Teak platform, save or replace.

[Shaun R]

At a crossroads with my current project and looking for others opinions on what to do with this swim platform. Looks like the PO tried to "fix" it with random screws and a staple gun. Also two pieces of wood on the bottom that are not teak and look to be a patch job. The outside top board is cracked as well as two of the inner boards. The inside most top board is showing some grain but no cracks yet. I am more partial to the solid wood platforms, but I can live with this one if it's a cheap and easy fix. My main concern with replacing a few boards is that the rest of them are almost 20 years old and the new will not match up with the old.
Options are:
1.make the best of it w/ a sander and teak and then build a solid one this winter
2.replace the boards and rebuild this one.





Pick after sanding with 100 then 220, still a little wet.

[ncsucarjock88]

This is salvageable.
If you wash it with a mixture of TSP - Tri-Sodium-Phosphate, and hot water, and let it dwell, rewetting every couple minutes, for about an hour, you will bleach the wood back to normal. It'll really brighten things up. Then wash it with water well... Much easier than sanding back to "new" wood. Wear gloves with TSP - it's strong stuff.

Then you can repair the broken teak. The old teak and the new teak will match if you use TSP and get it back to it's natural state. I use a combination of boiled linseed oil and mineral spirits (75% oil, 25% mineral spirits) and brush that on, kinda thin. Let it soak in. Wipe down after. Place in sun, let "dry". Repeat two or three times in a row.

Below, you can see what I started with... and what I ended up with. It's not hard, just a bit time consuming, but well worth the efforts.

http://www.mastercraft.com/teamtalk/...ad.php?t=60089

[Shaun R]

Nice work on yours. I'm judging by your pics that my two extra boards are not necessary once the cracked boards are replaced? I threw some teak oil on it and it looks alright for now, most likely this will turn into a winter project.

[mikeg205]

should be salvageable... a little TLC and she will be okay. Darn - can't find the web site for the teak swim deck replacement - yet another thing to add to library

[Sodar]

http://teakworldenterprises.samsbiz.com/

[mikeg205]

http://teakworldenterprises.samsbiz.com/

thanks Cam!

[tcheat]

The platform on my Xstar was in similar shape. It had cracked boards on the back and the overall condition was about the same. You can order replacement pieces from Teak World. I just shipped mine to them and they re-did it for me. It came back looking like new.

[ncsucarjock88]

The extra boards are not needed once you replace the cracked ones.

Teak is incredibly strong and durable... It does require maintenance to stay looking good. I had a couple of joints that were starting to separate on mine. I cleaned them out carefully, and the re-glued them. I used gorilla glue. So far, so good, and when I clamped them back together you couldn't see the glue line after a quick sand. I've used the ski deck hard this summer. So I would have expected issues to have revealed themselves. Still looks the same, minus a lot of scuffing from the skis - a recoat of oil will fix that.