Costs of teak removal?

[GTom]

I am in the process of buying a boat, but some candidates have teak decks. Not unsurprisingly they are sold at a discount (e.g. 33', 30 years old boat with teak around 5k€ cheaper).

The boat will sail around the Atlantic, so the complete teak removal and deck FG "healing" could be done anywhere, where I bump into a reasonably priced boatyard. I haven't decided yet for boat size, it will be likely around 33'.

How much discount would be reasonable for a teak-deck boat?

[s/v Moondancer]

The real question is...have the screws holding the teak allowed water to get into the deck core?

Much easier just to stay away from old boats with teak decks. The purchasing discount will be eaten up by the labor cost of removal in any first world yard.

[ohdrinkboy]

no expert here, but a few things to consider. are the decks screwed or glued down? it's more work to remove all of those screws. often screwed down decks have delamination....hence the discount.

Go to you tube and search for SailLife. Mads is doing a diy rehab of a teak deck boat. it will give you an idea of what's involved.

[GTom]

Originally Posted by ohdrinkboy

no expert here, but a few things to consider. are the decks screwed or glued down? it's more work to remove all of those screws. often screwed down decks have delamination....hence the discount.

Go to you tube and search for SailLife. Mads is doing a diy rehab of a teak deck boat. it will give you an idea of what's involved.

Apparently screwed, it seems better to stay away then...

[Cheechako]

I wouldnt assume the deck is bad. Find out. Teak decks are great non skid. For removal (assuming screwed on) you are talking removing bungs, removing screws, breaking the wood off the deck, you then have a multitude of black goo on the deck that would require grinding into the fiberglass below the gel coat. Prepping and filling the screw holes. Grinding it all. Paint prep and painting. Adding non skid. Usually a complete deck and cabin paint job is done. It could be $20-$30k I suppose if you had it done by a yard.
I chose to remove mine and glued on Treadmaster so I didnt have to deal with some of the work. I still had a complete paint job.
You get the picture, it's a huge job done correctly. And I dont mention IF the core is wet.

One has to wonder, if the teak deck (even with wet deck core) isnt stronger than a repaired one without the teak though.... My guess it is. That thick bonded on teak is pretty stout.

[atmartin]

Since we're talking about a smaller boat, if you're comfortable doing the work yourself, it might be worth it. I've worked for yards in California and the Northeast; maybe labor is cheaper in other areas, but not much.

It's unlikely any yard in the US will do that sort of job for less than $20k. So your costs savings on purchase price are nil. That's assuming no major water intrusion or sponginess in the decks and a simple nonskid finish.

This is coming from someone with a glass over plywood boat. I have tens of thousands of dollars in labor into my boat that I'll never re-coup when I sell her. My advice is to buy a boat from someone who's already sunk their sweat/money/tears into these kinds of problems.

[Suijin]

In the US, the replacement of a teak deck generally runs around $1k/foot of deck length ($30k for a 30' boat), although that number probably goes down a bit with shorter boats due to decreased beam. As to what you can expect in terms of pricing of boats that need a deck job, and what's reasonable, that's widely variable and really should be evaluated boat by boat.

As noted, if the deck has screws into the glass, that makes the job more time consuming because you need to repair the holes. If the screws penetrate to the core and you have core damage, that's exponentially more time consuming. If the teak is just glued down, as it is on most newer, newish boats the job is relatively easy and straight-forward. Big variable then is whether the underlying gelcoat is in good enough shape when it's off to just paint on nonskid or whether you need to repair gel or paint the slick areas as well.

I would say at any decent yard the cost of an easy removal and renovation is going to run at least $5k and up from there, perhaps steeply, depending on the specifics of the boat and what you find when the teak is off.

[GTom]

I have to fly up to each and every boat to inspect, I am reluctant to risk that. True, the teaked area is not too large, see the boat in the OP - that's one of the candidates. I could hit it with the chisel if it starts to rot. More problematic is if the core got wet, which I am afraid I can't fully assess before removing the screws...

On the positive side, these are short-season boats, kept in a dry hall during winter.

30k, even 10k$ is out of question, differences I see between teak vs no teak are ~5k - which still sounds good if I could do the work within 1-2weeks.

Originally Posted by Cheechako

I wouldnt assume the deck is bad. Find out. Teak decks are great non skid. For removal (assuming screwed on) you are talking removing bungs, removing screws, breaking the wood off the deck, you then have a multitude of black goo on the deck that would require grinding into the fiberglass below the gel coat. Prepping and filling the screw holes. Grinding it all. Paint prep and painting. Adding non skid. Usually a complete deck and cabin paint job is done. It could be $20-$30k I suppose if you had it done by a yard.
I chose to remove mine and glued on Treadmaster so I didnt have to deal with some of the work. I still had a complete paint job.
You get the picture, it's a huge job done correctly. And I dont mention IF the core is wet.

One has to wonder, if the teak deck (even with wet deck core) isnt stronger than a repaired one without the teak though.... My guess it is. That thick bonded on teak is pretty stout.

[Cheechako]

I found the wet areas on one boat by drilling from the inside into the core in a few areas with ~ 3/16 bit. Squeeze the dust out of the drill bit between your thumb and forefinger. Water will come out if wet. Then I just plugged the holes with 5200. Of course this is hard to do on a boat for sale. Still.... if it's been sitting forever unsold... one could ask!

[oregonian]

Hello Gtom, I have done that job 7 times on that size of sailboat. 4 32's, a 33', and 2 38's. Three times 100% alone. The job included one layer of glass over the deck and a complete fairing. I did not do the final topcoat on 3 of the jobs. It has taken an average of 12 man/days of labor. So you do the math that applies to your area. In all of my cases, the final result was that nobody could detect that the deck ever had teak. Hope this helps you. Good luck.

[GTom]

Originally Posted by Cheechako

I found the wet areas on one boat by drilling from the inside into the core in a few areas with ~ 3/16 bit. Squeeze the dust out of the drill bit between your thumb and forefinger. Water will come out if wet. Then I just plugged the holes with 5200. Of course this is hard to do on a boat for sale. Still.... if it's been sitting forever unsold... one could ask!

Sounds a serious thing to ask. However, the Malø boats AFAIK have good reputation protecting the core. Anyway, I'll put the teaked boats to the end of my shopping list, if something is really appealing otherwise it will get a chance.

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by GTom

Sounds a serious thing to ask. However, the Malø boats AFAIK have good reputation protecting the core. Anyway, I'll put the teaked boats to the end of my shopping list, if something is really appealing otherwise it will get a chance.

End of shopping list.

[Chalifour]

In Turkey, Teak replacement goes for 700€ per square meter. As a reference.

[GTom]

Originally Posted by Chalifour

In Turkey, Teak replacement goes for 700€ per square meter. As a reference.

Thank you, very useful info, probably around the best price I could get. My case it means ~6-8m2 if not more. Teak replacement is definitely due after a few decades, e.g. for this candidate I suppose quite soon...:



It comes down to "homework" or budget in ~6k€ then.

[TheThunderbird]

Differently from the past, a teak deck on Anything shorter than 40-45 ft is nonsensical.




But, denying the merits of a teak deck lacks of honesty, or is hypocritical