Teak Decks

[danielgoldberg]

Originally Posted by nhschneider

Ok, let's take 5/8" as the thickness of the teak deck: Assume you're using a #8 pan head screw to hold down the teak that has a head thickness of 1/8", you're now down to 1/2". How much thickness do you want the head of the screw to shoulder against? 1/4"? That leaves you a 1/4" thickness for the bung, which is not very long. If your deck wears down 20% over 15 years, now your bung is going to be no more than 1/8" long and it doesn't take much to pop that out nor is there much surface area to keep it in.

Very true, but if you're not sanding, you likely won't lose 20% over 15 years. Without sanding, the decks probably would not lose any thickness over a lot longer period of time.

[Cheechako]

beautiful, great non skid, a lot of maintenance and can (will?) permanently damage your underdecks...

[cptnandy]

I love teak decks, and will put the teak back down on my boat in a year or two.

Had to remove the entire deck and replace due to bad original construction and poorly maintained teak decking.

However, in my experience in the charter industry in Hawaii I found teak decks easier to maintain than non-skid, quicker to clean at the end of the day, and better looking. I did not find them to be too hot to walk on, but then I went barefoot (or flip-flops) for years and my feet were not as tender as if they had been stuck in shoes all the time. We did dump sea water on the decks to cool them for our charter quests on teak and light colored non-skids decks alike, so I don't think teak is actually that much hotter than paint in the tropics.

[donradcliffe]

I was going to replace the teak with non-skid, until I saw two boats side-by-side at the boat show, one with teak decks. If its too hot to walk on the teak, we go further from the equator. We had the teak replaced in Thailand for $4500, and its better than new--no screws, even during the installation.

[squarerigger]

My institution is presently finishing design specs on a 200 ton replica 16th-century ship and based on our experience with iron fastened decks on our other wooden vessels, will in this instance be going to trunnel fastened decks. This system has been used extensively in traditional construction for centuries and successfully in other recent ship replica projects. Having just replaced (rebored, epoxy filled, rebunged etc) 800 fasteners in my own boat's regrettable teak overlay, it occurred to me to wonder if replacing ss fasteners with a 1/4" trunnels might be superior if each trunnel is sufficiently potted in its mortise with epoxy. This would create a "bung" equal to the thickness of the plank and presumably more watertight than the metal fastener. The useful life of the deck would then be determined by the thickness of the planks rather than the thickness of the bungs.

Any thoughts?

Ray

[Albro359]

Agree with most here ...my teak decks were 15 yrs old and leaking..the foredeck had rot in it, the fasteners leaked....had it all ripped off, the deck repaired and then glassed and painted...the glass is over the gunwales so now we are leak proof....
The boat is cooler too...teak gets amazingly hot and in the tropics you can't walk on it...so much for non-skid porperties !
I cannot see the sense in putting teak over glass or ply decks...its just asking for trouble....even without fasteners, you get a slight gap somewhere, water gets in under the teak and on top of your deck => ROT !

I am much happier without it !

Cheers
Alan

[swagman]

Hope you enjoy the opposing views!

For me sailing is not just enjoying the practical aspects, it is enjoying the beauty of the boats as well.

So the care and maybe even eventual replacement of our teak deck is something I am quite happy to do in exchange for the pleasure of owning a boat that has teak decking stuck onto the plastic.

And I read elsewhere others would not buy a boat with teak. Many others (including me) would not buy one without.

JOHN

[jackiepitts]

I too love the look and ease of care of teak decks.
We have talked quite a bit about pulling our teak over glass decks but we are putting it off as long as possible because I really do like teak decks.
Several of our boat friends have pulled there teak decks and although I think it looks great I have noticed most still have all the leaks they started with as the leaks seem to come from the hardware attached to the deck rather than the teak screw holes. The one thing that pulling the decks does seem to do is make it easier to identify where a leak is coming from.
Also, I do not believe pulling the decks to be as big as a job as some think. I have seen it done several times (teak over glass) and it is a big project but nothing that most boat owners can't do themselves at a reasonable cost.
Jackie

[bobfnbw]

Don't have any personal expirence with the teak decks. Both our boats had fiberglass with built in non skid.

Have looked at and surveyed a few with them.
Here are my thougths on it.

Love the look. Nicely weathered teak decks, look better than any fiberglass decks.
Poorly maintained teak decks, look horrible.
The cost of replacing the decks, even doing the work youself s considerable. A 1/2 inch x 1-7/8 inch x 6 feet teak board at jamestown distributors is 35.27 PLUS shipping. I don't know how many of those you would need, but my guess is hundreds at least to replace it. And of course the screws, and caulking. and the time. Like anything else on a boat, once you start you will find more to fix.
1/2" is not very thick imo.
You could go off shore like to Trinadad or Thailand and get better pricing. But the cost still would be considerable. Teak is a rapidly diminishing product. Its kind of a shame to use it on a deck. Yeah I agree that they look great, but still.

Many boats that have had their decks removed and glassed over, look pretty crappy IMO. So a bad teak deck converted to a bad glassed deck... not very nautical.

If you choose to get a boat with teak decks, get a fein multimaster. It will save you a ton of time when it comes to removing the caulk. And yeah, I would instead of rebunging screws, remove the screw, drill it out, let it dry in the sun for a few weeks then epoxy it, the rebung it. When the deck goes bad..... treadmaster.

[VirtualVagabond]

Originally Posted by donradcliffe

We had the teak replaced in Thailand for $4500, and its better than new--no screws, even during the installation.

That removes a lot of the anxiety associated with buying older boats!
Was that just teak replacement, or was there deck restoration involved too, such as recore, and/or screw holes filled?

[Jon D]

Our Moody had teak decks when built in 85. When we bought her in 2000 the decks were at end of life as the original owner had scrubbed and sanded them till there was less than 1/8th" on most bungs and the caulk was failing.

We looked at the options

new teak for >70K or strip and convert to painted non skid awlgrip for about 40K or so as I recall - roughly half the money. We decided to go for the paint option but I did insist on redoing the cockpit in teak as it's always covered with a bimini so does not get too hot. 8 years later I am very happy with that decision however one consideration is that you have to repaint the decks every 6-8 years. The paint basically reaches a point where the non skid has popped out and the paint starts to fail due to the hot sun in the tropics. So you just need to figure in the cost/effort to repaint every so ofter. After all it is a 'BOAT'

[bobfnbw]

$70,000 USD to Pay someone to do the work, vs 15K to do it your self....... guess the way I would go......

[donradcliffe]

The Thai's took off the old deck with chisels, removed about 1000 screws, and plugged the holes with epoxy putty. They used the Sika system http://www.sikaindustry.com/ipd-mag-5.1.pdf pretty religiously.

[Zanshin]

I have teak decks (and a blue hull) in the tropics. Both get hot in the sun. The boat is a 2006 and the teak has been glued and not epoxied and is certainly nice to look at. All I do is use a dilute oxalic acid solution once a season to bring back the golden color and when aboard (and not taking on green water over the decks) my daily routine prior to a happy hour beverage is to use a couple of buckets of salt water and wash the decks down. I use an old towel to get rid of surface water in the cockpit area but the decks only get washed.
Had I been given a choice when buying this boat I would have gotten a white hull and nonskid decks, but now that I have them I like them a lot and maintenance is almost zero.

[sailorboy1]

So I have some things to look at regarding teak decks now. At the same time some of the prices being throw out just seem amazing. I mean $40,000-70,000 to redo the deck is hard to beleive!