Teak Question #4527

[calicojack767]

Everyone is so helpful on this forum. All shared knowledge is gold. I wonder though, is CalicoJack beyond kicking the can on this boat? He did lead with the intent to avoid teak. Seems our input would get him back on the no teak track. What say you Calico? I was confused about the word "real" in your last post. Did you mean teak? Then you've already answered my query.

Yeah it auto corrected....teak is not preferred at all. I just found this boat and like many other things, but each time I looked at the deck my inner voice said......run!!

 

[Comodave]

Yes you need some level of skill to interpret the readings.
Plus different materials will read differently.

After looking closely at the pictures I am going to say the decks are pretty well gone. The wet remaining near the screws means water has penetrated there. Plus there are splits near some of the screws and that lets water in.
Others have addressed all the exposed screw heads. Not good.

Regarding "kiwi grip" and similar products:
I have only seen 2 boats whose decks were covered with that kind of product. Both looked like "crap" in my opinion. Maybe those were both poorly done but none the less it makes me say that I don't recommend that kind of a "fix".
YMMV

Sorry but my decks don’t look like crap. But each to his own. My decks look 100% better than they did when I bought the boat. There are some things done to boats here on the forum, when I don’t like what someone has done I try not to insult the owner by saying I prefer something different not that it looks like crap. Sorry if I am being blunt but I expected better of you Jay.

 

[calicojack767]

I just took a second look at the pictures. There is definitely something going on there. You can see that there are a few bungs in place and maybe even tight. All the visible screws are neatly lined up across the width of the boat, especially at the front deck. This is very unusual. Since teak is so expensive most boat manufacturers use random length boards. If they can get 18 inches out of a board they wouldn't cut any off it to match the other boards, too wasteful. As a result of the random board lengths there will be a screw near the ends and the remaning length of the board will a screw every 4 or 6 or eight inches, different with each board.

That is not what I am seeing here. I think those screws have been added at a later time, not countersunk or "bunged". And to make it worse, they appear to be stainless. The original would be brass or bronze.

It could be that they were getting some "flex" and thought that adding screws would help. Or maybe the planks were popping loose from the rotten glass underneath and they needed to be screwed down using a more aggressive screw. Maybe even the heads were sanded of some of the original screws and the boards were getting loose.

Whatever is going on here ain't good. I think you need a moisture meter, an expert survey and I would probably still "take a walk"

pete

I noticed this as well too.....also I noticed that the sealant between the planks was often higher than the planks as in maybe old sealant wasnt removed or that the depth of the teak has been reduced too much from wear and refitting. I lean towards your assumption that the deck was loose and someone thought it good to put more aggressive screws down. Ive done enough remodeling to notice "short cuts" like these. There were other things that raised minor flags but I think the teak just kills it for me. Not scared of fixing things by any means but teak decks make me think of plumbing.....you start with one thing and the next thing you know you're tearing out large sections of others to "fix it right."

A couple other "strange" things.......zero electronics.... nothing remained just empty holes (most older boats at least have some of the old stuff still there and in my mind Im chasing or rewiring things to replace), A/Cs were both on high when I first boarded as to maybe conceal or remove a damp or other smell, there were no Deep cycle Marine batteries, guy had just car batteries in a series hooked up, started the engine (which was advertised as rebuilt) and massive (white)smoke with a burnt smell. The boat, according to the owner, had not been broken in yet after the rebuild. Just a few but Im most likely just going to keep looking since pointing out this and other things the owner seemed like the price was the price. Going to offers and surveys at this point seemed moot.

 

[Patrick4002]

i have a trader from 1990 the front teak deck was starting to leak on some screws,

they are not all teak strips but mostly full teak boards with a litle strips cut out to hold the black compound stripes.

They previous owner did som repairs with to long screws,
now started to remove the screws, drill with 5mm till the 2de underdeck , then fill with polymeer using a syringe , its like water and has only a working time of 2 min but it gets all over the inside of the hole, somtimes has to fill in 2 times but is hard and water proof, after this i put new wooden plugs in or gleu them in
cost little, but needs a lot of time

first do the bad ones and then the rest and your teak deck is back good

Best regards
Patrick

 

[BruceK]

CJ767, I`ve been through a redo. Imo going further with a boat like this depends on the core condition. Some pics show residual wetness around screw sites,that bodes ill. As preservation/salvation work has been done, someone knows the state of the deck, incl the "real" deck underneath. You could check underneath yourself, for tank tops damage, and any other indicator of water entry, it can even work its way in from outside and be seen in the interior "floors". If you can convince yourself the core is ok, don`t rule it out.
There is good reason teak decks on many current "Europa" style covered side decks/cockpit boats do not extend the teak to the bow.

 

[Patrick4002]

sure, and every boat is different. Mine has only some screw that are wet, im thinking its just in a beginning stage, so it is repairable if i drill the screw holl bigger for filling it up i see not all the time wet wood some are clampy (i dont now i this is correct english) or dry and from the 30 screwsholes i done only 2 where wet
Best regards
Patrick

 

[TWille]

We purchased a TW overseas in April with a lot of screw heads showing. The thickness of the teak was 3/8 to 1/2 so we pulled and caulked rescrewed and plugged the entire deck. We will recaulk the bow deck and a few seams on the sun deck. I fiquire it gets me 4-5 years to make the decision on faux teak or nonskid.
In the areas where we did other work including drilling in the deck we found not rot in the core. It’s a boat by boat thing.

 

[SteveZ]

Teak Decks

Exposed screw heads and loose/dried out caulking will allow water into the deck structure, eventually causing major structural damage.

The attached article might be helpful.

Steve Zimmerman

 

[jleonard]

Sorry but my decks don’t look like crap. But each to his own. My decks look 100% better than they did when I bought the boat. There are some things done to boats here on the forum, when I don’t like what someone has done I try not to insult the owner by saying I prefer something different not that it looks like crap. Sorry if I am being blunt but I expected better of you Jay.

Sorry no insult intended. Like I said I only saw two and with the brown color they chose it did look lousy. Poor job making, coverage was uneven, just gave me a very poor impression of that system of repair.
I'd love to see a good job of that before I could recommend it.
Perhaps you can post some pictures and change my impression?