Teak Deck Removal

Peter:

I''m curious, what make boat do you have?

We recently removed decking from our Little Harbor 38 and replaced the teak on one side which was in poor shape, and reused the old teak on the otherside. We were pleased with the results, but it takes a lot of time and determination.

We expected to find a lot of core problems but luckily that didn''t prove out.

A cordless drill is indispensable.

Mate''s book "From a Bare Hull" had good info. We used West System epoxy along with self tapping screws to replace the boards. The boat was on the hard, but I don''t think that''s necessary.

Bob

i recently removed the teak decks on my choey lee 33 offshore. it is quite a job. The deck needs to be kept dry while the screw holes are open. If water gets in, you will never get it all out, and it will damage wood all the time. Mine were in terrible shape so it was not too hard to get a nail bar under the planks. I just popped each screw up as i came to it. you will chamfer the holes anyway to fill them properly. some screws broke leaving the shaft down in the fiberglass. I forced them out by smacking a heavy screwdriver into the deck at an angle about 1/4 inch from the screw. What you want to anticipate is that it will be very very very messy. My decks were set in what looks like pine tar rather than a nice polysulfide. But, having said that, my boat is a '72. I had some core worries, so after i had all of the screws out, i dried it out for a week or with a heater on in the boat and fans keeping the air moving over the deck. Then i injected Rot Doctor and later resin. Then i chamfered all of the screw holes a second time to make a good surface for the resin to hold, and finally i filled all of the screw holes with west system. Good luck.