Floor Board Cabins

February 2013                      Floor boards Cabins

Winter time is not a good time to work outside, the work done during the last summer 2012 and the autumn resulted in that the boat was more or less closed windows in place and all the decks in place again.

Boat was covered around the bow and aft cabin with tarp to protect the boat from water ingress, not through the deck but through the windows which were in place but not sealed yet.

During the installation of the teak on the deck more than several short pieces were left over as well as some full lengths, since I was not pleased with the original installed rubber mats on the floors of the cabins it was decided to install teak on the floor boards.

In between the teak planks is a gap of 6 mm which normally is filled with Sika flex black or white neither of them were appealing to me therefore I have filled the gap with wood strips made from European Ash ( Fraxinus Excelsior).

These strips were cut 6.2 mm X 6.5 mm from a beam. The reason for this seize is that it will fill the gap completely of 6 mm and the strip sticks out above the actual teak planks, with the idea that when the teak planks are glued onto the actual floor board that they are pushed into the glue for a tight fit.

With the teak planks installed on the floor boards instead of the rubber mats the distance between the floor and the ceiling will become less, this will be solved by removing wood with a router at the position of the supports under the floor board, thus regaining the original distance between the floor boards and the ceiling.

First step was to find out how much teak was actually needed and what could be done with the available teak.

It took some time and moving short pieces around to be able to cover all floor boards in the 3 cabins, not the steering cabin.

Second step was to remove the rubber from the plywood floorboards, this was not to simple since they were glued in place with contact cement.

After trying several methods tried , one of which heating the rubber in the hope that the glue would let loose or get soft I found that the best method was to place a thin piece of metal between the wood and the actual rubber math and so piece by piece separating both.

When the rubber removed from the wood  glue residue was left and the only way to remove this was to scrape it off I have tried to sand it off with a sander, different types as well as heat but found that the best method was to just scrape the glue.

Than the wood was sanded and all paint and glue residue were removed this is needed to get a good contact between the glue and the wooden floor and teak planks.

Right side of the picture is sanded left side after scraping.

Next was the actually teak plank installation on the wood floor panels.

First were the sides of the teak cut to seize this was done while the floor board was in place, I found that the original floor boards were not always cut to the exact space available on the floor and therefore some adjustments were made with the teak sides where in between the teak planks were placed.

I have tried two methods for installing the teak on top of the floor boards one was to install the 3 sides first and glue them in place, next step was to install the teak planks in between the 3 sides and glue them in place at the same time fitting the 4^th side of the floor board. The next day the wooden Ash strips would be fitted in between the teak planks. I found that this was very difficult mainly due to the fact that not all grooves were the same width sometimes a difference between ½ till 1 mm which made it almost impossible to get a good fit between the teak planks and the Ash strips.

Second method worked out much better.

First were the 4 sides of teak rims installed on top of the floor boards and glued in place.

Than the teak planks were cut to fit while at the same time the Ash strips were dry fitted between the teak planks. When all fitted to my satisfactory the planks and strips were marked to make sure that all was glued in the same position as dry fitted.

I have used two component epoxy glue mainly because the planks are short and will remain dry in contrary with deck planks. One can also use bedding compound of course.

As mentioned in the beginning the Ash strips were slightly wider and higher that the groove between tow teak planks when glued in place they were sticking out.

When now clamps are placed over the just installed teak planks the Ash strips are pushing the teak planks into the glue making sure that they will remain in place.

Before gluing the teak planks down one has to make sure that they are de-greased the same way as is done with deck teak planks. The wooden clamps are taped at the bottom with Duct tape to prevent that they will glue together with the teak planks.

When all is dried and after the first sanding it is possible, at least I experienced it that there are some minor gaps between the teak planks and the ash strips as well as at the end of the teak planks and the teak side strips. I have filled those with teak saw dust mixed with epoxy glue to remain in the same color after sanding.

Than sanding again and making sure that all is flat and sanded in the right grain.

I have used a band sander to remove the high spots only, which were the Ash strips. Than a rotary sander to make the surface as smooth and clean as possible and as last a flat square finishing sander which was used in the length of the teak planks so removing and scratches out of the wood as a result of the rotary sander.

The wood was than treated with Owatrol D1 oil in the first place to protect it for the rest of the winter and in the second place it is a natural oil for preserving the teak planks.

Also I think that maintenance in the future will be easier over varnished teak planks.

And I’m pleased with the result below picture of the two aft cabin floor boards.

Since the tight fit of the wooden floor boards with teak it was difficult to lift them not only due to weight increase. I did not want to drill round holes in them as original but installed a flush mount hatch ring.

Although this sound simple one has to start to drill and cut in the just finished teak planks and a mistake is easily made.

First is to decide where the hatch rings will need to be installed so that is visually nice as well as in an area where the floor board can be lifted easy.

I have used a hole saw to make the round hole for the actual ring house, and the rest of the wood was removed with various chisels. I made sure that last thing done was to cut the exact size of the rectangular hatch ring was cut out of the wood. This was done just before the fitting in place of the hatch ring.

As can be seen from the following pictures the result is in my opinion satisfactory, at least I do see this as an upgrade to the boat.

Picture of aft cabin original

Picture of the aft cabin with 3 floor boards in place two sanded and one in one layer of oil

Picture of aft cabin with finished floor boards in oil and with hatch rings.

Next picture shows the main cabin with the door which shows the difference between the original floor covering and the teak planks.

The last picture shows the main cabin with the front cabin with finished floor boards and installed hatch rings, one can see that the lines in the teak planks continue from the main cabin into the forward cabin.

What is left is the final installation of the teak planks under the table, left side of the picture, this will be done in a later stage since other work is planned in the same area and under the to be re-installed table.