Dry rot

[Sven]

I've found a couple of spots with soft wood that I assume are from dry rot.

Other than tearing out the soft wood and replacing it, what should I do to treat the surrounding areas to prevent spread ? The ports are now all replaced so the cause for the moisture should be taken care of.

What woods other than teak would be DR resistant or should I pre-treat regular wood with something if we use that to replace the bad parts ?

This is not a project that I had expected so it is a bit of a pain to say the least.



-Sven

 

[Emerald]

You may want to look at Smith's CPES. I have had some good results with it. It can be used on both old deteriorated wood and new wood as a preventive sealer. If you are working only with new wood, something like the West System seals well, but the West is thicker and will not penetrate into the wood like the Smith's does. If you use it, do pay attention to their warning on wearing a good respirator. The fumes are hideous, especially in closed spaces like a boat.

http://www.smithandcompany.org/

 

[Sven]

Hi David,

When you say you used it on deteriorated wood do you mean to slow down the spread or actually to help restore it ? I use a lot of Smiths under varnish but didn't think it would actually do anything useful with already spongy wood ?

Thanks,



-Sven

 

[Emerald]

I have used it for both stopping and restoring soft wood issues. An example is the bottom of the anchor locker on Emerald. It had really become a soft mess from wet rode sitting there over the years, and the bulkhead separating the V-berths from the locker was starting to take a surface hit as well. I got rid of the loose stuff and did multiple applications of the Smiths until it basically wouldn't take any more. It seems to have worked well. The bulkhead structure was not compromised, but I'm sure it would have gone if I had not hopped onto it. The bottom of the locker was pretty sorry. After doing this, the bulkhead seems well sealed without any signs of additional damage taking place, and the bottom of the locker became nice and firm again and has also held up well. The wood was not totally gone mind you, so there was decent material to work with, and this is probably key. If I thought it was a truly load bearing item that was severely compromised, I would replace it if at all possible, but for the above described, it seems to have worked well and stopped any additional deterioration. I approached it with the attitude of it can only get better, and I think it payed off

 

[mherrcat]

Where did you find the rot you mention? I found that my windows have a kind of filler strip of wood between the interior paneling and the fiberglass of the cabin top. That filler was rotted in one of my starboard windows. I am going to try to replace it with a piece of 1/4" Baltic Birch plywood cut to fit around the opening and treated with CPES to hopefully seal the wood.

I have all the filler pieces and routing templates cut, just need to work some time into my schedule to do the work.

 

[Sven]

Hi Mark,

The dry rot is actually back in the quarter-berth area, next to the transmission/shaft/water heater. The old plastic opening porthole in the cockpit footwell, the RV-style rear-facing sliding "window" and the aftmost fixed port porthole all conspired to drip in behind liners and down onto that general area. We were aware of the problem with the RV "window" and replaced it first, taping it up with plastic whenever it might rain. The opening port in the footwell probably wasn't that bad. The one from the fixed aftmost port port is more recent and we've also taped that one up the last 6+ months until we got it replaced.

There was also a leak under the port aft gate stanchions that we sealed several months back..

IOW a number of leaks all hit us in the same general area and while the dry rot is probably not recent it still caught us by surprise.

We've passed over the cosmetic issues for the time being and will go back to the old discolored interior teak veneer when we are structurally perfect.

Since our house sale now seems to be back on track we are facing a workspace cliff at the end of June and have to have all big carpentry done by then so we can head off in October



-Sven

 

[rwthomas1]

AFAIK, dry rot is actually a fungus or some such thing actually eating the wood. I can confirm that Smiths CPES will stop it dead. Thumbs up to CPES, I've used it on all sorts of projects.

Are you familiar with T111 siding? Cheap grooved plywood that is used for the exterior of sheds and the like? It always rots at the bottom edge since its basically just exposed plywood edge and tough to seal well. I did a big workshop with it for a customer. Dipped all 45 sheets bottom edge in a trough made from rain gutter, full of CPES. Eight years later and NO rot!

RT

 

[mherrcat]

Sounds like a ringing endorsement to me!

 

[Sven]

Thanks Rob.

I wouldn't mind dipping all the interior wood in CPES but it would be difficult

More seriously, it is an excellent suggestion and we have been soaking some areas inside cabinets but I should have been doing it inside the lazarettes and the engine compartment too.



-Sven

 

[rwthomas1]

I should also mention that I repeatedly poured CPES into the dorade box on my E38, with the drains plugged, to seal up the exposed PLYWOOD that Ericson thought was a good idea on the floor of a dorade. I think it pretty much fixed that problem and that was 5-6 years ago? RT

 

[mherrcat]

Dang! That stuff'll do just about anything. Will it cure baldness?

 

[Emerald]

yeah, just have to put it on while you still have hair

 

[CaptDan]

dry rot is actually a fungus or some such thing actually eating the wood. I can confirm that Smiths CPES will stop it dead. Thumbs up to CPES, I've used it on all sorts of projects.

Ditto here. When I repaired my bulkhead (again) last year, there were areas of rot at the corner where the settee back met the bulkhead. I drilled about 20 small holes and injected Smiths into them. By the next day the entire problem had been 'petrified,' saving me the headache of replacing all that timber. Pretty it's not - but the settee cushion hides it.

There are a few things Smiths won't fix (completely decayed structural members, etc), but for a great many dry rot problems it's a godsend.

Capt Dan G>E35II "Kunu"

 

[rwthomas1]

yeah, just have to put it on while you still have hair

Unfortunately its too late for that.....
RT

 

[Idler]

Water leaks via dry rot under dorade/winch box in my E35-3

I should also mention that I repeatedly poured CPES into the dorade box on my E38, with the drains plugged, to seal up the exposed PLYWOOD that Ericson thought was a good idea on the floor of a dorade. I think it pretty much fixed that problem and that was 5-6 years ago? RT

I've had a similar problem in my new-to-me 1986 E-35-3 #235, now named IDLER. Water leaks from the mast/ dorade area were apparent when I purchased the boat last fall. An earlier attempt by a PO left a pool of epoxy in the vinyl to the left of the mast. After a large collection of water inundated the starboard settee during a storm last March, I removed the interior teak rings of the dorade vents and cut the vinyl back a couple of inches. I found a mess of former plywood which best resembled cooked brown spinach. I pulled it out with my fingers. I checked from the box above. The floor of the box was a single layer of improperly saturated woven roving fiberglass over a layer of former ply. I could pull that out with my fingers also. I then used any tool I could find to extract every bit of rotten wood I could find. I sealed the area from bottom up with pieces of 3/8 epoxy soaked marine ply. I then poured West epoxy into each section of the box. After two tries, no more leaks.
This marks me as a boat purchaser with more stars in my eyes than caution. And it marks my professional surveyor as more interested in commerce than accuracy.
Anyway I love the boat. See you out there.

Bill Morse
Idler
St. Petersburg

 

[mherrcat]

Now that I have owned my boat for about three years I think I could survey a boat better than most "professional" surveyors. When you look at the end of the survey you will see that the surveyor is not responsible for anything they miss in the survey...

 

[rwthomas1]

I feel the same way about surveyors. The guy that did my pre-purchase was supposed to be one of the best in the state. Yet he missed more than a few things and got others just plain wrong. But I also feel this way about Home Inspectors. Being in construction, I've run into a few of these critters, and they are pretty clueless too. If you have half a clue and DIY an older sailboat for a few years you definitely have the skills to survey boat. RT

 

[Idler]

Ditto on surveyors. But they are required by the insurance companies. What I hoped for my post was that everyone with an 80's Ericson with the dorade/winch handle box might double check the floor of that box. And potential owners have something to look at carefully. Here's hoping the problem is unique only to these two boats.

Bill Morse
IDLER
St. Petersburg