Deck repairs

There were tiny cracks along the deck edges. When I investigated them closer it came out that they are deep and there might be a risk that they span all the way to balsa core.

That required urgent attention - after all, rotten core means a really big job of removing the deck and rebuilding it!

I’ve grind all affected laminate first to asses the damage. Then I’ve increased the width of the trenches to form V-shape, at least 5x width of the depth. That should allow epoxy and fiber glass to have a proper grip on the surrounding material.

Not a pleasant job but I’ve done it during two evenings. Then I was waiting for a proper temperature which would enable epoxy to cure - above 10 degrees C.

The good thing about working inside the boathouse is that it acts as a green house.

Even thou it was chilly outside - inside, when the sun was shining, it became reasonably warm to use epoxy.

I mixed small batches of slow curing, non-thickened epoxy and saturated the glass fabric to gradually fill the openings. One needs to be careful not to trap air in curing epoxy - that’s why I’ve chosen long curing composition. It gave me enough time to nicely wet everything, soak the glass fabric and work out all trapped bubbles to the surface.

Located heating with industrial hot-air blower assured proper curing temperature with minimal amine blush.

After curing but before sanding all the surfaces were cleaned again with acetone. That is to prevent spreading amine blush around - it will prohibit proper adhesion of next layers.

Working with epoxy and then epoxy dust is no fun.

Keep yourselves protected!