what to do with the deck.

Thanks paul. Its only 4ft long I have had it in the steamer all afternoon. If it doesn't work I will go with your suggestion.

 

You can over cook a piece of lumber BTW. Bending solid stock is dependent on many things; species, moisture content, drying type, grain orientation, thickness, how you hold your jaw, etc. If it's not workable after 2 - 3 hours in the box, it's never going to be.

 

Thanks again for the great info. I have only steamed small stuff before but this big piece certainly is a different job. Ran out of time yesterday so I will try next sunday and see what happens.

 

Right again par. The 2 pieces I tried to steam are just to old and dry so I am going to laminate them instead. I don't want to cut the shape out of larger stock because I don't think it will have the strength of a laminated piece. Is there any single pack glue that I can use or should I stick with epoxy. I know I am being lazy but it would be nice to just squirt a single pack on I stead of mixing glue.

 

Life and steam bending sucks sometimes, so you laminate instead. Lamination thicknesses should be 1" or less. I use 3/4" on hardwoods, but an 1" will do on most softwoods. You can use PU or a PVA, but these aren't gap filling so the joints need to be tight. TiteBond III tends to creep under strain and doesn't have much working time. PU's foam up at gaps and ooze out, which is a ***** to clean up and I don't trust the foamy potion to be waterproof, but maybe swear by it. When in doubt, I recommend epoxy and a bigass through bolt.

 

Excellent thank you. I will stick with epoxy then.

 

Update. I have now got the sheerclamp repaired at last and its nice and solid. Next things is the plank repairs and scarph in 3 short pieces to the burnt off deck beams. I have a new plan. I am going to replace all the cockpit decks with ply/epoxy. But the side decks are mostly rot free so I want to repair them and seal with coelan clear sealer. This is the german product that steve w mentioned an earlier post. Expensive stuff .$470 au for 3 lts but I get to keep the beatiful plank side decks and no leaks. The ply under the planks is solid except for a couple of spots. The deck planks are all nailed to one another as well as the normal fastenings is that how it is usually done. ps. Jeff look out for a pm. I want to mail a sample of wood to you.

 

This is the way strip planked deck is done and a common way to keep wayward planks under control, as they're being laid down.

 

Thanks. The other thing I found is these deck seams are not caulked with cotton. Only the polysulfide. Is that because they are laid over plywood. I originally thought the plank deck was the source of the leaks but I have traced them to the cabin sides and top. Except the decking In the cockpit. The ply under there is rotten.

 

Strip planked decks can be traditionally laid over beams or over a substrate (plywood, diagonal tongue and groove planking, etc.). I don't like to see laid planking over plywood, but it's done a lot. If the planking is over a solid substrate, then you don't need caulk, just a sealant.

 

So do you think I should just stick with plan b and redo the whole deck in ply. I will have a problem I did'nt consider before. wherever I remove planks to replace the ply underneath .the new piece of ply will have to be butt blocked in place . It will look pretty ugly if there are patchs under the deck where the rotten spots are. I love to look at that deck but if I keep it it is going to be a pain in the proverbial.

 

I don't know if your deck is going to cause you fart hole pain, but given your goals, which ever works out as the least amount of money and effort is the route I'd take. I dislike solid wood decks over plywood, as it tends to trap moisture between them, causing issues. The only way I recommend this technique, is if the plywood is encapsulated and then sheathed with at least 16 ounces of fabric, preferably more and at least two layers of fabric (two 8 ounces). Then you can lay a solid wood deck over it without much fear.

 

I will stick with the double skin ply and sheathing. I don't want to put the planks back on once removed. a nice colour and non slip tread will have to do. after I posted this morning I went up to the boat and had another look everywhere I could and found some more soft spots so to much deck has to come up to make it worth saving anyway.

 

Typically, once you start to pull up this type of deck, you'll find all sorts of "spots", previously hidden by the planks. There's nothing better than a sheathed plywood deck anyway.

 

Yes, the planks are mostly fine but its the ply under that has a few rotten spots. Makes sense . rain water has been sitting in there for a long time.