Hours/sq.m to lift old teak decks?

Rustybarge · Oct 5, 2017

Hi All,

Here in Europe you can buy 10-12mm teak decking at about £30 sq.ft, not cut to size of course. A company Laying the deck works out at about £100 sq.ft, but you have to lift the old teak and remove all the fittings and repair the under-deck plywood ready for the new teak.

The sort of boats most of us own of this forum are classics, some from the 60's and 70's which still have the original decking in place. I've been considering GB36 which is literally covered by acres of teak that will need replacing.

Stage 1 would be remove the teak and repair the plywood underdeck; slightly less than 40sq.m.

Anyone like to guess how much time would be involved per sq.m?

Rustybarge · Oct 5, 2017

Forgot to post this: is it really this quick on most boats?

Larry M · Oct 5, 2017

The teak decking I’ve removed didn’t go quite that fast but the deck was installed differently. The original teak deck was placed on caulk then screwed down. The plugs installed, seams caulked then sanded smooth. When we removed the old decking, we removed the screws first. Then we used crow/pinch bars to remove the old planks. The guy that helped me cautioned about just prying the planks up with the screws still down. He reasoning was since we wanted to preserve the core that by prying the planks with the screws still attached to everything, we could separate the fiberglass sub deck from the core. In the video, it looks like the planking wasn’t glued down and he was replacing the core anyway so he didn’t care.

The screws we could not get out and there were a lot them, we cut the heads off and removed what remained of the screw later. What took a lot of time was prepping the deck for new teak. Removing the old glue down caulk and filling all the holes took the most time.

Larry M · Oct 5, 2017

For reference, here’s a picture of a core sample from Hobo but it is similar to the deck I was referring to in the previous post. You can see the teak decking then the caulk under it and the fiberglass sub deck over the plywood.

Insequent · Oct 5, 2017

My foredeck is about 90 sq ft from memory. I removed the teak and fittings then the yard did the rest. They removed the top GRP layer in sections, replaced the mostly wet and partly rotten balsa with marine ply. Then new GRP layer and awlgrip/non-skid. The yard cost was USD17k.

My deck was like Larry's - sitting on gooey caulk. It was all very messy, but the teak levered up mostly OK. I had in the order of 960 screws. The PO had attempted a deck repair previously. He had lifted the teak and re-bedded in caulk. But he did not attend to the core. The one thing I thank him for was using square/Robertson screws for the re-fastening. I had to clean epoxy (from bung insertion) out of the screw heads, but in the end all but a few of the screws were able to be removed.

Time wise, I don't recall exactly but think it was in the order of a week for me working alone. I kept the teak, and mucking around with sticky caulk-bottomed teak strips wasted a lot of time. I had visions of putting the teak back again. In the end I damaged just enough of it to make that not a realistic option. No regrets. Teak in tropical sun gets very hot underfoot. I have kept teak side decks and cockpit, where it is partly shaded.

Rustybarge · Oct 5, 2017

Larry M said:
For reference, here’s a picture of a core sample from Hobo but it is similar to the deck I was referring to in the previous post. You can see the teak decking then the caulk under it and the fiberglass sub deck over the plywood.

My biggest fear is that when the teak is removed the ply sub-deck will get very weak and floppy, which would mean I'd have to renew the rotten ply core : that could esculate the job into a major deck rebuild costing $$$ and taking months to complete.

I hadn't realised that most of the ply core will be wet because of water perculating down through the screw holes, and after 40 years will be in a very bad state.

Your cores look like they were in very good condition: impressive build quality!

Rustybarge · Oct 5, 2017

Insequent said:
My foredeck is about 90 sq ft from memory. I removed the teak and fittings then the yard did the rest. They removed the top GRP layer in sections, replaced the mostly wet and partly rotten balsa with marine ply. Then new GRP layer and awlgrip/non-skid. The yard cost was USD17k.

My deck was like Larry's - sitting on gooey caulk. It was all very messy, but the teak levered up mostly OK. I had in the order of 960 screws. The PO had attempted a deck repair previously. He had lifted the teak and re-bedded in caulk. But he did not attend to the core. The one thing I thank him for was using square/Robertson screws for the re-fastening. I had to clean epoxy (from bung insertion) out of the screw heads, but in the end all but a few of the screws were able to be removed.

Time wise, I don't recall exactly but think it was in the order of a week for me working alone. I kept the teak, and mucking around with sticky caulk-bottomed teak strips wasted a lot of time. I had visions of putting the teak back again. In the end I damaged just enough of it to make that not a realistic option. No regrets. Teak in tropical sun gets very hot underfoot. I have kept teak side decks and cockpit, where it is partly shaded.

By all accounts you took the right descision not replacing the treak and recreating the exact conditions that caused the original problem.

It is really extraordinary that the original manufactures made such a dogs dinner laying the decks. As far as I can fathom the screws were used to hold the teak strips in contact with the adhesive until it set hard; of course weights or edge clamps could have been used instead to get a perfect water proof result.

The whole process was an accident waiting to happen.

BruceK · Oct 5, 2017

I venture every removal and sealing and fairing job is different in its extent.
Our 1981 deck sandwich under the degraded teak was foam. In 2 places wood was used at the step up point going towards the bow,that wood was wet black and soft (and replaced with foam). So glad the core was not wood everywhere.

Insequent · Oct 5, 2017

Rustybarge said:
It is really extraordinary that the original manufactures made such a dogs dinner laying the decks. As far as I can fathom the screws were used to hold the teak strips in contact with the adhesive until it set hard; of course weights or edge clamps could have been used instead to get a perfect water proof result.

The whole process was an accident waiting to happen.

Hindsight is of course wonderful! People stress way too much about this issue. Its not that big a deal - a few weeks and some $$ fixes it. If the boat you are looking at needs the work it will be, or should be, just factored into the selling price. Mine was. My surveyor advised me where to get fixed for a good price and the estimated cost was very close.

Rustybarge · Oct 5, 2017

BruceK said:
I venture every removal and sealing and fairing job is different in its extent.
Our 1981 deck sandwich under the degraded teak was foam. In 2 places wood was used at the step up point going towards the bow,that wood was wet black and soft (and replaced with foam). So glad the core was not wood everywhere.

It is only now that I'm realising that what you say about foam core is the most important thing to look for in an old boat; the wood insets in your core were wet and rotten too.

AFAIK the whole deck core on a GB36 is ply: I think I've had a very lucky escape not buying into that massive nightmare!

Rustybarge · Oct 5, 2017

Insequent said:
Hindsight is of course wonderful! People stress way too much about this issue. Its not that big a deal - a few weeks and some $$ fixes it. If the boat you are looking at needs the work it will be, or should be, just factored into the selling price. Mine was. My surveyor advised me where to get fixed for a good price and the estimated cost was very close.

I've got an idea of the cost from a post on another forum: €40-42k for 4O0sq.ft on a 36' sailing yacht, stripping the teak and making good the sub-deck not included.

Of course that includes the new teak, which is why I was trying to get some idea of the cost of teak removal and replacing the rotten ply which could be extensive.

Insequent · Oct 5, 2017

Its the new teak that puts the sting in it. And it would be pointless installing new teak without properly fixing the core. Perhaps consider new teak in selected areas only?

My foredeck ended up looking OK.

Rustybarge · Oct 5, 2017

Insequent said:
Its the new teak that puts the sting in it. And it would be pointless installing new teak without properly fixing the core. Perhaps consider new teak in selected areas only?

My foredeck ended up looking OK.

That is a beautiful job!

First class.

FF · Oct 6, 2017

When many TT were built , the yard did not know if the dealer could up sell to a teak overlay.

So the GRP decks were usually thick enough.

Looking at the core the GRP looks thick enough to function with out the overlay,

A boat where it was known that an overlay was to be installed might have less GRP thickness.

Take a core sample , add a deck vent to fill the hole. .

Rustybarge · Oct 6, 2017

FF said:
When many TT were built , the yard did not know if the dealer could up sell to a teak overlay.

So the GRP decks were usually thick enough.

Looking at the core the GRP looks thick enough to function with out the overlay,

A boat where it was known that an overlay was to be installed might have less GRP thickness.

Take a core sample , add a deck vent to fill the hole. .

Good point. I suppose the GB range of boats were all covered in teak as its part of the trawler experience , but they were built to a very high spec. Like everything on a boat its best to treat each vessel on its individual merits, rather than tar everything with the one brush.

I think great deal of caution is necessary in the purchasing process.

Hours/sq.m to lift old teak decks?

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