Hi All
I notice I have a spongy deck, and I drill a hole in it and the timber was moist and rotten out,
was told I could drill a few holes and fill it with resin, went to buy some today but then was advised the resin would be brittle and crack, Any advice on what I can use? Not to keen on cutting the deck up to replace the timber, (I think I might make a mess of that)
the area is about a metre long and 40cm wide X 2.
Any advice would be appriciated
Cheers
Chris
I have a 18mm ply deck with dynel sheathing. Had a similar problem with a small section of deck 600x200 that was rotten. Ended up just cutting out the affected area and epoxy in a replacement section of ply. End result was very good.
Only problem with what you suggested would be that the fungus that is in the moist deck will continue to eat away at your deck. You could try drilling lots of tiny holes, drying the section out, then treating the rot with a borax/antifreeze mix (careful as mix is toxic), redrying then saturating with a dilute epoxy. You would then have to monitor the repair to ensure the rot wasn't extending any further. Easier to do the job properly in the first place.
Hi if I was to cut it out, and try to do it properly, should I cut it out from the top or underside where the fribre glass is rought looking anyways. Im thinking it would be harder to patch up underneath but on top will have to be smooth again and it has the texture grip aswell ?
I just finished fixing a big problem like that on my Martzcraft 35.
I tried to do a small job of it, but found its not possible. I found that to do a good job the solution was a bit brutal and you might have to do a bit of cutting like I did. I bought one of those $30 vibrating blade saws? not sure the proper name, from Bunnings and cut deeper and deeper into all the areas where there was rotten timber until it was all out. Anything damp or rotten got cut right out.
The $30 vibrating saw I got was 14V lithium ion battery operated. The batteries went flat too fast. I found that I could solder wires onto the saws battery connectors (where the removable battery would usually connect when it plugs in) and then power the saw from my boats 12V batteries. Same with drill. The batteries when in good shape are 13.8V anyway especially if its sunny and the solar panel is kicking some power into them.
Then, because the areas of rot were all over the place causing the cut out areas to also be all over the place I had to cut lots of ply all slightly smaller than their destination spot but same shape as each area that I had cut out. To fill each cutout.
Then I used a blow torch (one of those hand held butane ones) to carefully from a great distance dry the areas which I had cut out. This is to make sure epoxy sticks - next step.
Finally I mixed up lots of Diggers Epoxy and painted new ply with it then pressed it into its rightful place. This took some time because sometimes I had to wait for refilled section to dry and be solid before I could epoxy in the next part. I also got epoxy all over my clothes hands and in my hair.
But now all done and a nice solid deck. I would suggest try cutting a few small sections, maybe 1"x1" and see how much rot is in there and then make a judgement about what to do.
