Teak deck replacement

Hello everyone!

Some five years ago we had the deck replaced on our 41/022 in the south of France. The caulking material used was SIKAFLEX 290 DC, which is the standard product for decks.

Since then we have had problems with the caulking sending black marks all over the place, especially when something is rubbing on the deck, like deck shoes, or even sheets, and it seems to be getting worse. I believe there was definitely a quality problem with the SIKA product, which of course they are not ready to accept.

Has anyone been faced with this problem? Any information would greatly help.

Many thanks.

Dear Philippe,

as far as you know, did the shipyard degreased (e.g. with acetone) and  use the correct primer before getting the Sika 290? the problem you are facing let me think they did not, or that they got the Sika in a humid weather...?

Look at tha attached pic, it shows the prepared teack deck (cleaned and primerized) and the following process of the Sika 290.

Matteo (38/067 Only You)

Dear Matteo
this is interesting especially because I did not suspect it! As I plan to perform some minor restoration to my deck, I would appreciate very much if you could explain step by step the correct procedure or give some reference.

1) degreasing; acetone.
2) priming; with what?
3) caulking.
4) what else? I saw in some of your pictures that they covered the caulking with something that resembles a plastic sheet.
5) wait; how long?
6) clean; how?
7) sand?

Same procedure for old teak?

Thank you! Now I realize that I always caulked like a monkey... no wonder the job was never well done and lasted one season at most!
:-)

Daniel

Dear Daniele,
OK, I will try to explain my experience, even if I am not at all a professional:

1) after the deck has been laid down (mine was not screwed, just glued with 3M 5200) the whole deck must be carefully (CAREFULLY) cleaned and degreased (acetone is great, anyway Sika has a dedicated product).

2) it is absolutely compulsory to use a specific (Sika) primer before you are caulk, and you must wait no more that a few (betwen 15 minutes and 5 hours) hours before to pour the Sika 290.

3) Sika tells you you can cut the excess material after just a few days, my shipyard preferred to wait about three months.

4) the finl step is a very soft sanding (I asked the shipyard not to sand my deck, as I am not interested in the beautiful tan colour, it is destined to last for a very short period of time, but takes away a few microns (or mm) of good wood!

5) I think the same procedures must be carried for old wood too, but be careful as you cannot mix different kind of caulking, and I don't think Nautor back in the seventies used Sika, hope Lars Strom will let us all to know which was their product.

Attached is a pics of two step of the work done on Only You deck, on the left you can see the deck prepared with the Sika primer (November 2007), on the right, half of the excess Sika has been cutted (February 2008)


Fair wind!

Matteo (38/067 Only You)

p.s. the plastic was hust to cover the deck during the awlgrip spraying

Philippe, it sounds like the mastic has not cured properly. Could a chemist provide a statement?

Matteo - in the old days a mastic called PRC was used, but is to my knowledge not available any more. Deck mastics were earlier polysulfides, but now there are also other recipes and hybrids 

Regards

Lars

Philippe, it sounds like the mastic has not cured properly. Could a chemist provide a statement?

Dear friends,

deck caulking is today a big issue due to more and more wordwide restrictions against pollution of our environment.

Former caulking contains toluol, lead and other "harmful" components which helps us to have an excellent caulking quality against fouling etc. over decades.

I think Nautor uses this caulking in the 70`years (I forgot the name of the product formerly produced by the german company BASF). Today we have mainly caulking which is not optimized to use on board under sea condition in combination with teakwood.

I have made good experience with the US DETCO 2xcomponent caulking (www.detco.com) which is unfortunately very expensive to import from the US- west coast.

Another goog professional caulking  seems the european Simpson productline from www.bostik.com

fair winds

Jan

Swan 38/85 "Kalliope"

Deck calking,

Thanks for these very useful information. I believe there is either a quality problem with Sika (IE 290 DC mastic or primer), or that it was too cold when the product was applied which led to insufficient polymerisation as said by the professor. Second option improbable as all the deck is concerned...

Kind regards. Philippe.

Forwarding a message received tonight for your information

I am very grateful to all for all this information.

If I may draw a conclusion (if there can be any on such a touchy subject) DO NOT USE ANY PRODUCT TO CLEAN OR RENOVATE YOUR DECK..... but mild soap or equivalent (or do a proper test before which is difficult). If any problem arise you will be like a ping-pong ball between the deck calking manufacturer and the company selling the cleaning agent, the people having replaced your deck beeing the third party. Great fun I can assure you. In any case it will end up being your own problem.

So  for your information in my case calking was SIKAFLEX 290 DC.

The cleaning product was Sun Teck by Mattchem, which is well known in France.