Teak deck maintanace

I have now kept Swante in Southern Europe (Portugal and Spain) the last 4 years and the effect on the deck of the much stronger sun than in Scandinavia is starting to show. The teak plugs over the screws have fallen out in large areas, and something needs to be done.

I seem to recall that I read somewhere on this forum that one method of repair could be remove the screws (where the plugs have fallen off) completely, fill the hole with epoxy glue and put a new teak plug back in.

Has anyone tried this method, and what was the result? Any recommendations on how to proceed would be most welcome. Does anyone know the size (dia and length) of the teak plugs?

All the best,

Terje.

Dear Terje

You are right, you can easily pull out the old screw if the teak is very well glued to the deck and fill the hole with epoxy

the thickness of the plug depends on how may teak you have anyway cut it thicker, insert the plug being careful the veneer is on the same way of the planks and after the glue is dry gently cut the exposed part and gently sand

that's it

fair winds!

matteo (47/069 Vanessa)

When I bought our 411 two years ago, the original deck was in really bad shape-deeply weathered and scalloped. It had been indescriminately sanded over its life so it also had thin spots and ridges around the winches as well.  I'm committed to keeping the deck alive with an initial selective sanding, seam repair, and plank replacement as necessary.  One of the things that I learned from a member of the Tayana 37 association is a treatment that slows the weathering, especially in the soft part of the grain.  The treatment is one half Semco oil (I use the "natural" color) and one half Teak Wonder.  When used by themselves, neither treatment lasts more than a few months. Used together, the combination lasts a whole year.  One quart of the combination will cover the entre deck with a thin  coat.

I've always been suspicious of product claims, but this one has worked well.  The gentlemant that I contacted on-line though the Tayana 37 group had been using it for over 15 years. He's an old US Navy figther pilot, so I took a risk.  Glad I did...

Don F, Zoe 411/11 

Dear Terje.

I have replaced a number of plugs in the deck of our 411.

A tip I have found useful, is to make a small cut with a "junior hacksaw" on one side of the plug , This  allows excess epoxy to escape and allow the plug to seat in the bottom of the hole. the cut is not visible then the plug id sanded.

Regards

Paul 

Hierro 411 042

Hello Terje:

I have read these past postings in this forum regarding removal of deck screws and replacing with epoxy and new teak bungs.

To give you another perspective I just completed replacing almost 100% of my deck screws and teak bungs (1,200+ bungs) over this past winter.  My boat had lost almost all of its teak deck bungs.

I was not convinced removing the deck planking screws and not replacing them was going to work especially if a large number of deck screws are to be removed. Once I got a system developed for the work it took approximately 3 weeks doing the work by myself.  

Work performed were the following:

1. removing deck screws (also some bungs where still left)

2, carefully increasing the depth of the teak deck countersink (without increasing depth of hole in subdeck)

3. injecting epoxy into existing subdecking hole to seal the foam core deck sandwich.

4. inserting new shorter deck planking screw so it does not go any deeper than original screws.

5. inserting new teak bungs using varnish (not epoxy) so if future removal of bung (hopefully not necessary anytime soon) is required they can be removed easier.  If epoxied bungs need to be removed you will need to use a small electric hand grinder to carefully grind away the old bung without damaging the surrounding deck. This would be very difficult and you may ultimately have to just drill a new hole next to the original bung.

So far all of the bungs have held and no leaks noticed below.

I realize this is a lot of work but removing and not replacing deck screws should be based on how old and how good the original deck adhesive is.  There is no way to determine this with certainy. The last thing you would want is for the deck planking to become loose after doing the work.  Remember the boat and teak deck are always flexing and moving (sometimes together and sometimes independently) and is also subject to thermal expansion and contraction at different rates. The deck adhesive has to overcome all of these forces.

Sorry for this long winded posting.

Fiar winds,

Hiro Nakajima

Swan 43/46