Teak decks. Should I run away????

[MultiCountryDon]

"I don’t know anyone who has re-decked with teak or any other wood, though that’s a nice dream."
I met a marine surveyor in N Carolina 2 weeks ago that did just that on his Grand Banks 32. Said no choice, the boat demanded it.

[flightlead404]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

How anyone could read that post and then buy the boat in question is incomprehensible to me!

Jim

Because you know nothing else of the boat, or the price.

[flightlead404]

Originally Posted by George DuBose

Flex-i-teek

Too bloody hot on bare feet!

Suffers from bird poop staining!

Gets ripples in it over time!

Just give me some nice moulded in anti-skid or sanded awlgrip done well

(or $50,000 off the price )

[CaptJPMcGuire]

If you like the boat --love the boat. Could you Fiberglass or canvas cover the decks. Old Sailing ships had canvas covering on hatches and decks with sand and lots of paint. But a good epoxy might add strength and water resistance. And you would have a boat you love ---oh hit the present owner with a pay for low ball it.
I had a GB 42 teak decks yep had leaks --loved the boat did all I could do to keep her dry --still leaked. Still sea worthy today she was a 1978 early glass hull.

[mako]

My previous boat had a wood deckhouse covered in canvas then painted with enamel. Worked fine and was tight butter

I wouldn’t recommend for decks. Would suggest a rubberized coating if you don’t want to fiberglass.

[ddugger]

Been there done that. A 36 foot Taiwanese made ketch. Absolutely, classic sailing vessel - a work of nautical art. The teak decks started to become water saturated around the 12-15 year age. If was 22 years old when Hurricane Francis took it and the floating Marina it was in. Thank you Boat US Insurance. Second happiest day of my boating experience.



Clearly, you have never worked with polysulfide rubber that is used to bed and seal the teak. It's a black, aggressive, creeping, staining, madness that gets all over you from one touch. Use it once and it will cure you of any desires to own a teak deck. Fresh teak is no doubt beautiful, but the entire teak deck construction process is placing hope, style and aesthetics over function, economics and reality - a poor outcome statement for human intellect processing potential. Teak decks are a guarantee for future disaster from day one - assuming you can't find some wild eyed boating enthusiast to pass it on to before it happens.

[sck5]

RUN

Unless you enjoy boat pain, as in it is not only expensive to deal with teak decks (pain number 1) but it is a horrible job that I wouldnt wish on anyone. (Pain number 2). Whatever discount you can finagle, it isnt worth it. Just like the boat whose bottom I sanded and then repainted in the middle of July, you will stop in the middle of the job and ask yourself "What would I pay not to be doing this right now?"

[drparr]

Hi i work on boats as my job, teak decks are not only very expensive to fix due to the issues around teak conservation but they are old hat and will leak at some point in the future. You can use Iroko as a substitute but all hardwoods are costly, if the deck has been sanded over time the corking v will be reduced causing more work to re-cork, you can use a primer & sikaflex as a substitute but again costly.
My advice is walk away.

[Romlea]

Based on my own experience:
Run as far and as long as you can away!!!!!!!!!

[drparr]

Yes maybe run instead of walk then.
I do smile reading how romantic it all seems to some folk to own or fancy buying a wooden boat.I have been involved with wood as a trade for over 40 years and my boat is GRP i have built some wooden ones but got paid to do that, believe me they are endless work & costly.

[Bmorgan562]

Originally Posted by Sailor647

Our 1988 Norseman 400 had factory installed teak decks on it when we bought it in 2013. The teak was still 3/8" thick (original was 1/2'), so we opted to re-caulk the whole thing. Total cost was around $3,000 USD. (We did a lot of the labor.)

Fast forward to 2020 after 6 years in the Mexico sun. The 32 year old teak was starting to split and lift, even though the new caulking was still in good shape.

So, we tackled the job and removed the teak in our slip. (Our marina in La Paz allows working on boats.) Which included removing topside hardware, every single screw, drilling, cleaning, and filling every hole with epoxy resign and thickener, then laid down two layers of finish cloth, then two coats of epoxy. Then paint, then non-skid.

We found and repaired two small areas of wet in the AirEx cabin top, which we knew about because they were picked up in the original pre-purchase survey. Turns out it was wet because the standard molded cabin top was cut to accommodate the purchasing owner's teak deck request and the teak deck caulking eventually failed in that area.

The most time consuming part was removing the interior pieces of the boat so we could remove the exterior hardware like sail tracks, eye bolts, cleats, and the windlass. Luckily, the interior of the Norseman 400 is made to dis-and re-assemble.

Total cost for the teak deck removal, with all new topside paint (hand painted) and KiwiGrip nonskid was $3,426. We did most of the labor ourselves (hired a few days of day labor for sanding @$50 per day) and bought all the product in La Paz, Mexico, except the Kiwi Grip, resin and cloth which was ordered from the US and trucked down.

The teak was great in the Pacific Northwest, but hotter than hell in the tropics. The white non-skid made it easy to walk on without burning your feet and lowered the temperature inside the boat about 10-15 degrees.

It's not a difficult project, just very tedious and time consuming. It took about two months of working mornings and late afternoon.

That is awesome.

[Issywa]

Regarding the original question of inspection for a wet core, I wonder if an infrared red scan might be able to pick up a wet core? As I understand, there needs to be a temperature difference between the cabin interior and teak exterior. A friend recently had this done on his boat for insurance purposes. Not sure if this is possible but I’d investigate it

[dbraymer]

Been through this on a CT 47.

This is a high labor effort regardless of whether you do it yourself or hire a professional.

It can be fairly cheap if you do it yourself (my way), but regardless it will take a while.

Is the deck cored? If it is cored and solid, you can save the whole deal by pulling all the screws and then ripping free the teak. If the deck is soft here and there, maybe better to walk away.

I pulled more than 4000 screws, tore off a zillion linear feet of very skinny pieces of teak, scrubbed and sanded the deck to clear white, and then resined down commercial rooftop base coarse fiberglass in various shapes, leaving run off paths. The glass cloth was very coarse but woven neatly, so it left a better traction area where I used it.

The cloth was wax impregnated, so you could cut curves into it without it falling apart.

If you decide to go for this vessel, and clear the decks, email me again I will get you pictures and details. Right now the vessel is in Florida, I am in Michigan, so I cannot take result pictures, I finished up with the cockpit last winter, (I left it for last) I could get a picture (or even a video) of the cloth, I have some remnants in the garage. it is amazing stuff.

Besides the cloth, I used all West epoxy stuff and Interlux glass sealer and paint on top.

I will provide a list of components if you wish. You are going to need knee pads and a good back!

A acquaintance of mine (with the same dang boat, go figure) Is solving the problem a bit at a time with new teak. This is, of course, maybe an even better idea, maybe use bigger screws in the same holes. Or fill all the holes, and shoot new ones, which can be tricky due to the geometry of various short pieces. But then some sections of teak will be 5/8-3/4 of an inch thick as compared with the weathered current 1/4-3/8.

I am a woodworker, and I went with plastic, after I pulled all the screws, removed all the teak and tar, filled all the holes, and ground the surface down to clean while gel coat resin.

I have a trick for removing screws broken off buried in fiberglass. Let me know if you need to know the whole sordid drama in detail.

[goboatingnow]

Old screwed teak decks , run away as fast as you can. These days there is no need to screw teak down and nobody with any sanity is doing it.

[LakeSuperior]

OK! Teak decks eventually leak, got it! Teak decks are expensive to repair, got it!

So why is just about every cored deck on a plastic boat over 10 year old waterlogged?

Is it because eventually, a cored deck will leak? Depending on the extent they are seriously expensive to repair.

Seems like a wash!