Teak deck companies....who's best

[Talisman66]

OK, thanks for clarifying Awlgrip vs Awlcraft. Also, I've decided to replace my 29 year old teak deck and have found 2 companies in Fla that will duplicate my deck with their new panels. I did some test sanding and fixing bad spots but the wood battens are so thin (deteriorated) that I would have to sand off too much at the seams to get it flat, then it would be about 3/16 to 1/4 thick, then all the screw heads.....So, any experiences with TeakDecking Systems in Sarasota, FL or Teak Deck Company in Lake Park, FL ?? What would one expect to pay per squarefoot?? Anyone else that I should try? I'm 1 hour north of Chicago if it makes any difference. thanks Sailnet ROCKS!!!

[Rockter]

Talisman...

If it is a GRP boat, whatever you do, do not let them tack the new decks through the top layer of GRP on the deck, no matter what they say otherwise.

One practical way is to have the existing holes sealed, then a (say) 10 mm teak deck bonded to the GRP.... no fasteners.

Don't drill that deck to fasten the teak.

I got quoted £12,000 for that, in Scotland.... choke!

[camaraderie]

If you are going to have your teak deck removed, I would encourage you to thing about keeping it removed and simply refinishing the boat deck in glass and non-skid and painting w/ 2 part paint. It will be easier to maintain and will be an advantage on re-sale to have a good looking, easy maintenance deck.

[Jeff_H]

I am strongly with Cam on this one. If you are removing the teak decking, I would strongly suggest that you go back with a glass deck. Not only will the glass deck be wildly less expensive but it should also add to the resale value of your boat.

There really isn't a great way to teak over glass decks. Screw down require heavier planking and eventually gets water into the core. Glue down wears out and come apart long before the screw down decks have bit the farm.

If you do remove the teak and go to a glass deck, I would suggest that you use the method recommended by MAS epoxy, which is to level the deck surface, repair any holes, or damaged and delaminated coring. In areas where you have extensive crazing grind down into the existing laminate and lay in cloth and resin and grind fair. Apply a coat of their thinnest viscosity penetrating epoxy to seal any small pores and hairline cracks in the gelcoat. Cover with a coat of a thicker viscosity resin to further seal the surface.

There are various ways to go on the next step but the one that I like is to trowel on a coat of thickened epoxy, and then lay in one of Gibco's non-skid molds, which produces a factory style non-skid pattern. Then paint with Interlux's deck paint system. If you removed and reinstalled the deck hardware yourself, you could probably do that work for not much more than the cost of the round trip shipment from Chicago to Florida.

Respectfully,
Jeff

[Rockter]

I am having to make just these decisions in about 2 months with my olde Union 36, from 1977.

It is not easy.

Teak does look good though, but is it worth it?

I did not know that the "glue-down" stuff lets go so quickly there Jeff.

[sailingdog]

The other advantage of leaving the deck glass is the boat will be lighter for it, with a lower center of gravity.

[donradclife]

After 15 years, I had my teak decks replaced in Thailand for $4500 (45 ft boat). The old decks were both screwed and glued with sikaflex. After they took about 1000 screws out, they had to chisel off the glued teak. The glue joint was still so strong that the biggest piece they were able to get off was about the size of a clothespin.

The new decks were put down with sikaflex and no screws--6 years later they still look great, and there is absolutely no sign of glue failure anywhere.

[sahara]

A friend had his Mason 53 redecked by TDS, Sarasota.

Beautiful, beautiful work. Several years in and it looks and works terrific.

[TrueBlue]

There have been many redecking jobs on older Nauticats, considering they've been building them since the 1960's and still going strong. After forty or so years, when the teak has worn thin - the ONLY option with a Nauticat is too replace the decking with teak. Doing otherwise will seriously lessen the resale value.

Of course, with solid fiberglass decks under the screwed & bunged planks, there's no risk of water intrusion, or rotting balsa, since coring dosen't exist.