beam underneath.

This is my current working plan at this time.

Four year anniversary of the boat purchase a few days ago.

Ultimate goal is to get sailing as soon as possible. I can pull the boat out in Guatemala and work on it more. That sounds more fun than staying in Houston forever.

If you do not glass then the flexing of the deck will result in half-moon cracks at many former screw holes. These will all leak water into your core. This is the crappy job our PO did. I chased the cracks with 5200 for several years until we had the total deck re-done in Trinidad. All hardware was removed to insure a proper job. Do it once right or do it twice.

[s/v Jedi]

I also think you should glass it. It’s not much more work than what you have in mind, it’s just a matter of making the patterns, buying the 1708, electric scissors and start cutting the material.

It’s also easy to do and removes most of the fairing task.

[jcapo]

You really need to lay down a layer of glass or the filled holes will crack and leak. 1708 biaxial is easy to use, much easier than CSM. 1708 plays nicely with epoxy also.

I'm removing the teak on my Tayana 42 right now. It appears that you don't have to remove the lifeline stanchions so that simplifies it for you. I have to remove all stanchions and peel/chip/grind all of the gelcoat that was under the teak.

I am using two layers of 1708 since a bit of glass came up with the gelcoat. I did the bow triangle forward of the cabin with 4 pieces of 1708 and two coats of gelcoat in one day. The side decks are done with 24x36 inch pieces.

The gelcoat fills the 1708 weave somewhat for easier sanding. UV protection also because final sanding and painting may be months away.

I countersunk the old screw holes with a 1/2" countersink and filled them with Totalboat Polyester Structural Putty instead of epoxy so that I could use unwaxed vinylester resin and gelcoat. Cost is about the same as epoxy and I can do the second layer days later if needed.

I'm on the hard and I need even loose lifelines to remind me where the edge of the boat is. I've worked without lifelines in the water but I don't care to 12 feet in the air.

I'm removing teak as I go rather rather than all at once so I can keep half of the lifeline stanchions in place. I'll completely finish from mast forward, install those stanchions, and then remove the teak and stanchions aft of the mast. At least that is the plan.

Add a layer of 1708 biaxial, you'll be happy later. Its really not that difficult.

[ttex]

It would be appear that glassing it is the consensus no brainer path forward here, so I will start working on that. I am more or less prepped already.