Gen. Deck Repair ?'s

[awnuld]

My situation:

I have an older grady that had a lounge on the port side that had been replaced by a captain chair..

I noticed that there is still screw holes in the deck and there's evidence of some sort of repair under where the seat was, a 6"x 10" section.

Currently the port seat pedestal is coming all loose from the deck where screwed in and flopping around.. I want to remove the seat and cut out a good section of the deck fabric (lack of better term) and check out the deck wood under that side, let it air out and to replace.

additionally..

I had the transom redone earlier this year and they repaired some of the back section of the deck, and the seam they made when the rigid deck material was put back on and is cracked in a couple places.

Questions:

How is the deck re-adhered, I'm guessing some epoxy of some sort?

What is used to close up the seams where the deck would be cut and patching of holes?

What can I expect when doing this?

thanks for any input..

 

[BobP]

What's under the fiberglass is wood, that's where the bite is for the screws, probably 1/2 inch ply. The ply may be rotted.

Do you have access below the area?

 

[gw204]

How is the deck re-adhered, I'm guessing some epoxy of some sort?

The deck should have a light layer of glass on the underside. If you are careful when you cut the top skin and core out, you can leave the bottom glass in place. Rough that glass up w/ 80 grit and bed the new core right to that. Bevel the edges of the existing deck so your new glass (over the top of the core) overlaps the existing glass. To really make it strong, you should bevel the edges of the new and existing core as well.

If you cut through the underside, no big deal. You can glass "cleats" to the bottom of the deck to set your new core on. The cleats can be made of glass, wood, composite core, etc.

What is used to close up the seams where the deck would be cut and patching of holes?

Glass and gelcoat. The glass makes the seam strong. The gelcoat makes is pretty. Is there diamond non-skid on the floor?

What can I expect when doing this?

This isn't a major repair...unless you inadvertently find other problems during the deconstruction phase. Should be able to knock it out in two weekends if you're not experienced in working with glass and gelcoat.

 

[awnuld]

Cool, this is good stuff..

the small repaired section looks to have been glassed over, and yes the floor is textured, not sure if it's diamonds.

I have no real access to the below area, next to it is the bulkheads for the gas tank.. and aft of it on the floor (more in the center of the boat), there's a storage area that can pull out a fiberglass storage bin for access to the bilge area, I can see a stringer there, but that's about it.. it is sound.. but not sure with the open screw holes etc. what I'll find in the area of interest.

Forgot to say (probably irrelevant) that the port side seat is screwed into a rotted foot long 2 by 8 which is screwed to the floor.. guess the wood is not in good shape under there, will see I suppose.

 

[richie rich]

Doing the deck piecemeal isn't the greatest way to do it.....you're better off replacing in full pieces and it will give you access to inspect everything inside like the rest of the stringers and foam...you can do it 2 square feet at a time, but it will be tough to try and continue to match the color and finish with the original deck all around it....

 

[gw204]

Doing the deck piecemeal isn't the greatest way to do it.....you're better off replacing in full pieces and it will give you access to inspect everything inside like the rest of the stringers and foam...you can do it 2 square feet at a time, but it will be tough to try and continue to match the color and finish with the original deck all around it....

RR brings up a good point. If you have any doubts about the "under deck" components in your boat, this might be a good time to do a little exploratory surgery.

But on the other hand (and I can't believe I'm saying this ), if you don't currently have any symptoms of structural problems, there is nothing wrong with fixing the floor and going fishing. I bet that's what 9 out of 10 shops would you do if you took the boat to them and just said "fix the soft spot in the floor".

A spot repair can be plenty strong if done properly. If you see any evidence that water has gotten past the bottom glass, drill down into the foam and see if it's wet. If it is, you might be able to dig out all the wet stuff from the hole you cut in the floor. If you can't get all the wet foam out...or if you find a rotten stringer of bulkhead...make your hole bigger.

If you end up doing the whole deck, my recommendation would be to cut the entire thing out all at once...with leaving a small (3" or so) lip around the edges to give you something to bond the new deck to. Removing the whole deck will let you see everything all at once.

That's my $.02. But, there's more than one way to skin a cat...I mean a Grady.

 

[BobP]

I like the 2x8 seat base support screwed into the deck idea!

Too bad they didn't use a pressure treated 2 x 8 and cauked the holes....

If the coring is wet and even partially rotted, the bottom skin would have parted already, up until the point horizontally good wood is obtained, if any is good.

Top skin too.

 

[awnuld]

I'll revisit this post with some pics soon, before, during and after.

thanks again.

 

[richie rich]

Brian, that was my thinking initially....fix just the part I thought was bad and leave the rest alone......I started with just the fuel tanks, then after looking around went onto the tank supports and 1st set of deck stringers, then after hogging out the wet foam, which is wet on the bottom, and not seen from the top, the last set of stringers under the deck came out, so I thought, great, I'm done with demo.....And as Lee Corso on college game day says "Not so fast my friend" and then went on to the wet transom that wouldn't stop dripping water after I nicked the inner skin with the grinding wheel.....depending on the age of the boat, it may be nothing.....just a bad spot on the deck........but my boat was soaking wet and felt fine when hitting a wave, I guess the heavy boat hides the problem better than a light weight boat.....but once I saw the damage, there was no way she was going back out there without getting the job done right.......all I'm saying is, I'd wanna know. Plus, the repair will look better...who wants blotchy spots of mismatched gel coat color and multiple seams and cracks.....