Refinishing Sole Boards

[Dockhead]

My sole boards are getting tireder and tireder, with the varnish broken down in many places and even some water stains in the heads and galley.

They are made of marine plywood with a teak veneer.

I've got some crew to help me with this, so I think I'm now going to try to refinish them myself.

I just need to know how to go about it, and hope some of you more knowledgeable shipwrights can give me some tips.

Step 1 I guess is just to sand off all the old varnish -- right? Sanding veneer I guess I shouldn't use a belt sander, which might cut right through it. I have a Ryobi multi-sander, which did a pretty good job getting the old varnish off my companionway steps a couple of years ago, and I have an orbital sander -- right tools?

What do I do about the water stains? Is anything even possible? Will I need to have those boards re-veneered?

Then, is two-pack polyurethane the right finish? I used International Perfection Plus on my companionway stairs, and it still looks like new after three years of hard usage. Expensive, but seems extremely durable. I was thinking about using the matt finish version for the sole boards -- a good choice?

I guess I could oil them, but I sail north of 50N (and sometimes north of 60N) and have a constant parade of wet sea-boots tromping across my sole boards -- isn't polyurethane a better choice?

All tips gratefully received.

[minaret]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

My sole boards are getting tireder and tireder, with the varnish broken down in many places and even some water stains in the heads and galley.

They are made of marine plywood with a teak veneer.

I've got some crew to help me with this, so I think I'm now going to try to refinish them myself.

I just need to know how to go about it, and hope some of you more knowledgeable shipwrights can give me some tips.

Step 1 I guess is just to sand off all the old varnish -- right? Sanding veneer I guess I shouldn't use a belt sander, which might cut right through it. I have a Ryobi multi-sander, which did a pretty good job getting the old varnish off my companionway steps a couple of years ago, and I have an orbital sander -- right tools?

What do I do about the water stains? Is anything even possible? Will I need to have those boards re-veneered?

Then, is two-pack polyurethane the right finish? I used International Perfection Plus on my companionway stairs, and it still looks like new after three years of hard usage. Expensive, but seems extremely durable. I was thinking about using the matt finish version for the sole boards -- a good choice?

I guess I could oil them, but I sail north of 50N (and sometimes north of 60N) and have a constant parade of wet sea-boots tromping across my sole boards -- isn't polyurethane a better choice?

All tips gratefully received.

Start by heat stripping old varnish. Then sand. I usually sand by hand only, no power tools, for wood work. This is because you don't want any cross grain scratches. I use an in line only sander for big jobs, but they are way too pricey for the average user.

For veneered soles, sanding might go 120-150-180-220, with the possibility of going back to 80 if staining is severe. Try not to do this, 80 scratches are hard to remove and you may burn through the veneer in the process.


Coat with a water based polyurethane gym floor product, there are many. I doubt brands we use here are available there. Gym floor coating is high gloss, super hard wearing, not slippery, and needs way less coats to achieve a finish. It's also much cheaper than marine products. Go with a satin finish.


JMHO, YMMV.

[TheThunderbird]

Hi Dock!

I am exactly at the same process.

I grinded mine with a roto-orbital Metabo grinder 150mm D, two grits, 80 and 320.
First you tear away old warnish (a witheish dust) second you peel off veneer gently, pairing and cleaning..always.with grit 80.

220/320 for finish (l didnt go further, so far my boards will be glued and covered)

IF heavily damaged, l'd recommend some waxy paint for absorption (which you can use either transparent, or dyed with a color powder mixed with alcohol), then a compatible paint, NOT varnish which is of low resistance and of difficult maintenance.

For parquet finish, there are good one-component products based on Water (less ventilation needed).

Finish: waxy/matt is a temptation... but i see most classics are in glossy finish... harder indeed. If any, l go semi-gloss on joinery, but floor is glossy.

I went beyond that, and will add 10mm thick solid iroko wood on floor panels.

Gluing and cutting is being made at a woodmaker...

Advice: l hate hard, sandy dust onboard... so, i am considering to add a wooden grate at entry, front of/beneath the ladder. Classy and posh too :-)

PS i will fight the dumb commercial finish of teak or mahogany plywood, so miserable and even, and even worse if with the lighter color stripes typical of motor cruisers.... no way!
I try to have the natural veneer getting out natural wood... see pic (table)

[LoudMusic]

Mmm, bookmarking this one for later reference as many of the boats (some Moodys!) that my wife and I are looking at appear to need interior woodwork, primarily their floors and some tables.

[UNCIVILIZED]

For your water stains, you could always cover some sections of the sole either with colorful patterns, or alternative nonskid. The latter meaning anything from skateboard tape, to treadmaster (of one flavor or another).

On colors, Liz Clark's done some neat stuff with her cabin sole. There are patches of cloth, laid down in longitudinal strips, much like holly accents, which are varnished over. They're fairly colorful, unique, & classy. Check out the 2010 pics section in her blog/website www.swellvoyage.com
Swell Voyage » Galleries » 2010

Here's a couple of pics of them Swell Voyage » mg_3411
Swell Voyage » mg_3457 And there are plenty more.

One other thought is that if you have some truly hideous water stains, you might see about gluing on some sort of "inlays". Whether it be some faux scrimshaw, on weather proof material that'd get glued down, & varnished over. Or actually having someone do some shallow depth carvings on the boards, & then fill them in either with wood, glued in white (or colored) sand, etc. And then varnish overtop of it.
You could even give your cabin sole "tattoos", in the form of burned in carvings. As in wood burning.

Worst case, if you hate such "inlays", or added color swatches, either strip'em off, or bond new wood onto your current floorboards, & break out the polyurethane again.

PS: Since traction's needed on cabin soles anyway, having "inlays" that are 1-2mm thick, bonded on top of the floorboards & then varnished over wouldn't be all bad. Heck, for that matter, you could even "inlay" some playing cards in the form of fanned out poker hands. And then put a heavy finish overtop of them. Epoxy & varnish, polyurethane, etc.

[Typhoon]

Hey Dockhead

This is what I did in another thread.

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ul-179378.html

Regards John

[Stu Jackson]

I removed the existing finish with chem stripper and a spackle knife. Took them off the boat and home. Some light sanding with fine paper. Two or three coats of Minwax urethan gloss to match the ones I couldn't remove or didn't need to since they were OK.

Good luck, big job, help always helps (but only one can be behind a brush at a time!). Many pieces, many brushes. Although drying times really control that timing, so doing one at a time is like painting a bridge: once you finish at the other end, it's time to start over!

Your boat, your choice.

[SV Siren]

I will second Minaret's suggestion about the water base gym floor finish. I used this on the flooring at our bed and breakfast, and boy did it come out nice. Depending on weather, we could get three coats a day, and clean-up was a breeze with soapy water. An added bonus, there was almost no smell to it, and you could not even tell the next day the flooring had just been coated. We used a lambs wool applicator, but I imagine a sponge might work just as well in a small application. The product we used, I cannot remember what it was, but it was a two part finish around $100 a gallon, but it was so easy to use that I did not mind the cost at all.

We had this finish on a commercial wood floor for years, and it held up perfect. In fact 15 years after we put it down, and sold the building, it is still there and looks perfect.

[Suijin]

I'd go at the stripping with a heat gun and carbide scraper. Once you get rolling it goes very quickly, gives you good control, and perhaps most importantly does not remove material like sanding (particularly important with veneer), and is far less messy than chemical stripping and won't risk raising the grain.

For stains you can go at it with oxalic acid or one of the branded teak cleaners as a first step to see how much of the stain will come out before you resort to sanding. I've had good luck with Mary Kate Teak Cleaner for getting oil off and moderate stains, resorting to oxalic acid in various concentrations for more stubborn ones. It's all a matter of how bad the staining is with respect to your results but it's usually worth a try before you start sanding.

If you end up with areas that are too deeply stained to restore, another flooring product that is seeing fairly widespread use on boats is woven vinyl flooring. It's fairly bullet proof, easy on the feet, nonskid, and available in lots of patterns. You glue it down. Some of it comes with thin hard foam backing to give it some cushioning

Marine Vinyl / Non-Skid - Infinity Luxury Woven Vinyl Flooring - Page 1 - MARINE CARPETING

[Bill O]

We looked at a lot of different options to seal/protect our new cabin sole. While there are many new water-based gym floor finishes, we didn't feel they were slip resistant enough if they became wet and the process to initially seal the teak was a pain. Also once you went down the road of a polyurethane finish, you were stuck in that bracket or endure a lengthy ordeal to remove the finish to apply something different.

After all our research, we went to a traditional tung oil finish. If you like/want a high gloss finish, the tung oil finish is not for you, but if you want a finish that is easy to take care of, resists water stains and uses the natural non-slip feature of the teak, then it maybe something to look into for your cabin sole re-finishing.

Surprisingly, we found out that not all commercial "tung oil" products off the shelf actually contain tung oil, but may contain linseed oil which will gum up after a while. Could go on and on, but read the link above for more details on what we found while research our project.

Bottom line, after almost a year the cabin sole still looks great and would highly recommend it.

Cheers,
Bill O.