Boat Life Caulk

[Flatsflyer]

Been 3 days with this product, has to be the worst product I've ever used in terms of cleanup and neatness. Sure hope it works. I've removed all of the old caulk between the teak wood work and the sides and transom of the sundeck. Used backer rod to fill large voids and then Boat Life for the final caulking. This products gets on everything and is next to impossible to cleanup. Have tried every solvent in my garage and non really work that well. Must be a secret formula that I'm missing?

 

[Pau Hana]

What are the cleanup instructions on the tube?

 

[Moonstruck]

Have you tried toluene?

 

[Nomad Willy]

It's said to be very good on teak. Don't know if anything can be great on teak but that's supposed to be it's strong point.
I have used it in very small tubes as other caulks only come in a regular industrial size cartridge and most of the time I only need a small amount.
I've found it to be good and haven't had any of the messy problems you've talked about. It's been around a long time as I remember it from when I was a very young man and I'm 73 now ... as of a few days ago.

 

[Marin]

Our experience is that Boat Life Caulk is not very good on teak, particularly with deck seams. For that we've long since learned to use the best product on the planet for this, which is TDS (Teak Deck Systems). It's what Grand Banks, Fleming, etc. use on their new boats today.

But we do use Life Caulk for dipping deck screw tips in before seating them. We have found that it cleans up off of hands and tools very nicely with citrus cleaner.

 

[HopCar]

Boat Life makes a solvent specifically for cleaning up Life Calk. Oddly enough it's called Life Calk Solvent and Cleaner. You should be able to buy it where ever you bought the Life Calk.
They also make a product called Release which can help remove cured sealants like Life Calk and 5200.

 

[Phil Fill]

Paint thinner.

 

[BruceK]

... we've long since learned to use the best product on the planet for this, which is TDS (Teak Deck Systems). It's what Grand Banks, Fleming, etc. use..

Now I remember, that`s who I asked about applying oil to caulked teak decks. Definitely not recommended.

 

[Brooksie]

I'm sure you know this but just in case....
Mask off both sides of the joint with wide blue tape, trowel with a wet finger, stick, or spoon. Remove tape b/4 dry if you can. There should be little need for thinner but mineral sprits works on this b/4 dry.

Teak can be primed with their primer for better adhesion.

 

[BruceK]

I'm sure you know this but just in case....
Mask off both sides of the joint with wide blue tape, trowel with a wet finger, stick, or spoon. Remove tape b/4 dry if you can. There should be little need for thinner but mineral sprits works on this b/4 dry.

Teak can be primed with their primer for better adhesion.

Lay bond breaker tape at the base of the groove. So the caulk adheres to the sides only, = longer bonded life.

 

[Marin]

Another rule if one is doing deck seams is to clean the grooves with acetone just before applying the bond-breaking tape and deck sealant.

 

[Flatsflyer]

Guys thanks for the suggestions on Toluene and Thinner, I had used Acetone, Xylene as well as the Boat Life Release Agent. I did tape and primed the areas. I used closed cell backer rod because I was not able to find bond breaking tape even at places like Jamestown Distributors. The first attempt was a mistake because I left the tape on overnight, Comes off much easier and leaves a much smoother finish if tape is removed as soon as caulking is done. Tomorrow I hope to finish caulking the underside of the toe rail and re seat a couple of stanchions, I will get the Toluene and Citrus Cleaner before starting. Then it will be several coats CPES and 10 coats of Bristol Finish.

Going through all this because I've only gotten 2 1/2years from Bristol, hoping priming, better caulking and CPES improves the longevity of the Bristol.

Again thanks for the help.

 

[caltexflanc]

Having just been through a big teak deck re-caulking project, done in stages this year I can attest that the Boat Life Teak Deck caulk is very messy and takes time to cure and is a little trickier to sand. You have to get the Teak Deck flavor. On stage two, I found a guy with a Fein Multimaster that had the little hook like attachments that made getting the old caulk out cleanly a dream. He swore by the Teak Decking Systems product, which seems not as messy, cures faster and sands nicely. Stage three, I had a carpenter with a lot of deck experience in to finish re-bunging and re-screwing and check integrity. He swears by the Life Caulk product and I could not get him to use the TDS any more than I could get the other guy to use the other. I like the TDS better myself but the proof will be in the next five years. You sure don't want to get any of this stuff on your paint job.

 

[Marin]

While I suppose you can find something called "bond breaking tape" none of the shipwrights I've talked to about re-seaming a teak deck use it. They (and I) use 3M auto striping tape. It comes in various widths-- for our boat we use 1/4" as that's the width of the bottom of the grooves between the planks. You should be able to buy it at any store that sells auto painting supplies.

PS--- We've been using Bristol on our boat for some twelve years now. We always try to get at least eight coats on and ten are better. In this climate we have some exterior pieces on the boat that were finished ten years ago and have not been touched since even though the piece is outside in the weather year round.

I don't advocate going this long between replenisher coats, but Bristol can do this as long as moisture can't get down under the finish. More recently we have started using a couple of coats of CPES on raw wood and we apply the first coat of Bristol while the last coat of CPES is still tacky, a technique learned from the GB owners forum.