Best Wet Wood Epoxy??

D

DLL

Member
exMember
Joined
Jan 1, 2000
RO Number
1777
Messages
429
I found a 4 screw "tie down" pulled out a few days ago. The wood is wet. Soaked.

What is the best "Wet Wood Epoxy" for filling the 4 holes, then re-drilling them at a later date to attach the "tie down"? It is not a cleat, but a tie down to hold the dinghy in place. Wood screws were used.

I would like to put something in there that will permeate the wet wood, strengthen it and then allow me to drill it out and reattach the tie down.

Thanks.
 
To the best of my knowledge, there is no "wet wood epoxy".

There are likely adhesives that will work with wet wood, bot none are likely epoxies.

What you need to do is dry out the wood...

IMO.
 
There are no miracle products. There is no such thing as a goop that will "cure" or "git" rotten wood. Remove the offending piece, renew as original (or use aluminum plate) and use through bolts, nylock nuts, washers and plenty of 3M 101 to seal things up. You must address and stop the water intrusion or you will be carrying out the repair again at a later time. If the deck is cored you must address that issue also.
 
Cover the holes with some electrical tape to keep additional water out before repairs are made. If it's not going to rain, leave it open. You can't use epoxy on wet wood and expect results. No matter what the epoxy manufacturer claims their product will not magically displace water and replace it with epoxy.

Dry the entire wooden piece and repair if sound. I'd rather put in a new wood bung than use epoxy on good wood. If the wood is rotten, replace it.

Screws or bolts can fasten down equipment but they can't keep water from ruining a wooden substrate unless it has good bedding. Sikaflex 291 is another good bedding compound.
 
Yzer is right, once the epoxy cures, the water has to go somewhere; after the patch / repair you have covered the hole(s) it could evaporate from, in my thinking, the water will continue to be drawn deeper into the wood / rotten area.
 
First of all, I'm assuming that you're talking about a wood cored fiberglass laminate where the wood between the fiberglass skins is wet. Therefore, my suggestions are based upon that premise.

The first thing you need to do is stabilize the wood. This can be done by using Minwax wood hardener. Basically, this product is a blend of resins in a mixture of acetone and methanol. Both the acetone and methanol will readily mix with the water in the wood. As they evaporate, they'll carry the water remaining in the wood along with them and actually serve to dry it. The wood needs to be dry before the next step. If the wood was just wet and not totally destroyed, you could use a penetrating epoxy, since it will bond to the dry wood. Fill the cavity with epoxy and let it cure.

The next step would be to pre-drill your screw holes and mount your hold down. I'd use a sufficient amount of 3M 5200 in the holes so that you get some squeeze out under the hold down plate. This will give you some extra added strength and serve to distribute the stress over a larger area, so that it's not concentrated around the screw holes.

If your wood core is completely destroyed, then you're looking at a totally different kind of fix.
 
1. It was raining the day I discovered the problem. I put the 4 screws "back in the holes"
with a couple of finger type turns. It will need to air out/dry later.

I was told we now have an epoxy that works on wet wood. If it sounds too good to be true --
and evidently, waiting for it to dry is the best bet. I have used penetrating epoxy before, it worked fine on dry wood.

The wood, I was told, is marine plywood covered with fiberglas. It was an aftermarket item per our Tollycraft expert. I will wait until the wood is good and dry before I epoxy it. As for "sealing the holes" ---I could put clear plastic over the holes and duct tape around the edges. Not sure how long the tape, etc. will last. Long enough I bet. Since I did not buy the boat new, I can't be sure, but in the last 8 years, this is the 1st time this wood has been exposed to water.

Thanks for all the good tips, I will follow your advice on it.
 
Sounds like the screws pulled out because the wood is rotten. Even if you let the wood dry, sounds like you'll be putting epoxy into rot. The epoxy repair will only be as strong as the surrounding wood.
 
You can't just wait for it to dry. The rot actually does not happen until the wood starts to dry and get oxygen. When its wet is just stays wet. Unfortunatley, since it is encapsulated, it will only dry slowly. This is a pretty much guaranteed rot situation if you wait for it to dry. You need to find a way to accelerate the drying. Believe it or not, you can do surprising things with just a hair dryer and a few hours. Usually, you need to help open up the environment to facilitate the process. If you can drill holes on the unseen side, that's a good start (no need to drill all the way through).

As others said, lots of good products to use on wood that was once wet, but nothing that works on wet wood. While lots of products will stabilize wood that was once wet, none will restore the structure of wood that has rotted.
 
I thought about using a hair dryer on it, then figured I would waste my time since the moisture is trapped inside. I never thought about drilling more holes, then heating it up.

Since the boat is sitting in the open right now, I could cover the area in plastic and put a heater under the plastic, or put it under cover somewhere to stop it from getting rained on. I hate leaving the wood "wet" for a long period of time. Might not have a choice.

So which would be best for the wood? Seal the holes until it quits raining or leave them open, with plastic over them, allowing (in theory) the wood to dry some???
 
use a shop vac to suck out as moch water was you can but it will probably never dry unless you can open it up.
 
Is this in the swimplatform of your Tolly? I am in the process of replacing some core in a cockpit hatch, and in my 89 Tolly 34 the core is balsa. I'd be surprised if the core on the swimplaform of mine is ply, but it might be. Nonetheless, I would sound out underneath the platform around the holes and see how far the "thud" goes. It may be only localized around those holes. If that is the case, you could just use a drill with an alankey in it to clear out a one inch diameter of the core without opening up the fiberglass hole. You could then injection fill it with MarineTex and redrill the screw holes. If the wet core is more extensive than that, its not to hard to cut it away from underneath replace the core with a matching patch then re-skinning the underneath fiberglass.
 
BTW, I've heard that CPES is the best for hardening damaged wood, but as others have said, it has to be dried out.
 
OK, here's my suggestions.
Can you drill all the way through and put a back plate on the underside with bolts and nuts? That would really secure your tie downs.
If you can't do that (or even if you can) do this. Get a power drill and put a finishing nail in the chuck with a 90 degree bend in it. Stick the nail in the screw hole and drill out the wood core. The hole in the fiberglass won't get any bigger but you will have a decent size hole in the core, maybe a 3/4" diameter or larger. Now, fill the hole with epoxy and let dry. Your screws will have a good size piece of hardened epoxy to sink the threads into.
 
Like cwms's idea.

Once it was reamed out as above I'd heat it up with a blow drier or heat gun and try to drive some of the moisture out before filling with epoxy.

Once done I'd bed the new fitting in 5200, that should keep any more water out.
 
quote:
Originally posted by DLL

I thought about using a hair dryer on it, then figured I would waste my time since the moisture is trapped inside. I never thought about drilling more holes, then heating it up.

Since the boat is sitting in the open right now, I could cover the area in plastic and put a heater under the plastic, or put it under cover somewhere to stop it from getting rained on. I hate leaving the wood "wet" for a long period of time. Might not have a choice.

So which would be best for the wood? Seal the holes until it quits raining or leave them open, with plastic over them, allowing (in theory) the wood to dry some???

Click to expand...


Honestly a tough one to answer. If you can open it up, even if you can't use heat on it you increase the speed at which it can dry. If I had access to the underside, I'd drill test holes to determine the extent of the water intrustion and then make swiss cheese of the wet areas and let it dry that way. Then I'd fill and use the backing plate mentioned.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top