Teak flooring

[BJ]

Good evening

I am planing on putting teak flooring in the cockpit. I was wondering if any of you fellow boat builders have had any experience with teak flooring. Can the teak be butted up against each other and is it ok to glue the pieces down. If its glued down do you have to allow for expansion.

[Barry Pyeatt]

HI BJ!

Been wondering what is up with you lately. Was down Tampa/Sarasota way awhile back and was going to stop by to meet you but got caught up in some of the nasty weather you guys had so will have to do it another time.

I wouldn't put any hardwoods interlocking in a deck installation. They are going to want to move some. I presume this is fairly thin planks of solid wood, not a laminate. If you are going to epoxy it down to the plywood, I would leave as even a gap as possible everywhere and then fill the gap with thickened/tinted epoxy. Then just bring it down even with the surface. You could leave it natural to age gracefully or use teak oil on the surface. That would be my first choice and just plan on re-oiling it perodically.

You might check out the progress photos from Oyster. See how he has filled the gaps between the strips of wood with tinted epoxy. It will be sound and fairly easy to maintain.

[Tim Diebert]

I have done many teak soles, teak decks over ply and traditional corked softwood decks etc. I will try and help you out as well.

I don't know what the current state of the art is, but I can tell you how I do them.

You will need to be able to screw the pieces down....so in the case of a VAC or WE, you will need to make your cockpit sole thicker so you don't have a studded boat bottom. I would suggest gluing in an additional chunk of say 1/2 or 3/4 ply. That could be bedded down in epoxy without fasteners....but whatever you do, it should be water tight from above. Hopefully you could do this during construction, not after the fact.

As Barry said, forget using a laminate, and I can't imagine that you would be able to buy flooring to do this...maybe....but I never have. I use solid wood so I can make it exactly the size I want. Start will rough 4/4 material and resaw for an eventual 3/8 or better.

You should have a perimeter of the same material. Then the rest fits in between (Dave render him up an image will you.....) The whole thing gets built dry and screwed down (not all the screws, just to hold everything tight), then taken up to be permanently bedded and screwed down.

The planks should be 3/8" minimum, 1/2" better. Some places that sell a lot of Teak with have material just for decking.

The thing is, you need to mill a rebate in one edge of every mating edge, butt joints and long edges. Rebate 1/8 X 1/8". This groove gets taped off, then primed and then filled with a bedding compound. We used Thiacol a two part material.... I heard Sikaflex makes something in a tube does the same thing. Has to be let dry, then sanded off. Only thing ever worked was a circular sander. Not easy or fun. A messy job and hard on the knees. As Barry said, oil is the best finish...or leave it alone.

Don't forget to get a nice tight plug set. You need to flush plug all those holes.

Oh, and if you never milled much Teak.....you are in for some surprises. :shock:

This is just enough info to get you started, if you actually decide to do it I can help you out more if you like.....or whatever.

Have fun.

I just painted the cockpit...well the whole damn deck of my WE and I could see the cockpit sole being a painful spot to be spending any amount of time....my back is tweaking on me just thinking about it.

Oh....wait a minute. Maybe you could build the whole thing as a unit (on ply) on the bench... that is prefit into the bottom of the cockpit...leaving a way to seal the edges once glued down. There's a thought.... :idea: :roll: That would be a lot easier.

[Barry Pyeatt]

Tim has the steps correct. Lots of work to do it right. But then you understand about doing it correctly. There are other approaches to installing a sole in a cockpit. But there is always a potential for maintenance issues with laminating it to the ply. Hardwood swells and contracts, no way to get around it.

Have you given thought to a teak grate instead? perimeter frame with teak interlocking grating instead of planking? 3/4" fore/aft strips with 1/2" cross strips set into it? Then the sole could be painted below it for ease of maintenance and upkeep. The teak would give you a very nice accent without the issues of laying it and maintaining a laid deck in a hole. Install a cockpit drain (similar to the Stevenson's thru keel drain planlet)near the bulkhead and any water that ends up in the cockpit can be drained off and no potential for damage. Strong, drains well and attractive.

But maybe that is just my opinion.

[Dave R1]

I would second Barry's suggestion. Consider making a cockpit crate rather than a laid deck. I would also suggest that you make it removable. If you done the seats per the plans, you could make a single, lift out grate.

I did seats that are open underneath and a slatted floor reminiscent of typical wooden day sailor. It extends from side to side. I should have made it in the three pieces. As it is, I have to remove the seats to get the floorboards out.

If you need instructions for making a grate, get hold of 25 Woodworking Projects for Small and Large Boats. You can get it from WoodenBoat.

[Guest]

Normal practices working with teak, if left natural is to use a rubber seam caulk in lieu of epoxy, gluing the teak on plywood, mormally around 1/4" to 3/8" depending on the application and boat size. I intend on sealing mine with clear finish as its on my covering boards, unlike the ealking areas of your boat.

In lieu of a grate you can also fabricate removable hatches if you wish a solid panel using the same technigue. There is a maker of the very best rubber for the seams called Detco system. its the Rolls Royce in the industry for longivity and working properties. Keep one thing in mind, if you go with teak. If you use the glued on plywood technigue, use the best plywood you can get and do not use thick teak. Your strips will be fine even if you use rough cut 3/8 inches, and then sand it down. There is another method for the seam type installation and that is to rabbit the strips for uniform widths of layup, eliminating the need for spacers or guesswork by eye for keeping the seams straight and uniform. You can even purcahse that teak from some of the wood vendors. Make sure the grain is at least vertical or quarter sawn wood.

http://www.detcomarine.com/dcaulkappl.htm

These shots show the style layup that I use with most any wood decks and can also be used for your hatches. A pointof note, I wanted some heavy grains so I used some flate sawn with some vertical grains with a wider glue joint, which I think makes a smaller boat or smaller jobs not look so "busy". I still have the main part of the rub rail to install over the filler strips, saving me some added costs for good hardwoods if purchasing the good stuff.

[Tim Diebert]

Great info Oyster. Your boat is looking fiiine.

I am also with Barry on this one. A grate makes real good sense.

Personally, the cockpit sole is so covered in sand and dirt and line and beer cans and stuff that the easier it is to get at and clean...the better. And I am for sure going to put one of those drains in soon. Washing these boats down is a nightmare, everything ends up oin the cockpit benches or the sole and then you have get it out. I have a small bucket and sponge for that for now....but a drain would be handy for sure.

[Frank Hagan]

I just put a drain in my Weekender ... but I didn't use the plans from the Stevensons. Instead I found a dinghy transom drain at West Marine that had a threaded plug and installed it off-center at the aft end of the cockpit. I drilled the hole for the drain and used 3M 5100 to seal it in there; I need to cut it flush with the bottom and then epoxy around it when I get back from my trip. I'll post some pics of it then, along with the part number for the transom drain.

[Tim Diebert]

Frank. So do you then tip the trailer back to drain? Being at the aft end of the cockpit will make it on the 'high' end won't it?

[BJ]

Thank you much for all your input. My boards are 2" wide 3/8"deep. My plan is to install the teak with 1/8" space between and fill with blk caulk. I raised the floor in the cockpit before I put the seats in so the water would drain out better.I put a sump pump inside the bench where you climb into the cabin and a hose going out the side of the boat.

Barry if you get the sarasota area again I sure hope you'll look me up. id love to meet you. I am hoping to have the D' Louise in the water by the end of July. That will be the second anniversary since I started building her.

[Frank Hagan]

Frank. So do you then tip the trailer back to drain? Being at the aft end of the cockpit will make it on the 'high' end won't it?

Yep, I need a 2 x 4 under the trailer tongue jack wheel to make it drain back to that point (if the trailer tongue jack wasn't rusted solid from exposure to sea water I could just raise the jack a few inches).