Sealing deck hatches

[PeterPalmieri]

Sorry I haven't got up to speed on posting pictures since photobucket is no longer an option.

With regard to my teak deck - The hatches are teak and have a plywood sub base and they sit on a teak lip, no hinges they pull completely out. My issue is the edges, 1/2 of teak over a half inch of plywood. As much as I try to stay on top of keeping things dry and the edges sealed with glass it's an uphill battle.

Brush on glass on the edges up to the teak but water always seems to find it's way in. Right now I'm going through each hatch scrapping out any wet wood and filling it, creating a new edge with glass. I did this a few years ago but there must be a better long term solution.

Pete

[CamB25]

The hatch is teak over plywood? The lip on the deck is teak?

Can you cut out a border around the hatch to remove the plywood layer and replace with a non-rot material like Coosa or glass or aluminum? Goal would be to eliminate the wood to wood contact where the hatch rests on the lip.

Is there a bulb seal around the hatch or deck lip?

just some thoughts

[PeterPalmieri]

Thanks Cam it is teak over plywood.

The lip under the deck is teak but it is fastened to the underside plywood. I'm also having some problems that the water sits on the teak lip even with a few drain holes drilled and finds it's way into the deck. I had pulled one side of the deck flipped it over and pulled the rotten wood and laminated fresh plywood back in. Have to do that to the remaining hatches. Thankfully a good friend owns a yard that restores wooden sail boats so he's going to take care of the deck itself I'm working on the hatches. My deck comes out in 3 8' length wise sections, it's heavy as heck and I'm not sue if it's possible to remove all the plywood and replace with a coosa core without the teak and caulking coming apart. The other section he did he laminated a new section just where it rotted and it seems to be holding up well.

With regards to cutting out a boarder on the hatch, I have about a 2" lip and then it is supported with a box frame, in places I have pulled out the bad wood on the edges and filled with thickened epoxy. but have not yet removed the entire lip on the underside of the hatch. I suppose I could route out an inch of the plywood and create a glassed edge. Completely removing the teak from the substructure and reattaching it to a piece of coosa without ending up with a jigsaw puzzle of teak may be beyond my skill level.

[Tony Meola]

Peter

When you pull the deck and look at the teak edge on the underside, how much teak is there?

If they built it only as a lip to hold the hatch I would think that it is only a n inch or two wide. I would guess a half inch reveal with an inch or two attached to the underside. If that is what you have, I would remove it and replace it with Coosa.

Then I would cut the plywood back a 1/2 inch with a router and then fill it back with glass.

[PeterPalmieri]

Some pictures
You can see how the plywood under the deck collected water and no longer supports the hatch. I made a previous attempt to seal the edges while in place, it didn't work




Cleaning up the hatchs while I have it out and replaceing the pulls





Having the yard pull that side of the deck and laminate in new plywood around the hatch area...

[Tony Meola]

Peter

Not sure how well protected the underside of the plywood is. But if it is not well protected I would give the bottom a quick coat of epoxy especially around the edge area. Following Capt. Pat's formula, give it a good coat that is thinned 10% with alcohol and then when that gets tacky give it coat of un-thinned epoxy. That should prevent any issues with dampness causing rot in the plywood.

[PeterPalmieri]

Thanks tony the ply is well sealed. It’s only the edge around the hatch, when the teak meets the plywood on the edges. My plan is to replace the wet wood and router out the last inch and fill with glass that way all the edges are teal and glass.

[PeterPalmieri]

Going to pull this side out over the winter

https://imgur.com/a/KJW7Yfw

The forward hatch I did a temporary fix

https://i.imgur.com/NU3tNsj.jpg

This is the other side that was taken out and done right

https://i.imgur.com/mzLamnR.jpg

Going to wait until the end of the season pull out the starboard section and do them both the right way.

[Tony Meola]

That last pic looks great. I bet those sections are a bear to lift.

[PeterPalmieri]

And some more repaired rottten hatch edges, will see if this method holds up

[PeterPalmieri]

Pulled out the starboard side deck

[Rawleigh]

Yikes!!

[PeterPalmieri]

That pretty much sums up my thoughts exactly

[Rawleigh]

Can you get the old plywood off the back of the teak and reattach the teak to new substrate?

[PeterPalmieri]

Thankfully I have a good friend who owns a yard that restores wooden sail boats, we pulled that section and brought it to his shop. He had done the other side last season, the deck has 3 sections. Once this side is done he's going to do the center. He is going to clamp it down and remove the sub/plywood that is bad and laminate new ply with solid mahogany edges and lip for the hatches to sit on. The other side he only had to remove part of the ply and used a scarf joint to replace the rotten section. We talked about using coosa board but he is so used to using ply I didn't want to have him experiment on my precious teak deck. Thankfully he's doing this for me because he has the tools to be able to do it without harming the teak, the cleats are screwed from the top of the ply before the teak was installed so it can't be run through a planer.