That's a tough question. If the entire piece seen in the pictures is already stripped, then it looks like the dripping water had destroyed the original finish and penetrated into the veneer. If that's the case, then matching it up could be a challenge. You might try a teak cleaner/bleach followed by a light sanding with a random orbit sander; I'd use a 400 grit or higher, since you don't want to sand through the veneer, which may be quite thin. Staining would be complicated by the fact that there are two quite different species of wood, one almost white the other brown. Any stain would tend to hide that. Gel stains are great for hiding things like the green, purple and brown grain in poplar, but again, would tend to hide the teak and holly contrast. You could try an amber shellac, which I've used successfully to match patched in pieces on an oak hardwood floor with the 30 year old finish on the rest of the floor.

I have carpet runners on my cabin sole, which feel nice underfoot and would hide such a problem ;)

Water stains can be iffy to get out but you will be surprised how much better it can look. As other s suggested after using paint stripper to remove all previous varnish, sand with a fine sand paper and wipe down with mineral spirits (paint Thinner). When you are doing this look at the areas that were grey you may find they have all but disappeared. If not a bit more light sanding and give the area another wipe, the paint thinner will mimic what a good oil based varnish will show. By using a paint stripper you are also causing some changes to the wood that help breakdown the water mark. If you think it is good apply an oil based finish. The last time I was given a good buy on some professional floor varnish. Use semi gloss or gloss depending on your preference.

I had a similar problem and I found once the wood got penetrated with water there isn't much you can do to stop it. If you have any specs of black in it, start over with a new piece. After two such problems, I switched to vinyl.

I second the vinyl. Having gone through the arduous effort of refinishing the flooring in one boat, my retrospective knowledge tells me it would have been way faster/easier/cheaper to have just bought a few sheets of laminate teak and holly ply, cutout new sole pieces using the old ones as templates, and been done with the whole thing.

Chuck
What do you mean by switching to Vinyl? Do you mean Vinyl like kitchen floor type vinyl?

You can use vinyl from a flooring store and it would be a good bit cheaper but I used Lonseal (Defender catalog (pg. 146 as I recall....look up vinyl, not flooring). Looks just like teak & holly.

Duane Ingsig (sp?... sorry Duane) and I have been communicating off-line about this since he is interested in doing this. I'll try to attach the directions I put together on what I did so you can get a feel. Whole project will set you back just under a boat buck (around $800). I like it A LOT!... cleans easily, doesn't "ding" and get water protrusion... I velcroed the pieces in so I can pop them out without crawling around unscrewing 100 screws.

The hardest part is getting the holly lined up on the pieces running fore & aft.

The directions are a Word doc. let me know if you can open them.

No worries, Chuck.

Yes, Mike (friend and neighbor), I plan to follow Chuck's lead in replacing all my floorboards (sole inserts, or whatever they are called).

I started pulling out the old ones that are completely delaminated and it appears they were never sealed against water intrusion. If I do a good job, I am sure it will make the admiral very happy; she has not liked the look of our cabin sole for many years now.

You are welcome to check it out when I have something to show you.

I am having a hard time finding 1/4 inch thick marine grade plywood close to home. I wonder if plastic sheeting of the same thickness would work OK.

There are some HDPE grades that are similar in weight to plywood and no worries about moisture in that case. I am thinking that I have two major concerns: 1) will the sheet be flat enough (some plastic sheeting has a real curvature to it), and will the adhesive to attach the vinyl teak and holly laminate adhere properly.

I should be able to get those answers from the manufacturers. any other reasons not to pursue plastic versus plywood?

I think my biggest concert would be getting an adhesive to stick to the plastic. You might be able to find some info on what sort of adhesives will stick to it, and then see if the adhesive recommended for the vinyl is compatible. My limited experience gluing plastics has shown me that you really have to know what adhesives will stick as some things just peel right off; like epoxy, which you can mix in a plastic cottage cheese container, and peel it right off once it hardens.

If you have any real lumber yards nearby (eg., not Lowes or Home Depot), they should be able to order marine plywood for you, even if they don't stock it. The marina where I bought my C36, which has a large repair facility, would also do so, having it delivered with other supplies from their usual lumber supplier.

[QUOTE=plaineolde;20580]...like epoxy, which you can mix in a plastic cottage cheese container, and peel it right off once it hardens.
[/QUOTE]

Compatibility comes down to fine details sometimes. For example, was the container holding whole milk or low-fat cottage cheese. ;-)

Seriously, I echo your concerns, Gary. I will try the lumber yard again and see if they will special order.

Thanks, Mike. For minor delaminations, I agree that would work. I have several sections that are now falling apart completely.

The replacement is for two reasons. The delamination is one and the deteriorated finish on the decorative side is the other. I am confident it will look good as Chuck Parker attests.

Just need to get that plywood and get started.

A follow-up on Duane's comment about the boards not being sealed... for those new to the site who have not seen past postings on this... the sole boards are not sealed at all on the bottom or the edges. Most owners pull them and seal with varnish or epoxy.

Some might say that if you do this they won't dry if they do get wet. Trust me its a lot cheaper to seal them than to replace ruined boards.

Our 1999 C36 was our first boat ever, which we got in 2004 when I was 47 years old. While I still like the Catalina product in many ways, even comparing against supposedly 'better' boats, it has been an interesting (and not inexpensive) learning curve with maintenance.

Taking care of a boat in FL when she is in the water continually and having a full-time job means that I did not explore every possible point of failure. Had someone said - 'make sure you remove your floorboards and seal them as soon as you get the boat', I might have done it. Absent that, I frankly never gave it a thought.

Fortunately, mine were already sealed; just lucky I guess.

Another thing I'd have done, if I knew, was revarnish everything that had a chance of getting wet. I plan to bring home all of the trim around the galley counter, strip and revarnish it. It has not done well getting wet all the time doing dishes. I revarnished all trim in the head with spar varnish, and it looks pretty good. I'm going to have to address the companionway next year along with some trim where the ports leaked (that danged rubber seal in the 2 piece frame).

Fortunately, water based varnishes have come a long way since the 90's, so I can revarnish with an exterior water base varnish and not give myself brain damage in the process :(

When I bought my C36 in 2002 the floorboards were water damaged by the companionway. I pulled them up and did some rebuilding. I rebuit a corner, constructing my own teak and holly section with an exacto knife after stripping and rebuilding the wood beneath with epoxy and filler. It was 'ok' for a while but never looked great.

The sole had all been epoxied underneath but the leaks and water damage came in through the top and the veneer finishes were just too far gone.

Finally, after one refinishing I decided to replace. One a business trip to Houston I drove my pickup instead of flying and swung by a marine plywood supplier and picked up three sheets of teak/holly marine ply. They wouldn't ship them because of the difficulty in handling so you either have to go get them or have them delivered by truck to a plywood dealer near you.

Cutting and fitting isn't too hard but I recommend doing incremental fitting so that you don't get an edge too small. I used the old boards as a template to cut them out but went for a slight bit oversized, then I used a laminate trimmer fitted with a round over router bit with a bearing to do the under edge. After that I fitted them on the boat, I then used a handheld power plane to reduce the boards to get an exact fit.

I finished the bottoms and edges with epoxy and finished the tops with 2 coats of sanding sealer, a light sanding, then 3 coats of Bona Professional Satin. Several (but not all) of the Bona products are oxygen cross linking polyurethane. I have solid oak floors in my home and when I had them refinished this is what they used. It is tough as nails and repels water, although not waterproof. The product I used is also used for gymnasium floors which gives it a nice finish but is not slick. It looks as good as 5 coats of spar varnish but without the tint of varnish.

You could also consider using the Interlux Perfect 2 part poly varnish as a tough seal although it might be a bit too slick. If you have sprung for the teak/holly plywood you will want to use a very good finish!

By the way it took 2 1/2 sheets to do my C36.

Another tip - I am a novice on woodworking and when I went to router the edges I screwed up and had the flooring piece face up instead of down when I started the router. It took me about a half second to realize I had just cut into the veneer for about 2 inches. Ouch! I relied on what I had seen a furniture restorer do to repair one of my chairs. I filled the gap with Bondo Gold and then sanded smooth. Then I mixed a couple of wood varnish/stain colors until I had a match to my teak, Then carefully painted the bondo with a small detail brush like you would use on a model airplane. After that dried, I used a very fine detail brush painted in dark grains just like the teak has. Amazing - you barely tell where the repair was made now that the final finish is on. It looked better than piecing veneer which was the other option.

FYI - I got started on the sole board replacement this past weekend. I really respect what Chuck Parker must have gone through.

I guess the severe delamination on some of the boards made it tough to get an accurate profile, so I wound up taking the boards on and off the boat 3 times to dry fit them adequately.

It took most of a three-day weekend to get that done, although I could only work until 1500 most days due to other obligations. Next, I have to epoxy seal them and then carefully apply the vinyl.

I sure hear what you are saying, Mike. This is a much longer job than I anticipated.

I have the epoxy curing on the new boards now and have installed the vinyl on the two bilge covers. With luck I will be done by Sun and ready for our New Year's cruise starting Mon.

Job is essentially done. Two pics show delamination of original boards, and new boards with vinyl Teak and Holly applied.

Beautiful job!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2

Duane,
Those floorboards look REALLY nice!

Thanks, Joe and Tom. I owe a lot to Chuck Parker for initial instructions and encouragement.

Yup, looks awesome Duane

Duane,
Are all the sole boards covered with synthetic veneer? I'm really taken back by the de-lamination of your originals, never seen anything like it. Very nice job, sole looks beautiful!

Duane... your delaminated boards looked like mine when I started the vinyl project. Yours look great.. got the holy stripes lined up much better than I did on mine... thank god for area rugs.

I figured my job cost about $800 total... what did yours run?

Gary,

The vinyl is called Lonseal and you can buy it from Defender for less than I have found it anywhere else.

[url]http://www.defender.com/category.jsp?path=-1%7C2276179%7C2276198&id=2276...

Chuck,

Vinyl $510, plywood and shipping $158, epoxy adhesive $87, new screws $3, expendable stuff (gloves, epoxy roller, etc.) $10, so total of $768.

Thanks, Mike.

I recently refinished my cabin sole which was stained as well. I had some lighter areas as you show and a few darker ones that I thought were wet but did not "dry out". After a light sanding (240 git) and 4-5 coats of minwax water soluble polyurethane floor finish (gloss) the lighter discoloring disappeared. The darker area is still there but the gloss all but makes it disappear. I would NOT advise staining. It is very hard to control.

Good luck

I very much appreciate this thread on Cabin Sole Damage Advice.
Some battery acid somehow contacted my flooring on my C36 2164 2003 model.  Just a few spots about the size of a dollar bill. Feeling confident on spot refinishing, I tried initial sanding to prepare for staining, only to find it was not even wood, but a composite or plastic! 
As with another contributor above, I use a carpet runner which of course hides the blemish, but also feels and looks good.
Still, however, the damage nags me to want to replace as Duane did. 

Great postings!

Steven Jones
Past Mainsheet Editor
C36 2164 Maléna