Caulk



It never rains etc... Just when we were only slightly overwhelmed getting the various boat maintenance tasks done before we headed to Turkey, it came apparent that we would have to re-caulk much of the teak decking. The caulk had started going gooey in many places although around 1/4 of the deck had already been re-caulked just before we bought the boat. This obviously leaves around 3/4 of the deck with 9 year old caulk that will have to be replaced. We have done less than 5% and it took both of us a couple of days. Just so you know how much fun it is; here are the steps:
- Dig out the old caulk which is in 4mm wide strips (either 5mm deep or 15mm deep). In some rare cases it is very easy as it has gone to liquid and dried out so much it can almost be vacuumed out. In many other cases it is of the consistency of tar and is a mess to get out. The remained needs to be dug out (we use small flat blade screwdrivers). The deep seams can take around a minute an inch.
- Clean out the seams by scraping with a flat blade screwdriver on bottom and the sides (this isn't quick either). Vacuum the junk out.
- Sand the inside of the seams with 60 grade paper (the easiest step). Vacuum the sawdust out.
- Scrape out the sawdust that has clung to the corners. Vacuum again
- Wipe the seams with an acetone soaked rag (remember the seams are 4mm wide)
- If it rains, wait two days for it to dry out and go back 3 steps
- Tape round the seams with masking tape (of course few are straight)
- Get a caulk gun and caulk the seams (we are using Teak Decking Systems SIS440)
- Flatten out the caulk with a scraper taking care not to get too much on your clothes
- Pull up the tape with 40 minutes of starting caulking the area (or the surface hardens). This covers your hands with caulk which mysteriously transfers itself everywhere
- Once it cures (24 hours) cut/sand as appropriate to remove high areas
We have done 3 relatively small areas with a total seam length around 50ft. Only around 1200ft to go :(

All in all it hasn't been a great week on the maintenance front; the genset control panel isn't working correctly, for the 3rd time a Garmin Rino GPS/radio has failed and had to be returned and the motherboard failed on my laptop which I have to replace today (at least the new laptop is a little faster). Here are some pictures of us enjoying ourselves with the caulking (we will probably head towards Baltimore tomorrow as a treat for finishing the first 50ft of seams):

PS. Since most people appear to prefer seeing pictures of dolphins and whales to ones of us we have put them all in a single dolphins & whales album .


Posted: Thu - August 16, 2007 at 03:01 PM          

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