spray in foam deck repair

[fireant]

I went to west marine to get prices and find what i would need to start repairing soft deck spot that is about 2ft and rebed the stanchions.
asked for foam mat to fill the gap after I cleaned the spot.
I were showed the spray foam.

West marine had spray foam (evercoat sealant foam) You basically drill a holes in deck let it dry and spray the foam and seal the holes. Repair is done...
How good is this type of repair?? Is it even worth trying??
Im sure it wont be as good as cut the upper skin clean the rotted wood and refill. but it saves a lot of time and money.
how would the two repairs compare to each other?

Any good videos to watch for proper repairs that I can have recommendations for ?
Good place to get supplies ? including the foam mat.

Thanks

[tkeithlu]

Water/rot in the core. Been lots of discussion of that on the forum.

It is not time for a one half of the alimentary canal orfice repair. Forcing foam in won't get you very far. It's time to cut out the rot, replace it with a new core or plate, and seal up really well.

First, where is the water getting in? That's got to be stopped, but plugging it from above, sealing the crack, will be a constant game of catch up going forward. I suspect that your goal is to do it right and then go sailing.

From a cosmetic standpoint, it would be preferable to remove the lower layer of fiberglass in the cabin, but you appear to not be scared by cutting out the big circle from above. I suggest that you make the cut circle big enough that you are confident that you are outside the puddle of rot, will expose good core around the edges, and have only one piece to glue in place. Then fashion a plate of rigid stuff, glue/seal it in place (3M 5200 or so), and do the same with the cut out circle.

That's a job for great patience, but done right, you will have a stronger boat than you started with. Good luck with it.

[Manateeman]

Not enough info here. Pictures please. Above advice correct.
What is extent of wet core. How tested.
M.

[Cheechako]

The only proper way is to get the wet core out of there and make sure it's dry. Otherwise you are sealing up the moisture in the deck, when the sun comes out it just bakes in a wet jungle in there....
I'm not sure what "foam mat" is.

[LLCoolDave]

There is a product called "inject a deck" you could look at. I've never used it myself but it looks interesting.

[LouK]

Last year PracticalSailor had a great article on repair materials incl spray foam. Truly worth the price of a subscription when considering this type of repair.

[guyrj33]

I suggest you visit the Jamestown distributors web site to look for repair materials.
here's a starter link for foam core
https://www.jamestowndistributors.co...ct-detail/1586

[taylormobile]

I agree that foam will not penetrate well enough.

I have a link to when we sold our Tartan 30 with pretty detailed description of my experience with a product called CPES from https://www.rotdoctor.com/

Link to my old add: https://www.cruisersforum.com/forums...-a-119903.html

2 years ago I researched a product from Wood preservation, rot repair, and restoration using epoxy resin on boats and homes. and purchased the epoxy system CPES. I drilled holes 6" apart through the top of the fiberglass and the balsa..but not through the bottom layer of fiberglass. I pulled vacuum on the deck holes for about 2 days until the moisture level was around 15%. I then injected the epoxy into the holes and let it cure for 4 days. I then injected a thicker epoxy into the holes to fill the voids between the balsa wood and the fiberglass. I then used an epoxy with filler to form an epoxy "paste" to seal the holes.

The repair firmed up the deck and stopped a small cabin leak that was in the port side aft quarter berth. My plans were to inject more epoxy in this section to fill some of the voids I missed, then repeat this whole process on the entire port deck and port cabin top.

I made a jig for pulling vacuum on the deck holes with pvc pipe and polyethylene tubing and used a 5 hp shop vac to pull vacuum. Obviously, after this work is done the decks should be painted to cover the repairs.


I was very pleased with the results even though I didn't finish it before I sold it.

[1affiah]

As additional background, check out totalboat and jamestown distributors websites for information on these types of repairs.

[Scubaseas]

Originally Posted by LouK

Last year PracticalSailor had a great article on repair materials incl spray foam. Truly worth the price of a subscription when considering this type of repair.

X2 on this.

Urethane (like Gorilla Glue stuff) works better if it's wet . I've used creeping epoxy and a A/C service vacuum pump set up for a small spot on a deck and it's still fine after now 15 years, but it was a non stress/structural area and quite small at that. I did the repair from underneath so as not to disturb the topsides.

[oldjags]

Spray in foam is great for filling voids, but it can't displace the rotted wood that's under the deck. You'd end up with a thin layer of foam between the rotted wood and the fiberglass,

I repaired a fiberglass shower pan in my boat that had a rotted wood core. What I did was drill lots of 1/8" holes through the top layer of fiberglass, through the core, but not through the bottom layer. The holes were about 1" apart.

Then, starting at one end, I took a syringe and injected epoxy thinned with acetone into the holes until the epoxy started coming up out of the adjacent holes. Then moved to the next hole and did it again until all the holes had epoxy coming out.

That epoxy slowly absorbs into the rotted wood and binds it all together. It may take a couple of treatments to get to where the the holes will not accept any more epoxy. After that, fill the holes with thickened epoxy, sand and paint. No more spongy shower pan.

You can tap the deck with the handle of a screwdriver and tell where it's solid and where it's soft, and the drill shavings will tell you if you are drilling into solid or rotted wood. Just keep drilling little holes until you hit good wood.

[dick sargent]

To add to Tailormobile, drill deck to accept zerk fittings and use grease gun to fill void with epoxy. Wipe ceiling etc. where the epoxy seeps out. Finish off deck by removing zerk fittings and inserting wooden plugs. Adds strength and if patterned, looks fine on the fiberglass deck.

[fireant]

Thank you guys for all this information. I will be doing a lot of reading tonight.

I know where is the soft spot as you can see and feel it if you walk on it. Also if you tap on it you can hear the sound change at the soft spot.

I know where the water came in, that happened at the stanchion next to it. Im going to redo all of them and I know many of them the core is gone between the outer and inner skin.
It also has a small leak inside after hard rain. So that's another repair needed.
Yes I would like to make the repair proper as I don't want to redo it again . But it never hurts to save time and money if possible. My goal is to keep the boat for about 2 years max before moving on to something bigger, its also a good time to learn to do all this work for when I get something bigger to cruise on.

Thank you.

[Celestialsailor]

If someone is selling you spray foam for a deck repair, they are selling you snake oil. You need to open up that can of worms and do it properly. I have done many water intrusion deck repairs. I remove the skin, dig out the muck, clean, recore and epoxy the skin down and fair and paint.

[chasfgr]

Originally Posted by fireant

I went to west marine to get prices and find what i would need to start repairing soft deck spot that is about 2ft and rebed the stanchions.
asked for foam mat to fill the gap after I cleaned the spot.
I were showed the spray foam.

West marine had spray foam (evercoat sealant foam) You basically drill a holes in deck let it dry and spray the foam and seal the holes. Repair is done...
How good is this type of repair?? Is it even worth trying??
Im sure it wont be as good as cut the upper skin clean the rotted wood and refill. but it saves a lot of time and money.
how would the two repairs compare to each other?

Any good videos to watch for proper repairs that I can have recommendations for ?
Good place to get supplies ? including the foam mat.

Thanks

If it's really an attempt to stiffen the deck, it's probably a waste of time.
Assuming it's an end-grain balsa sandwich, it's probable that water has got into the sandwich and destroyed the core. As a makeshift though, it's better than leaving it, provising the foam adheres and sets - unlikely if it's a waterlogged core.
I guess there's a 20% of effecting a temporary repair.