Brown Snow--Or, Teak Dust Everywhere

Sanded deck on John William #68

By John Mackie, John William #68
From June 2014 emails

We had brown snow--oh wait, that's teak dust. I sanded the side decks with 80 grit before I started to rake (clean out) the seams.  The front deck and back deck were sanded without a lot of bungs to replace.  To get the old caulk out I am using a Fein tool with their special teak-deck caulk removal bit. It works well but the grooves still need additional attention.  I bought a sanding block from Jamestown Distributors with an adjustable depth.  It uses sticky-back 36 grit paper and does an outstanding job on straight seams.  To handle curves and odd groove widths I made some blocks which use 80 grit sticky-back paper.  I also made rakes from screwdrivers and always have a supply of razor blades on hand.

I use Boatlife Teak Deck Sealant ($20.39 for a 10.5oz tube at Jamestown Dsitributors) as I've had good success with it over the years.  I used 2 1/2 tubes on the front deck. This did from the point of the deck fwd of the winch to the first port lite on the trunk. On part of the deck I didn't tape the seams but merely applied the sealant and troweled it in.  After it had dried I used a random orbital with 80 grit, dropping to 36 grit where necessary, to remove all the excess caulk.  Most manufactures say not to sand across the seams and to use a belt sander if sanding is necessary as don't want the caulk to pull away from the sides.  Although I used a random orbital sander I didn't see any evidence of 'pull away'.  Besides, since an LNVT's teak decks aren't designed to keep water out of the boat, it doesn't really matter.  On other parts of the deck I taped each side of the seam before applying the sealant.  This takes twice as long although it's not as messy.  That is until you pull the tape and the wind starts blowing.  The tape needs to come off before the sealant skins.  Having done it both ways I do recommend tapping the seams but that can depend on the condition of the deck. Mine was extremely worn and I found that it needed extra attention after it was caulked.

The deck now looks great and it should be good for another 20 years.