How Gazelle got her grooves back, or what I did after everything else was done.
The last year I have spent two or three hours a day working on the worn out
teak decks. I didn't want to
work too hard and I'm pretty lazy but small bites got it done
All the big stuff is finished, just a few touch up spots, but here it is. Before and after. I did all the
work myself and cut over 2500
teak bungs by hand. I had to buy three
plug cutters b/c I kept wearing them out.
I think the key to this job for me was the Fein caulk
cutter blade. What's cool is the blade is $70, but the multitool to run the blade from Harbor Freight was $40 (the Fein tool was $400!). I had to buy two blades, but the multitool is still working great and we've used it for other things, it's my new favorite tool.
The
cutter just grabs the bottom of the groove and pulls the old caulk with very little effort. Then a change out to
sanding attachments to get the sides clean of any leftover caulk and it prepares the
wood for the new caulk.
Then I pulled all the old fasteners, most of which were showing their heads anyway. Using a forstner bit, I opened the holes and then epoxyed in my new bungs.
Next I cut the plugs flush with a sharp
wood chisel. Two rounds of
sanding with the caulking done in between left us with what you see.
Now that it's done, it should be good for as long as we'll own the
boat. In fact, we saw some well-cared for teak decks that were over 20 years old, and they looked perfect. This was the biggest job I had to do on the
boat. It was strictly cosmetic, but wow, what a difference!
1.This is what most of the
deck looked like. The caulk prouder than the teak and most of the screw heads showing.
2.Caulk cut, hand-cut plugs epoxied in.
3.The Fein caulk cutter. They come in different widths for different sized seams. I wore one out completely, and the other is well on the way.
4.The el cheapo Harbor Freight multitool, with Fein attachment, in action. It would have taken years with hand tools!
5.Sam prefers the smooth
deck over the rough one. No more splinters!