Renew teak decks

[Queens Ransom]

Has anyone experience from having teak decks renewed in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania or Poland? I have a Najad 520 from 1996. The teak deck caulking has become very poor and I fear that only 6-8mm of the teak is left. Not convinced a caulking only job makes sense as the deck may approach end of life. I am considering having the teak deck replaced with a specification as close to the original as possible. Given the high labour costs in the UK where I live, I am thinking of having it done in one of the Baltic states or Poland. Keen to hear about any experiences!

Best, Ulric, Queen’s Ransom III

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by Queens Ransom

Has anyone experience from having teak decks renewed in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania or Poland? I have a Najad 520 from 1996. The teak deck caulking has become very poor and I fear that only 6-8mm of the teak is left. Not convinced a caulking only job makes sense as the deck may approach end of life. I am considering having the teak deck replaced with a specification as close to the original as possible. Given the high labour costs in the UK where I live, I am thinking of having it done in one of the Baltic states or Poland. Keen to hear about any experiences!

Best, Ulric, Queen’s Ransom III

8mm sounds as thick as it comes with new boats nowadays. Save your wallet and save the environment, just redo the caulking

[poiu]

Wot he sed ⬆️⬆️⬆️

6 to 8mm is too thick to need replacement.

[Queens Ransom]

Many thanks for good points Poiu and s/y Jedi! We will test to recaulk an area.

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by Queens Ransom

Many thanks for good points Poiu and s/y Jedi! We will test to recaulk an area.

There’s a very good blade for the Fein Multimaster tool to remove the old caulk. Here’s a good video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaRlSEGhBXk

[goeasy123]

We have a Najad 400. When they fitted the decks at Najad they cut a rebate along the edge of the planks to space them. This means the depth of the caulking only goes down to the bottom of the rebate groove.



You may have 6 to 8mm of teak but only 1 to 2mm of caulking groove left. Here's what to do.... but use TDS 400 rather than Sika. You need about £1000's worth of TDS. A lot less than a new teak deck.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_UipmjqF6Q&t=403s

[Queens Ransom]

Many thanks for the comments and YouTube videos.

My understanding is that Najad laid teak decks with a rebate. They used planks 10-12mm thick with caulking grove of half of that. The teak was laid using silicon and screws to attach to the glass fibre.

The rebate is therefore 5-6mm. Can I cut out the entire rebate down to the GRP?
How deep does the grove need to be for the caulking?

I have 6-8mm of the teak left. So I have lost say 4mm during 25 years. Say that recaulking makes sense if it could last another 10 years which probably means losing another 2mm. Is that the right way of thinking here?