Ferro-cement sailingboat Deck Repair

[Appa]

Hello,

I just registered with the cruisersforum, in hope someone can give me advice.

I bought a ferro-cement boat from 1981. The deck is not that good, and I plan to re-do the entire deck.

I attached three pictures, I hope it is possible to see them.

- How would you re-do this entire deck?
-Should I take all the paint of until i reach the cement, and start from scratch?
-And which layers should I put on the boat if I restart from scratch?

I hope someone can help me out,

Thanks in advance!

Appa

[Hudson Force]

It's difficult to understand what material is present in the darker spots of the photos. If any of this is oxidized metal from the framing (the "ferro" within the "cement"), then I think you would have a very difficult task. If you are looking at the surface of outer cement and paint layers, then I believe this would be a simple cosmetic fix.

[atoll]

Originally Posted by Appa

Hello,

I just registered with the cruisersforum, in hope someone can give me advice.

I bought a ferro-cement boat from 1981. The deck is not that good, and I plan to re-do the entire deck.

I attached three pictures, I hope it is possible to see them.

- How would you re-do this entire deck?
-Should I take all the paint of until i reach the cement, and start from scratch?
-And which layers should I put on the boat if I restart from scratch?

I hope someone can help me out,

Thanks in advance!

Appa

best is a large disc grinder with a 40 grit fiber disc,take it back to concrete or the epoxy if it was originally treated with that,then recoat with epoxy primer,filler,more primer then 2 top coats,ideally a 2 pack polyurathane.

from you picture that paint lay up looks vaguely familiar,is your boat a hartley tahitian ferro 47 in turkey-greece?

[paulajayne]

Originally Posted by atoll

from you picture that paint lay up looks vaguely familiar,is your boat a hartley tahitian ferro 47 in turkey-greece?

Good advice but how did you guess what boat and where from those pics.

Paula onboard a Hartly Tahitian 48 in the UK.

[atoll]

Originally Posted by paulajayne

Good advice but how did you guess what boat and where from those pics.

Paula onboard a Hartly Tahitian 48 in the UK.

the pink and grey paint are very similar to a ferro i owned 10 years ago,if you look in "my images" under my avatar there are some pictures on page 4-5 of the boat painted pink ,then grey

https://www.cruisersforum.com/galler...mageuser=33904

https://www.cruisersforum.com/galler...mageuser=33904

[jimbunyard]

Originally Posted by Appa

Hello,

I just registered with the cruisersforum, in hope someone can give me advice.

I bought a ferro-cement boat from 1981. The deck is not that good, and I plan to re-do the entire deck.

I attached three pictures, I hope it is possible to see them.

- How would you re-do this entire deck?
-Should I take all the paint of until i reach the cement, and start from scratch?
-And which layers should I put on the boat if I restart from scratch?

I hope someone can help me out,

Thanks in advance!

Appa

I take it this is the same boat asked about in this thread?

https://www.cruisersforum.com/forums...ht-239144.html

If so, the advice given in post #7 is good, because ferrocement construction repair is a bit more involved and technique-dependant than for typical FRP hulls, if long-lasting results are desired.


Generally speaking, one would start with the obvious bad spots, and remove all the paint until solid 'concrete' unpenetrated by steel is found, followed by treating the exposed steel, floating new concrete, and after curing, repainting.

If solid, well attached paint is found there shouldn't really be any need to remove it unless the paint that you're covering it with softens it and causes it to lift.

This certainly looks like a place for a high quality. two part epoxy followed by an equally high quality two part acrylic or urethane paint, though someone with current experience with F/C hulls would be a better resource for opinions on this than me.

[redhead]

We are currently working on our ferro deck (different set of problems/circumstances/solutions than yours).

We starting out grinding but found that the old paint comes off much more simply by heating it with a torch and then simply using a scraper. It comes up in large swaths and then the grinding is much easier and thorough.

We have concrete deck which some braniac decided he needed to glue plywood over and then screw teak on top of the ply. I'd rather have a good honest concrete deck, but that's a project for another year.

If you want more info PM me.

(This may not apply to paint directly on ferro, if it does it may save you some time)

Good luck.

[Steve Bean]

As the owner of a 1979 ferrocement boat since 1985, my suggestions: remove paint down to cement by whatever means is easiest. Heating and scraping sounds good. Pursue any rust spots to clean steel. Think like a dentist working on a decayed tooth. Does he remove all of the decay or just most of it? Repair small cavities with epoxy mortar as described by Colin Brookes in his excellent book Ferrocement Boats. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in this construction.