Replace Teak

[JOE K]

My Teak Is Beyond Refinishing (to Many Years) Would Like To Use Cedar Will This Hold Up ? Cosmetic Only Trailer Boat

Black Locust will do the job.

[Petros]

Western red cedar (very common) is too soft, it will get beat up quickly, do not use it. Alaskan Yellow cedar is excellent, very dence and rot resistant, but it is a much lighter in color.

There is this interesting heavy vinyl-plastic material made to look like teak, with built-in dark caulk like stripes. IT appears very durable, it is installed in large sheets. Not sure where to get it, but I saw a sample of it at a boat show. It will have much less maintenance that any wood, and looks as good as teak (if you do not look too close). Looks like a good low cost substitute.

[mydauphin]

I used IPE(Brazilian) as a replacement to teak, a little harder to work with but much cheaper than teak and hard to tell apart.

Originally Posted by Petros

There is this interesting heavy vinyl-plastic material made to look like teak, with built-in dark caulk like stripes. IT appears very durable, it is installed in large sheets. Not sure where to get it, but I saw a sample of it at a boat show. It will have much less maintenance that any wood, and looks as good as teak (if you do not look too close). Looks like a good low cost substitute.

These "low cost" substitutes come out twice the price of a professionally laid deck in Teak!
Why?

You have to replace them with the real stuff after few weeks. It is just ****. And looks awful on top of that.

Actually we have to replace one vinyl deck on a brandnew boat. It is already gone after 3 months under southern sun.
The seams don´t stay tight fit.
It is a steel boat, not build by me, I would not have allowed that.
And
no, it is not a installation issue, that was proper done. Otherwise the manufacturer would not have refunded 8000$ of the purchase price.

Look for Black Locust, I meant that in all seriousness.

Regards
Richard

[Riccelli Yachts]

Most cedars are half the density of teak, so the answer is no. Both Spanish and Alaskan cedar will be the better of the cedars, but they're still soft in comparison.

Pitch pine is a common softwood solution to decking. It must be vertical grain or quarter sawn to work.

I will not comment on the imitation teak like products on the market, which is a bit like getting boob job on a 60 year old hooker.

[darr]

We have been using Sapele for exterior woodwork on a couple of our boats, so far so good.

Fades to a nice gray/silver, I have not seen any evidence of any rot or damage to the test piece that has been unfinished, laying in the dirt by the boat shed for over 3 years now, it probably gets 10+ hours of sunlight daily on an annualized average.