Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Repairing the Floor in the Shower

Yesterday would have been a great day for painting, but I was bothered by the shower floor.  Some of the caulk was loose and I recaulked it the other day, but in so doing I found some spongy spots in the wood frame around the perimeter of the floor.  Since I've been putting off painting the outside of Drift Away for so long (too hot, too cold, too windy, don't want to), an extra couple of days wouldn't hurt, so I decided to tackle the shower.

The first step was to scrape off the loose paint and the caulk I put on the other day.

The wood frame was indeed wet.  I used my heat gun to dry it.  A heat gun is really useful when working on an old boat, good for anything from drying wet wood to unfreezing old seacocks to stripping paint to softening hoses to get them off barbed fittings. 

I've used Git Rot many times, on old boats and my 100 year old house.  It's not cheap, but it works.

I drilled 1/4" holes every couple of inches all around the frame.  I injected the Git Rot.   It soaks in through capillary action.  Unfortunately, it has to dry overnight, so we had to shower in the clubhouse the next morning.

The next day, I slapped on one coat of West Marine deck paint.  The stuff really stinks.  It's now waterproof but it needs one more coat.  I'm going to wait for a sunny day so I can leave all the windows open when I finish it.  I'll need to paint the shower walls too.   Might as well do it all at once.

That West Marine deck paint is really good stuff.  I'm very happy with it.  It applies easily and has a great non-skid texture. If you need to paint your decks, or want a non-skid surface on something around your house, consider it.

3 comments:

  1. Hi Dave! Would you use Git Rot for small places on the cabin sides where we have a blister and the balsa core is wet behind it? Just curious - it's not a pervasive problem, and not delaminating, but sounds like that stuff might help prevent future problems? Just curious.

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    Replies
    1. Hi Jan,

      In order for Git Rot to work, the wood needs to be pretty dry. Can you dry the balsa out?

      Git Rot is also expensive. That 4 ounce bottle was $21 at the hardware store, but I only had a small job to do. If you have a bigger job, just shop around for a good two part penetrating epoxy.

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  2. Thx Dave! David wants to try it -- I think I can dry out the balsa where it's wet by dremeling until I reach dry wood - not far, maybe a 1/4 - 1/2 inch. Then we can use the heat gun to dry the damp balsa -- actually right now we have the blisters opened and drying, for a week, so I can "finish" drying, we can add the git-rot and then seal up the holes. It's not alot - the 4oz on Amazon was $20, so we'll try it & see! THANKS for the info! Always learning something, right? :)

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