Removal of Bavaria Teak Plywood Decks

[Stream Spirits]

I have a 1998 Bavaria 38 Ocean series sailboat which has factory installed teak decks, which are really plywood with teak veneer. They are starting to get very thin in the teak and areas are becoming delaminated from the deck and trapping water. I understand that at the factory the teak decking is bonded to the normally finished deck. Has anyone had experience in removing the factory teak / plywood decking. How big a job is it, what is it bonded with and will the uncovered deck cleanup and look presentable without painting or other expensive rework.

[Johnathon123]

I had a small part of teak decking lift on one I used to own. The job was beyond my then skill level and risk scale so I had a Shipwright repair it, he replaced the entire swim platform teak decking.

I am not sure precisely how he did it, but I had a look at the progress a few times and I genuinely believed he had taken to it with a jackhammer such was the mess about half way through.

I am not sure if this was his technique OR the deck itself required this form of aggressive approach but he was less than complimentary about the process.

Ultimately it ended up better than new with the new teak.

Probably doesn't help much but that was my experience.

[ssanzone]

easy, but messy, option, belt sand (carefully) the veneer off and epoxy a new veneer paying with careful consideration to the edges and add an extra top coat of sealer.

applying veneer is tricky, pick an edge, epoxy down a foot or 2, put some weight on it and make sure there are no air bubbles and let it set up and dry then do the next foot with more weight and so on. takes a while but it pretty easy. the flatter / smoother your sub-floor the easier / better.

less easy and more messy option is to sand off the veneer and put down a solid wood flooring (teak whatever you like and can afford). if you go down this road but cant swallow $30 a board foot for teak, african mahogany has the same properties that make teak so appealing in boats and should run you about $8 a foot.

it would not be too painful to roll and tip the deck as well if u wanted to paint after sanding off the veneer. obviously a very different look.

just remember, that veneer is only 1/16th of an inch thick so a belt sander will rip thru it in a blink of an eye.

gl.

-steve

[Chief Engineer]

I was asked to do this on a Bavaria....I turned the job down as did a well qualifies shipwright (The customer has a history of being a "Bad Pay")

He gottaguy to do it........The results are enough to make you cry.........

It is either teak or it's not.

[YachtDreamtime]

Originally Posted by Stream Spirits

I have a 1998 Bavaria 38 Ocean series sailboat which has factory installed teak decks, which are really plywood with teak veneer. They are starting to get very thin in the teak and areas are becoming delaminated from the deck and trapping water. I understand that at the factory the teak decking is bonded to the normally finished deck. Has anyone had experience in removing the factory teak / plywood decking. How big a job is it, what is it bonded with and will the uncovered deck cleanup and look presentable without painting or other expensive rework.

Hi Stream Spirits, We have a Bavaria 38 Ocean, 1999, in the UK and have same problems with 'teak' deck delaminating. Did you progress to any work, and how did it turn out?

[Nemo55]

Why not use Acacia wood ? cheaper, longer lasting, oily wood, very hard, etc etc, etc.

[MacG]

African mahogany cannot replace the Tectona Grandis in a long way. You probably mix it up with Iroko (Kambala) that comes technically close to teak and has even better specs concerning resistance against acids. But Iroko shrinks and expands when wet and dry again, with high tensions and therefore not so suitable for decking purposes.
African mahoganys like Sapeli and the okoumea Kleiana are technically inferior to teak.

Try Afzelia. Super rot & waterresistand and does not expand and/or shrink.

[foolishsailor]

Do you ever plan on being in hotter climes?

Teak is murderously hot near the equator and really a throwback to the gentleman era of sailing. If you can remove it and the deck be painted and gritted you will be much happier in terms of the heat down below and the heat on your toes. If you are into cosmetics, and many are, there is no real substitute to real teak. There are many variations that work from African like Rhodesian teak but they have issues with shrinkage and torsion across widths...

Depending on your volume of wood it may be worth your while to look into coops that buy wood in container loads...tend to be located in california, oregan and Washington.

Sorry no websites can think of an been awhile myself but in my California carpenter days I participated coops for hardwoods for furniture and teak was high on the list as well. There were boat builders in Oregon that were looking for keels, stems and sterns of solid teak and finding them in south east Asia...probably not a help...