Teak Decking Leak (?)

[svenskflicka]

We get these wet spots after it rains on our teak deck. When you step on them, they make a little squishing sound. I'm wondering if this leak is most likely in the immediate vicinity or could it be coming from anywhere and just "exiting" there?

Thanks!

[syPhilos]

Most likely (tho I can tell only so much from a photo ) it's where the water gets "in" rather then "out". These spots dry slower then the rest of the deck because the water is leaking under the teak. The thing to worry about is where the water goes from there ...

[slug]

Originally Posted by svenskflicka

We get these wet spots after it rains on our teak deck. When you step on them, they make a little squishing sound. I'm wondering if this leak is most likely in the immediate vicinity or could it be coming from anywhere and just "exiting" there?

Thanks!

Teak decks are fragile and high maintenance .

The way you survey a teak deck is ...hose it down in the morning..come back in a few hours ..then look for the wet seams

The wet seam means the the caulking has lost it bond to the teak

To repair you get on your hands and knee..remove the section of failed caulking ..prime..recaulk

You could consider this cycle to be yearly ..spring maintenance

[Bill O]

Hard to tell in that pic, but the caulk in the corner of the wet area looks a bit buggered. As suggested, need to inspect the whole board and possibly adjacent boards for the broken seal/ loose caulk.
Due to your location, biggest worry would be water sitting under the teak and freezing. Eventually the freezing water/ice will lift the whole area allowing more water to get underneath.


Bill O.

[svenskflicka]

Originally Posted by Bill O

Hard to tell in that pic, but the caulk in the corner of the wet area looks a bit buggered. As suggested, need to inspect the whole board and possibly adjacent boards for the broken seal/ loose caulk.
Due to your location, biggest worry would be water sitting under the teak and freezing. Eventually the freezing water/ice will lift the whole area allowing more water to get underneath.


Bill O.

Hmm... Good point on the freezing. I hadn't thought of that. Some risk it already lifted a little since if the wood is "squishing" then it must be moving.

The teaks sure looks nice when it looks nice, but sometimes I wish I just had a fiberglass deck.

Thankfully it's only in the cockpit.

[slug]

Originally Posted by svenskflicka

Slug, thanks for the reply but yearly? seems a bit overkill? These decks are 7 years old and just have the first leak.

That depends on the age of the boat and it’s duty cycle ..wet, dry, wet dry

7 years is a middle age deck

I would think that next season you will have a few more broken seams

When contracting a pro , seam repair on a good deck is about 8 hours..one day of labor ..every year

[syPhilos]

Originally Posted by svenskflicka

Slug, thanks for the reply but yearly? seems a bit overkill? These decks are 7 years old and just have the first leak.

It doesn't really matter how old the teak & caulking is - even in that small pic there are several wet spots showing, and you're saying you can hear a squishing sound when you step on them.

Personally, I wouldn't ignore clear signs of trouble and give it time to get worse just cos "it's only x years old" ... The water doesn't care

Edit to add: it's not a difficult DIY project; you can renew the caulk yourself and save a lot of money. It's a precise job that'll take a little patience, but it's very doable.

[slug]

And many times wet seams are only cosmetic ..there will be no water between the teak deck and the fiberglass substrate

As a result it’s possible to postpone seam repair ..until next year or whatever

Ask your shipyard what type of caulking was used

Many yards use a silicone based caulking ..this caulking is easy to use because it needs no primer

[svenskflicka]

Originally Posted by syPhilos

It doesn't really matter how old the teak & caulking is - even in that small pic there are several wet spots showing, and you're saying you can hear a squishing sound when you step on them.

Personally, I wouldn't ignore clear signs of trouble and give it time to get worse just cos "it's only x years old" ... The water doesn't care

Don't get me wrong, I agree and plan on fixing it.

I think I misread Slug's post and thought he meant the entire deck should be re-caulked each year. When upon re-reading I think he is just saying that repair should be in the "yearly maintenance plan".

[Bill O]

Is there anyway to to keep more water from getting under the teak (enclose the cockpit) and try to dry it out?

Assume the motor enclosure is underneath, maybe add some heat below the cockpit to accelerate water evaporation?


Bill O.

[svenskflicka]

Originally Posted by Bill O

Is there anyway to to keep more water from getting under the teak (enclose the cockpit) and try to dry it out?

Assume the motor enclosure is underneath, maybe add some heat below the cockpit to accelerate water evaporation?


Bill O.

I have a winter cover over the whole thing right now and a bilge heater on. Was hoping it would dry out by late March and repair just before I bring her back to the mooring.

Probably better for the drying if I remove the caulk now and let it air out?

(for clarity, that photo is from the fall, not recently).

[slug]

Originally Posted by Bill O

Is there anyway to to keep more water from getting under the teak (enclose the cockpit) and try to dry it out?

Assume the motor enclosure is underneath, maybe add some heat below the cockpit to accelerate water evaporation?


Bill O.

A modern teak deck is prefabricated in the workshop.. Caulked, sanded ....brought to the boat .then vacuumed bagged onto an adhesive coated deck

This bond is very strong..foolproof ...BUT..they never seem to apply enough adhesive around the perimeter ..they are trying to prevent adhesive squeeze about and a labour intensive clean up

Disbonding normally only occurs around the perimeter..you might consider this to be cosmetic

[syPhilos]

Originally Posted by svenskflicka

The teaks sure looks nice when it looks nice, but sometimes I wish I just had a fiberglass deck.

This is what happened when we said that out loud about our boat



(Going from a dark blue to an off-white hull was only slightly teak-related ).

[svenskflicka]

Originally Posted by syPhilos

This is what happened when we said that out loud about our boat


(Going from a dark blue to an off-white hull was only slightly teak-related ).

Yikes! I don't even want to know how much that cost! Results were good though!

[syPhilos]

Thanks

The paint job wasn't cheap, but everything else we did ourselves ... We wouldn't have been able to afford it otherwise, and it wouldn't have been done exactly how we wanted it done

We kept the teak in the cockpit (renovated it tho) but the entire deck is now KiwiGrip. We love it and don't miss the teak at all.

And if you don't have your boat spray painted like we did, it mostly costs time and not all that much coin ...

But yeah, we learned a lot about teak, caulking etc. etc.