Teak deck screw holes- gooey stuff question

[DennisDW]

Hi All,
My current project boat, a Cambria 44, has good teak decks but leaks into the foam Divinyl core and thence into the overheads. It drips out where screw holes are inside. I've recaulked the deck and re-bedded the fittings and all the screws are plugged but the rain still gets in a few spots.

I may very well remove the deck, fill and non-skid it eventually but for now I'd like to try and keep it if I can stop the leaks. To do so I would like to pull every plug and screw, -not all at once, and drip a sealant of some kind in the hole and immediately replace the screw and re-plug.

That's good in theory but what sealer should I use? A thin epoxy like git-rot or Gluvit would glue the deck down and freeze the screw in. Not something I'd like to undo later if I choose to abandon the teak deck. I'd like something that is runny to seep in and then sets up to a flexible or elastic consistency. I could then pry and cut it off if needed. A non-epoxy sealer.

Any suggestions other than 'abandon all hope'?
Yours,
Dennis

[sailvayu]

If it is wet in the or core under the screw, injecting epoxy will not work. The epoxy will mix with the water and never cure leaving a gooey mess. A better approach might be to inject 5200 or some other sealant that will cure with moisture. Sounds like in the end you may end up pulling the teak. Do not wait too long because if you have leaks it will lead to bigger problems like core separation. At least your core is not balsa. Good luck

[avazquez]

I removed over 600 screws from my teak deck. Some old teak decks were glued with Sika and also screwed. If thats the case: 1. Remove old teak plugs. 2. Remove screw. 3. Remove any wet or moist core with an allen or wire and a shop-vac. 3. Fill with west system and silica. 4. Install new teak plugs with west. Clean with acetone or alcohol between steps.

[sailvayu]

I have to respectfully disagree with using west to glue the bungs back in. If you ever need to remove that bung again you are screwed. I suppose you could drill it out but hard to hit it dead center. And like i say if it is not dry west will not cure, otherwise it is fine.

[avazquez]

Any endgrain should be sealed with epoxy. The best way to seal teak plugs is with epoxy. When removing drill carefully.

[Celestialsailor]

Originally Posted by sailvayu

If it is wet in the or core under the screw, injecting epoxy will not work. The epoxy will mix with the water and never cure leaving a gooey mess. A better approach might be to inject 5200 or some other sealant that will cure with moisture. Sounds like in the end you may end up pulling the teak. Do not wait too long because if you have leaks it will lead to bigger problems like core separation. At least your core is not balsa. Good luck

Agreed. I have done 2 decks now that had water intrusion. one had ply core, the other Airex core. If has been a problem long enough for the water to come inside the boat, it may be to serious for a band-aid job. Teak decks look great but eventually this is the result.
There are a few threads you can check out by using the search function.

[Stumble]

Dennis,

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it sounds like you have a core rot problem, not a decking problem. The only real way to fix this is open the sandwich, then rebuild the core. What likely happened is the deck leaked, the core rotted, now even if you fix the deck, you still have a wet rotted out core. Of course if you are still getting water into the core, then that needs to be fixed too.

This is a pretty major problem, only exacerbated by the teak deck.

[roverhi]

The core is foam, so not prone to rot. Don't know if long term saturation will affect the bond between the core and glass, however. Would suspect it would have no effect but nothing to back that up.

Trying to find the fasteners that are leaking will be a nightmare. The actual source of the water could be anywhere on the deck and the water just exiting at a convenient place. Probably best to start where the water is coming through and pull the plugs and fasteners in an ever expanding circle from around that position till the leaks stop. If you are lucky, it's the fasteners where the water is coming through that are the cause of the leak. I wouldn't hold my breath betting on that, however. Seal the fasteners with Polysuflide (Life Caulk, 101) or Polyurethane (SikaFlex, 5200, 4200) caulk as these actually require water to cure. You will have a hell of a time caulking without making a mess. These caulks are sandable so you can remove it from the teak. The bung holes will be the problem, however. Possibly using Brown/Mahogany colored lifecaulk, would be the least obvious and use it to seal the bungs as well. Might want to experiment on a scrap piece of wood to see what it looks like. The grooves in the teak deck are probably filled with Polysulphide caulk which is also called Thiokol, it's original industrial name.

Butyl would be a great sealant but won't stick to wet surfaces. So that, resin, and most other sealants won't work because of the water. Using resin to glue the bungs in is really a source of future pain. The resin will get into the heads of the fasteners and make it very very difficult to get a screwdriver to bite when you need to remove the fasteners.