Cruising Sailors Forum Archive

Tom, I installed the "Gougeon Bros." 1/8" teak deck on Passage and after a few years....

...frankly, it failed. I stripped out the 1/8" teak, watching the grain so it was all vertical within the 'staves', acetoned it prior to epoxy, fastened it down with bronze staples which were trimmed off and pulled. I used carbon filled epoxy at all times which worked very well in H. Mahogany. Holes were filled with syringe.....pretty much what I thought was the whole enchilada according to the Bros.

Failure after a few years, leakage, either repairs or dry rot. During my ownership of the boat I carefully inspected the seams every season, did repairs where I could see seam failure. As a result I cannot recommend and in fact recommend AGAINST epoxy in the seams between the teak strips, especially at 1/2" deep. There WILL be expansion/contraction, even if it was minimal it will exist. Teak does not like epoxy the way some woods do and it will not hold the edges IMHO and based upon my experience resulting in open seams to the base. This also militates for epoxy laid glass undisturbed by fastener penetration beneath the teak.

If you glue down the teak strips, bung WITH carbon filled epoxy (which I liked with the teak for the look) then the best I would recommend is to use traditional seam compounds in carefully prepared seams.

A few years ago, in Gougeon's Epoxyworks magazine, one of the authors there allowed as how the teak veneer did not work as well as they'd hoped, especially in the warmer climes...and I would suggest the colder climes as well...and in effect was not the best solution IIRC.

If I were to do a natural wood veneer style deck again, I've sworn I'd use a more compatible wood for all epoxy gluing/seaming.

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