Passport 40: Sole repair

[Eric Walrabenstein]

Hello all, 

Looking for advice from anyone who has had experience with the subfloors under the teak & holly sole in the Passport 40—specifically in the galley area just forward of the refrigerator.

Two issues:

1.     I had a few loose teak & holly boards in the Galley. Upon pulling them up, I found the subfloor a bit soft in places, but not terribly so. I was wondering if maybe some penetrating epoxy may solidify things up to be a sufficient fix, without pulling up the entire subfloor.

Of course, if the subfloor is plywood, this epoxy solution would likely be a non-starter (and there's a good chance it's a bad idea in any event), but it's difficult to tell what the subfloor is made of without cutting some up (photo below).

Wondering if anyone has any thoughts/experience with this before I go ripping things apart further.

2.     The second issue is that I was surprised to find the original teak & holly planks didn’t seem to have any adhesive holding them down to the subfloor (the undersides of both the T&H and the subfloor are completely free of any remnants of old glue or other adhesive).

This begs the question, for those who have affected similar repairs, what did you use to re-adhere the T&H to the subfloor? I’m a bit reluctant to use epoxy in case I need to get back in here at a later date.

Any and all thoughts welcome! Thank you!

Eric

S/V Vayu, San Carlos, Sonora, MX

[Jeremy Dinsel]

It's hard to tell from your photo, Eric, if what you're looking at is the same as what I've found under our navigation table and along the starboard settee. Since we're working on a project there (see also Marty McOmber's photo set), I can add details from what I've found. Inside the settee,  we had one water tank, and under it, we had the remnants of some mostly unfinished plywood sole. There had been some water ingress over the years and it mostly rotted this section out. It extends under the vertical rim of the settee and under the floor. Most of it is fine, but we were able to break almost all of the inner section out with fingers and small hand tools. 

I've applied GitRot to it (penetrating epoxy brand readily available in the Pacific Northwest). I'm trying to see if it is good enough or if I have to pull the floor up for a further rebuild. 

I've digressed a bit. It's plywood. I can see the layers from the side view easily. I, too, am hopeful for a fix using penetrating epoxy and not an extensive floor project.

Part of the rebuild:

 

Jeremy Dinsel

S/V Whale Shadow, Passport 40

Seattle, Wa, USA