Teak Interior Refinish Project Documented

I finally finished the descriptions for all my interior refinish project photos from last winter. This is a great winter project because you can do most everything right up to applying the finish. But as everyone knows a sucessful job is 90% prep, right?

http://www.tkronaboat.com/Projects/Ericson 35 Projects/Refinish Interior Teak/index.html

VERY nice work!
Is that a gloss finish or more like a semi gloss? Looks like you put in new plugs everywhere and then cut them all off with the Fein tool.
Your finish work is smoother than ours...
Did you sand between coats?

Anyway, it's just beautiful.

Cheers,
Loren

Lots of questions:

When you say veneer, are you talking about actual thin (~1/32") veneer or the thicker plywood covered with teak veneer? (Which looks like what was originally used to finish the interiors.) Where did you purchase the teak veneer?

Did you use any stain on the stripped areas or was it just coated with Varathane? Does the Varathane have a tint to it, like traditional varnish?

Beautiful work. It will be a long while for us to catch up with you.

Loren, I was able to recoat before it hardened so no sanding in between. I have a few minor runs and rough spots that I weill sand and recoat this spring. It is semi-gloss.

Cat, it is a wood backed veneer that is a little thicker than paper backed. The original is 1/2" plywood with a teak veneer. I was able to preserve a lot of the plywood and just replace the veneer. Some places had rotted under the portlight and need new plywood. I bought it at Boulter hardwoods in MA.

Tim,

That really looks great. I like the way the wood grain is enhanced as compared to the oiled wood. How many hours would you estimate on that job?

that's FABULOUS work! when i got to the end, i had to go back to the beginning to see where you started again, kind of in disbelief. wow!

curious, i was looking at the rotten wood in the early frames, and i gather the boat had had a lot of water intrusion from above. was that from leaky portlights and what not? was that a project in itself?

DC, when I decided to do the woodwork I knew that I had to replace all the original portlights. Most of them leaked. Unfortunately this was a 2 year process because the first new portlights were defective and I spent about 2 months working with Bomar to get replacements. I also wanted to make sure there was no leaking before I started on the wood for obvious reasons.

Keith, It took all winter starting from Thanksgiving weekend until early May with both of us working on it. I am not sure how many hours but here is a task list with estimations:

- Remove 95% of Trim(bungs and screws), cabinet doors, cabin doors and drawers: 16 hours
- Strip about half of the original veneer off the cabin top from the rearmost opening portlight forward: 6 hours
- Replace any rotten substrate and fill voids with thickened epoxy: 16 hours
- Clean and sand all trim, doors, cabinet doors and drawers in the basement: 60 hours
- Clean and sand all interior veneer to prep for either finish or new veneer: 40 hours
- Make templates for new veneer, apply glue, iron on veneer: 25 hours
- Apply 3 coats of varnish to all non bung wood in basement. Doors, drawers, trim with exposed bronze screws: 30 hours
- Install all prepped trim back into boat, screws and bungs(over 500): 30 hours
- Mask: 16 hours
- Varnish 3 coats in the boat: 30 hours
- Reinstall doors, drawers, trim with exposed screws: 8 hours

Roughly 275 man hours. This is just an estimation. I guess that is why it was a multi thousand dollar upgrade from the factory to have it varnished. And they did not need to do much of the prep I had to.

Tim,

That is quite a to-do list! Beauty doesn't come easy, does it?

what was the heat activated glue you used to fix the veneer -- looks much easer to use than an epoxy. Thx.

Brian, it is called Heatlock and is made by Betterbond. I bought mine at veneersupplies.com. If you want to do some veneering, I highly recommend this method but be sure to use a glue roller and I think wood backed veneer will give you the best results. The wood backed veneer is stronger and more stable and is a lot less likely to shrink and crack when heated. I used a cotten T-shirt between the veneer and iron and also used steam to help soften the wood. I would be happy to send you some glue if you want to try it out.