Teak Deck Repair

I need to regroove the joints on my teak decks on my other boat; 41' Island Trader ketch. Originally they were 5/16" deep by 1/4" wide. The depth in many places is almost gone.

Has anyone regrooved a deck? I was hoping there would be some sort of router bit has has smooth sides and I would just set the depth and follow the joint. - To lay out batten guides would be a real pain, plus a few of the joints are curved.

Any suggestions are welcome!

Thanks

The perfect tool for this is a Fein multimaster with a fitting designed exactly for this puprose. There are some knock offs now, but none I have direct experience. The Fein is pricey but it turns this job into a breeze with perfect results. It also has a bunch of other uses on a boat and at home and is good investment over time.

Thanks! I saw their tool for cleaning joints but not for deepening. I'll dig deeper.

I re calk and fastened the teak deck using regular square screw driver to ream out the groove. Used a carpenter knife to cut the calking out and then the screw driver. The screw drive allows you change the angle of the blade to cut the depth and width of the groove with very little damage. The hook blade of the carpenter knife us ideal for cutting out the old caulking.

Thanks Philfil,

Actually I have done about 100 of 1200 feet with screwdrivers and chisels. It looks good and wasn't hard. But I do want a better way.

The above are good suggestions. You might want to check out the GB Owners site, Grand Banks Owner's Resources. Teak deck repair and maintenance are discussed frequently. Check the search feature.

One way to accomplish the task is to use a circular saw with enough blades stacked to equal the thickness of the groove. Adjust to the desired depth and get after it. Use a straight edge tacked onto the adjoining plank as a guide. With a little practice, one can do the job fairly quickly. Good luck!

I will check that out. Thank you.

Thing is with the Fein you can get it exactly the right width (comes in several) and depth so you don't lose wood unnecessarily and have smooth surfaces. Not to mention it cuts the time needed by about 90%.


Amazon.com

Last Tango said:

Thanks Philfil,

Actually I have done about 100 of 1200 feet with screwdrivers and chisels. It looks good and wasn't hard. But I do want a better way.

Click to expand...

If you do let me know.

To re-cut the groves deeper, we used a 3 3/8" circular saw and made our own dado blade by adding 2 blades together. Control was surprisingly easy. A chisel was used for the sharp radiuses and ends. The guy who taught me how to do it, said you needed 3/8" of teak to be considered serviceable. Less than that, you couldn't effectively secured the planks via screws and bungs or have enough depth for the caulk.

I vote circular saw.

I just cut 200 meters of grooves in the deck of our work boat.
Free hand, it went very well, though I have 20 years experience as a carpenter.
5 inch tile saw with 3 blades.
You may need to remove the bulk of the caulk as the stuff that was in our deck melted and gummed things up pretty badly.
The Fein type tool (I used a ryobi tool) is priceless for this job for all the little details and clean up.
If you need spot on accuracy you are gonna need a fence, and sharp blades as dull ones tend to wander.

An old trip from corian and stone contertop fitting, to get perfect cuts, even works on gentle curves..

Use a piece of 1/4 inch plywood, 8 inches or so wide a few different lengths....10 feet, 4 feet and maybe 3 feet for the tight spots
Tack and glue it to another piece of straight hardwood, about 3 inches wide making sure that the distance from the edge of the hardwood is greater then the edge of the saw base plate to the saw blade.
Once glue is set, use the edge of the hardwood to rip the 1/4 inch ply using the hardwood as a guide.
This way you just have to use the edge of the ply, lined up with your groove to be 100% sure that you are cutting in the right place.

You can do this with a router as well, BUT a router will tend to wander from the groove and chew it was across the deck before you know it.

With 2 good helpers holding down the edge guide you do not need to tack it into place, just line it up with the edge of the groove and run the saw down it. 3 helpers and you can do gentle curves.
Bigger saw was better as it has a bigger base plate and was more steady.
The stuff in our deck was so abrasive that I had to replace the carbide blades every 30 meters or less.
Make sure the bolt that holds the blade on is long enough to have enough threads engaging to be safe. All these little saws have different blade mounting bolts and systems, carefully think about how yours may fail with the extra blades on it.
THE Fein WILL NOT cut new grooves, though it can but used with a saw blade to get right to the very ends of the groves that the saw cannot reach.

ti325v said:

An old trip from corian and stone contertop fitting, to get perfect cuts, even works on gentle curves..

Use a piece of 1/4 inch plywood, 8 inches or so wide a few different lengths....10 feet, 4 feet and maybe 3 feet for the tight spots
Tack and glue it to another piece of straight hardwood, about 3 inches wide making sure that the distance from the edge of the hardwood is greater then the edge of the saw base plate to the saw blade.
Once glue is set, use the edge of the hardwood to rip the 1/4 inch ply using the hardwood as a guide.
This way you just have to use the edge of the ply, lined up with your groove to be 100% sure that you are cutting in the right place.

You can do this with a router as well, BUT a router will tend to wander from the groove and chew it was across the deck before you know it.

With 2 good helpers holding down the edge guide you do not need to tack it into place, just line it up with the edge of the groove and run the saw down it. 3 helpers and you can do gentle curves.

Click to expand...

Good idea. I will likely never use it, but still...

Occam's razor.

I tried all suggestions. Now have some new tools.

Freehanded cuts with a 3" Dremel Saw was perfect. Lean a little inside and all looks good. Routers, guides, Fein tools didn't compare. I'll post pics?. Here's the reason it's slow.

Are you sure you tried the 3 blades in a tile saw ?

Hi:
I cannot say your method did not work, but I can assure you, as a professional carpenter of many years, and an expert stone counter top fitter, facing 200 meters or more of redoing the grooves on my boat deck, there was no faster, more accurate way for it be done. Your boat may have some fundamental differences from mine, but I was cutting new grooves 3/8"x 3/8" as fast as I could push the saw and change blades. I am happy your method worked for you, but you are doing others a disservice saying yours is THE way. There is no way a 3 inch dremel saw could push the 10 amps of cutting power the a circular saw can. If it was cooler, I would still be faster and done in one pass. for those with less experience, a guide is gonna be essential with my way, or perhaps you could the video, I was cutting about 15 feet a minute. i would be very happy to be taught !

I don't recall my saying this is the way. I did say I tried many things that didn't work for me.

Trawler sends too fast. I wasn't finished. You are an expert. I'm not.

But, after trying several methods, this worked for me.

I think all forum solutions require personal evaluation.

Merry Christmas !

Reading your text further, my 40 year old boat had tapered joints everywhere. So it was necessary for me to follow the original cuts, but some narrowed to 1/8, so it was easy for me to draw it on the deck and fix it.

Please don't read to much into someone's solution that is professional. Pick on someone who wants to protect their alcohol stove with water.

May God Bless all, and Merry Christmas.

Pardon me, I did misread your message and I agree all boats are different, What got me to jump, was you said you tried all suggestions....did you try the way I suggested ? That is a 10 amp tile saw with 3 stacked and spaced blades ? If indeed you did and your way worked better then the statement would be valid, from my experience it is simply not possible and if it worked better then my way I would have learned something new. Otherwise, you may well be giving misguiding advice to people who are facing what could be in their eyes a monumental job. Further doing a disservice to the entire community. Anyway, it is done, you are happy, good holiday.

Me thinks you need a bit more of the Christmas rum, and a need to water down attacks on professionals. I imagine you are a professional at something... I do not drink, so I am clearly aware of what I am saying, and feel no need for attacking what ever profession you have chosen. I also happen to be a P.E. Happy holidays.

My brother boat nut, yes I did follow your suggestion, and it did work beautifully for the rare area that the grooves were the same width. My 1976 Taiwan boat has grooves from 1/8" to 1/2".

Using the narrow blade I was able to recut. I will not express myself as such an expert as you, but perhaps both methods could be combined. I needed to taper joints. In the fixed widths yours is better.

May God Bless all boaters.

Wow. Saw this after my reply. I guess I don't text well. I don't drink.

Last Tango said:

Wow. Saw this after my reply. I guess I don't text well. I don't drink.

Click to expand...

Timing is everything.

This is the Mai Tai Two. Had her 30 years. She's 40.

And my Trawler.

I always refer to the manufacturer, in this case the teak manufacturer.
Other instructions here:

World's Premier Teak Decking by Teakdecking Systems

And another site with excellent ideas:

Teak Maintenance - Teak Deck Company