Soft Deck

[Steve V]

Hi,

I have a 1973 33' Egg Harbour with glass over plywood decks. Water has penetrated the deck through the screw holes. There is softness around the stanchions and where the glass deck meets the teak cockpit deck.
I have read about CPES and it sounds good in principle but what do you think? I would prefer not to reposition the bow rail, is it recommended after using CPES?
If I do not use CPES I will open the deck and grind out the soft wood and replace with epoxy marine plywood. My only concern is water has seeped under the teak toe rail. Any suggestions on removing the old wood? The teak is in good condition. If I have to remove the toe rail is there an easy way?
Where the deck joins the teak cockpit deck there is a stainless plate but I do not see how it is attached. Does any one know? See attached photo.
Any suggestions and got-ya's for this project would be appreciated.

Thanks
Steve

[Dave Carnell]

Don't waste your money on CPES, which is over 50% solvents and does not penetrate wet wood. They run their demonstrations on bone-dry balsa.

The only effective treatment for wet wood is ethylene glycol antifreeze. Your glass covered decks make it hard to treat, but removing the glass will be make everything accessible. Then saturate everything with the antifreeze before surgery and refilling.

Be sure to use the toxic ethylene glycol antifreeze, not the nontoxic propylene glycol antifreeze. You want to kill that cancer to its roots.

Don't leave containers or puddles of antifreeze around where children or pets can get at it. It is sweeter than sugar. Once soaked into the wood it is not harmful to man or beast.

[Eric D]

You want a bandaid or a cure?

Not to pick a fight, but the antifreeze is a debated fix that some would HIGHLY discourage....

CPES is not a cure either....

[Woodonwater]

How does the ethylene glycol react to future painting? Not to threadjack, but I have large Doug fir floors which are fairly wet from previously sitting in rain water. I want to dump EG on them to really stop any rot issues. Then I want to let them dry out when I haul out soon, and apply red lead primer and then oil based paint.

Will the EG inhibit bonding of the paint?

Thanks,
James

Steve-I vote for cutting out the rotted ply. It will be too hard to get CPES into all affected areas of the ply without pulling the glass off anyway, correct?

[Stiletto]

When I replaced some of the glass over ply decks on my tri, I used an angle grinder with a diamond blade to quickly cut through the glass and When I had removed the bad deck, because I didnt want to remove the toe rail due to hardstand time constraints, I used the The angle grinder with the coarsest Grinding wheel I could find To run in under the toe rail by about 12mm or so. It smoked like hell on the good wood but removed it faster than hocking away with a chisel would have.

Once the groove was cut I coated it with epoxy, and made a good thick mix to bed that edge of the ply in.

This method or a variation of it may work for you.

Not fine boatbuilding by any means but it worked for me.

Good luck.

[Dave Carnell]

Once dry to the touch ethylene glycol has no effect on finishing or gluing.

[Stinkbug]

The strenth of most frp decks is achieved by creating an I beam tpe of structure. Part of that structure is made of glass. The remainder is wood of some type. Most likely balsa or ply. It is what is called a "cored" deck. The problem with a cored deck is that it is almost impossible to keep water out forever, and once it get in you cant get it out unless you take drastic measures. Once water gets in, it creates an ideal breeding ground for rot to occur. Both balsa and ply rot. A bit of antifreeze or cpes or epoxy isnt going to fix a core which is basically mush, which is most often the case in a boat like yours. I know as Ive re built a number of fiberglass decks. With either ply or balsa they turn to mush and thedeck is greatly weakened. You basically have a pie shell with a top and bottom crust of fiberglass with nothing in between.

My advice will cost you either a lot of money or a lot of your time and not so much money. You need to replace the core if you ever hope to have anything but a boat with a spongy feeling deck.

Good luck, its a huge job and I doubt whether itwill be worth the cost to have done.

[Bardo]

Hi,
New here, but I have just completed my deck repair on a cored deck. I ground out the glass to where is was totally dry and dried the wet sections of balsa for 2 weeks in good weather (you can cover it with plastic and tape it down as well). When the balsa was dry (not damaged beyond use, which would require replacement), I reglassed, faired and am now prepping for new deck paint. The deck is as good as new. Good luck.
Freeman

[Steve V]

Thanks everyone for your advice.

Does anyone know how to get access to the connecting plate between the glass deck and the teak cockpit deck?

Steve

[Bill Mercer]

The only effective treatment for wet wood is ethylene glycol antifreeze. Your glass covered decks make it hard to treat, but removing the glass will be make everything accessible. Then saturate everything with the antifreeze before surgery and refilling.


Uh, I think that's polyethylene glycol, or PEG. From what I understand, ethylene glycol will just wash out the next time yer decks get wet, as well as possibly poisoning small animals who decide that yer deck tastes sweet. Even PEG is a wood stabilizer, not a preservative or rot killer: http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/fplrn/fplrn006.pdf

I'd look up discussions on the differences between the two chemicals before dousing my boat in antifreeze.

[Dave Carnell]

It is ethylene glycol. Getting PEG into wood requires long-term treatment at elevated temperatures. EG is water-soluble, but because it is absorbed both by the cellulose and the water in the wood it does not wash out.

PEG's only use is for cleaning out your intestine prior to colonoscopy and there it violates Article 8 of the Bill of Rights in the Constitution.