Teak deck leak repair with resin?

Lol caulk.
But seriously I'm having a mental battle if using the $16/tube TDS caulk is worth it, or if the $4/tube black weather proof stuff from HD is close enough, considering I've just poured nearly a gallon of epoxy into a few square feet of deck, I don't think it'll matter if the caulk fails early

Nopistn said:

Lol caulk.
But seriously I'm having a mental battle if using the $16/tube TDS caulk is worth it, or if the $4/tube black weather proof stuff from HD is close enough, considering I've just poured nearly a gallon of epoxy into a few square feet of deck, I don't think it'll matter if the caulk fails early

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Use the black PL roof and flashing polyurethane tube, cheap, it will last and you will like it and the price.

Epoxy resin can be thinned with alcohol.

The alcohol "goes after" the wet areas so is a big help.

Extra hardener is required to have the epoxy cure with the alcohol.

Git Rot is a commercial brand that does this for you.

This is good caulk. Softer than 5200 but very similar. It does work underwater even if they say not recommended.
Roof and Flashing Polyurethane Sealant from Loctite Adhesives
http://www.loctiteproducts.com/tds/PL_SEAL_RF_tds.pdf

This is also good caulk, it will shrink but is a little cheaper. It will make a harder rubber than the Loctite caulk. Do not use it underwater.

DYNAFLEX 230 Premium Indoor/Outdoor Sealant - DAP

Easy cleanup with water.

sdowney717 said:

This is good caulk. Softer than 5200 but very similar. It does work underwater even if they say not recommended.
Roof and Flashing Polyurethane Sealant from Loctite Adhesives
http://www.loctiteproducts.com/tds/PL_SEAL_RF_tds.pdf

This is also good caulk, it will shrink but is a little cheaper. It will make a harder rubber than the Loctite caulk. Do not use it underwater.

DYNAFLEX 230 Premium Indoor/Outdoor Sealant - DAP

Easy cleanup with water.

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That dynaflex 230 is exactly what I found and used from HD. It's much thinner and a lighter color (almost gray) than the tea caulk

The left 1/3 is TDS caulk, the right 2/3 is the 230 from HD

After some sanding. In the boatworks today video he used a random orbit sander, which is what I started with, then went to a belt sander after making slow progress.
In the boatworks video he sanded after removing old caulk, and again after the new caulk dried. Is there any real advantage to doing it that way? I only sanded applying new caulk.
As you can see the TDS caulk did MUCH BETTER than the dynaflex 230 from home depot. It had more air bubbles and was much softer after 2 days and didn't sand as well.
The TDS caulk is on the left and the Dynaflex is on the right, I need to try to go back over it to make it look decent, sanding either exposed a lot of air bubbles, or tore very soft caulk out of the seams. (Probably a little of both)

This is the dynaflex

Sanding before gets the top edges cleaned up so the caulk has clean wood to stick to at the top edge. With old residue or crud on the top edge you might not get a good solid bond at the top. I don't think its necessary to sand the whole board, but if you just do the tops of the edges you risk making a valley on each seam. It could wind up making even more sanding to try and get things flat.

Bummer on the bubbles. When we redid our decks, we put the tubes of caulk in the sun for a couple hours before we redid the seems. This helped reduce the air bubbles and it flowed easily. After using the random orbital, we went back and filled any bubbles. We then did the final sanding a couple days later with a 1/2 sheet sander with 100 grit.

Larry M said:

Bummer on the bubbles. When we redid our decks, we put the tubes of caulk in the sun for a couple hours before we redid the seems. This helped reduce the air bubbles and it flowed easily. After using the random orbital, we went back and filled any bubbles. We then did the final sanding a couple days later with a 1/2 sheet sander with 100 grit.

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What's the advantage of the 1/2 sheet sander over the random orbit? Just curious.
And when you re filled the bubbles did all of the new caulk stick to the previously laid caulk?
Also, what type of caulk did you use?

CEC said:

Sanding before gets the top edges cleaned up so the caulk has clean wood to stick to at the top edge. With old residue or crud on the top edge you might not get a good solid bond at the top. I don't think its necessary to sand the whole board, but if you just do the tops of the edges you risk making a valley on each seam. It could wind up making even more sanding to try and get things flat.

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Well I did use the TDS edge sander on all edges first at least.
Maybe for next time I'll try to do a bit of sanding prior to caulking

Nopistn said:

What's the advantage of the 1/2 sheet sander over the random orbit? Just curious.

Not as aggressive on the seams. Sort of a finishing sand. I was told to do this by a pro who renews ~ a complete deck a month.

And when you re filled the bubbles did all of the new caulk stick to the previously laid caulk?

Yes it did. Just make sure that you have vacuumed the decks first.

Also, what type of caulk did you use?

TDS and we used 10 cases.

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I was also told to remember it’s a deck, not a piece of furniture. I was killing myself to get it perfect when Reggie said stand up, no one other than you will be with in six feet of the decks.

Larry M said:

I was also told to remember it’s a deck, not a piece of furniture. I was killing myself to get it perfect when Reggie said stand up, no one other than you will be with in six feet of the decks.

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I'm not sure "less aggressive is what I need. I started with a powerful random orbit and moved to a belt sander after a half day of not making sufficient progress. I figure my boards must be a little warped. I know this isn't good to remove that much material but I DID pour 3/4 gallon of rot DR penetrating epoxy into that little section, so I'm not planning on ever going this again. If it fails and starts leaking in the next 10 yrs (assuming I still own it) I'll just give up on the teak.

Be sure to put the tip of the caulking tube as far in the groove as possible so that it fills from the bottom up, and overfill the groove. Then a plastic scraper drawn backwards along the seam will force more in and hopefully force air out. I guess I got lucky with no bubbles. Let it setup for several days before sanding. 80 grit random orbit works well.

Nopistn said:

This is the dynaflex

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The dynaflex 230, while it comes out the tube soft, does not flow at al, it will stay where you place it. It has to be placed into the cracks, I run my finger pushing it down. You can refill it into the cracks and bubbles, and it takes a good week to setup hard enough to dry sand or if real dry and hot maybe 3 days.
I would cut for a very small tip, and you can take pliers and make the tip go flat, might help you get it into the seams better. If your smoothing it and it is getting sticky on you, as in surface drying too fast, wet your fingers and this stuff will flow smoothly.
One thing using it, never had any bubbles ever.

I forgot about flattening the tip, did that too.

Mike, did you use TDS caulk?

sdowney717 said:

The dynaflex 230, while it comes out the tube soft, does not flow at al, it will stay where you place it. It has to be placed into the cracks, I run my finger pushing it down. You can refill it into the cracks and bubbles, and it takes a good week to setup hard enough to dry sand or if real dry and hot maybe 3 days.
I would cut for a very small tip, and you can take pliers and make the tip go flat, might help you get it into the seams better. If your smoothing it and it is getting sticky on you, as in surface drying too fast, wet your fingers and this stuff will flow smoothly.
One thing using it, never had any bubbles ever.

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Well this is possibly one area I went wrong. I sanded after 2 days and it didn't seem firm enough at all.
I'll give the dynaflex another try.

Nopistn said:

Mike, did you use TDS caulk?

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Yes.

This thread strikes a cord with my wife and I. We've gone round and round on possible solutions to the teak on our 35' sun deck boat. Every time we came back to the same issue...recovering the deck doesn't fix the under lying damage caused by the leaks. Spending a bunch of money and effort to end up with a nice 'looking' deck that has the same soft spots is not a fix. We've bit the bullet and decided to take it off and be done with it. We want to wash it and forget it.

Except my deck doesn't have any noticable soft spots. The team itself may be covering some of that up, but I'm hoping to stop water ingress before it gets bad.

Ahh, that is a difference. Hope it works out for you guys.

My decks didn’t have soft spots, but the core was beyond rotted. Once the teak came off it was amazingly bad. Can you drill a test hole from underneath?

In either case it’s a lot of work, good luck

SeaMoose said:

My decks didn’t have soft spots, but the core was beyond rotted. Once the teak came off it was amazingly bad. Can you drill a test hole from underneath?

In either case it’s a lot of work, good luck

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Lol hell no, ignorance is bliss in this case. As long as I can stop more water from coming in I'm happy. If I ever go as far as pulling the team up I'll fix possible rotten core issues.

Question: on a late 70s Taiwan tub is the outer or inner layer of FB thicker?

Usually the outer layer is thicker.

Comodave said:

Usually the outer layer is thicker.

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On my 76 M/T the bottom layer was much thicker than the top layer, as the bottom layer was milled/chopped fibers whereas the top layer was biaxial cloth, which appeared to be approximately 18oz (it's hard to tell when you're removing it).

Inside the "sandwich" are teak struts that form small torsion boxes, that's what gives it the strength.

Core was the usual blocks of luan that people often mistake as balsa, same as the cabin roof.

I have ooodles of pictures if anyone is interested. Also have a good collection of "Rot Porn" I should start a thread...

Yes, you should start a thread.

How did you remove the old caulk? Have seen several options including a Fine tool with a hook-like tool attached, as well as a hooked over file. Just wondering what worked well for you.

BobMc said:

How did you remove the old caulk? Have seen several options including a Fine tool with a hook-like tool attached, as well as a hooked over file. Just wondering what worked well for you.

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I did buy that fine tool and I have the multi vibrating tool and it worked okay the razor blade and the cheap decking systems Roofing hook probably work the best