Sam, the veneer is so thin that a belt sander would ruin them.

Stu's correct (as usual). Even the lightest sanding will eat through the extremely thin veneer.

I personally would love to find a replacement for the well worn teak and holly sole on my boat, but I would prefer to find a suitable non-organic material. The teak and holly looks beautiful if it is in good condition, but I would prefer a low- or no-maintenance replacement. As I understand it, it is the thickness of the laminate that is the challenge. I can get stuff at Home Depot or Lowe's, but it is way too thick to match the T&H that I take out.

Has anyone discovered a suitable replacement material? Technology changes all the time, so I am hoping there's something out there that will work. And hoping that one of our Members will do it and then write it up for our website.

Sam,
I used a paint stripper, followed by a VERY light sanding. The stripper I used was water soluble, so I did it outside with a hose. Then let it dry for a week. Put epoxy on the bottoms and sides to seal them. Then 6 coats of gloss poly. Search again. I'm SURE I wrote up the whole procedure

I recently removed all of my floor boards - mainly to clean the bottom - since while sailing and heeling the Lemon oil furniture cleaner flew off the counter and burst open as it hit the floor - the lemon smell was overwhelming and thorough cleaning was required ! My floor boards are definitely more like 3/8" and are covered on both sides by varnish and they are in very good shape. If I was going to refinish them - I would take them to hardwood floor refinishing place. They have rotating sander disk that will take off a very thin layer of the varnish and they will put more varnish on the surface. Try that.

Sam, glad to see we're still saving you $$$! :)

Clean 'em up, lightly sand them, and find the urethane of your choice. We used Minwax, others have used many, many other materials, all work pretty well. The more coats the better.

We essentially did what Tom did.

My belt sander is the least used power tool in my woodworking shop. The only thing that destroys wood faster is the fireplace. If I were to refinish my cabin sole, I'd scuff it with a palm sander, then apply poly. If it needs to be stripped due to discoloration or flaking varnish, care needs to be taken not to scrape/sand through the extremely thin top veneer. I have a sheet of 3/4" teak ply that I used to make a new folding table for the dinette and the teak veneer is unbelievably thin.

btw, I would not use spar varnish, as it remains fairly soft (intentionally) so it would probably not wear well.

I pulled all of mine and had them stripped at a furnature re-finishing place. They then made repairs and applied catalized clear finish. This finish is very hard and durable. Total cost was 675.00.
I am sure that I could have done it myself for a lot less money but I am not patient when prepping for finishing, so I am rarely happy with my work on something like this. Also you can't beat a spray booth with a pro holding the spray gun, to get a nice finish.

There is a new synthetic floor material that I noticed in new Catalina 355 but cannot remember the name.

It looks like teak and holly but is sort of rubberized.

Sam,
I did this project by using a palm sander with medium fine sand paper taking off the old varnish just down to the bare wood; then used a very fine paper. Used about 5 coats of Minwax urthane on the front and back. If you look closely there are a few deep nicks remaining, but overall the sole looks great. Really dresses up the interior.

Catalina use to use Target Coatings waterborne hybrid varnish on all the teak. Target Coatings doesn't make the old formula that Catalina use to apply to the teak and holly flooring and the other teak on their boats. But, Target Coatings does make a substitute it is EM2000wvx interior/exterior grade satin. May also use this number EM2332 Satin. [url]http://www.targetcoatings.com/[/url]

Remember when working with wood that you do not need to sand too deeply. The purpose in sanding or scuffing is to simply give the coat of varnish some surface area to "bite" into.

Also, depending upon the type of product used, you may need to lightly scuff between coats. Read the label!

larry,
Have you seen this?
[url]http://www.myboatsgear.com/featured_product/synthetic%20decking.asp#Nute...

I redid mine with a vinly product you can get from Defender. If you look back in the files, I did a write-up on it. I love the stuff though there are some tricks to getting it done right. Unlike the stuff Catalina originally provided, you can drop (fairly heavy) stuff on it and it doesn't chip or dent and cleanup is a quick wipe with a rag if something spills.

Almost everyone in my marina uses a scraper to carefully take off the finish when refinishing their teak. I have experimented with that technique but have not tried it on the teak yet. (NBNG) Seems to be a lot less destructive than sanders - but also a lot slower! Just a thought!
[url]http://www.highlandwoodworking.com/how-to-use-sharpen-wood-scraper.aspx[...

FWIW, I used to use a gel stripper that worked but was very messy but read about using a heat gun and found that works very well without the risks of the chemical strippers. Both of these options are less destructive for the wood than sanding, IMHO.

Just a FYI for everyone doing their flooring. Today we got to get into our boat after a summer being stored in Florida. Our boat was stored so the bow was higher. The area around the mast at floor level only has weep holes in the front. At least ours does. As some of the rain that we got down the mast does go into the area around the mast at floor level. The weep holes usually handles that water ok. But being that it was set bow higher, the water worked It's way under the center section on our teak floor. So now I have weep holes in the back side of the mast area. Everyone should take a look at theirs just to save you troubles as we have.

I'm in the process of refinishing our floors on our 2001 36. I had experimented on once first by trying to use a stripper, but it wasn't working very well. Then I tried 60 grit with an orbital sander, working very carefully to only sand the varnish and some minor stains, and that work pretty well and the floor came out great.

Since then I found a YouTube video of a guy who used a heat gun and a scraper on his cabin floors and he made it look really easier and quick. I tried it this week and it was easy and quick. I stripped the aft 30" x 24" cabin floor in about 50 minutes. You heat up the varnish until it has a creme brulee kind of look, which took about 45 minutes. Then scraped the crystalized varnish off, which took about 5 minutes. You do need good ventilation when using the heat gun though.

If you want to see at his video, search for "Varnish and Refinish a cabin sole". I found it easier to heat up the entire piece first, then scrape it all at once.

For the amount of time and work a job like this takes, I'd probably just replace all of the flooring with an engineered product (like PlasTeak). Boulter plywood also carries laminate teak and holly material for $225 per 4x8 sheet.

I've been looking at Lonseal to do the same:

[url]http://www.lonsealspecialty.com/show_product/LONWOOD%20MARINE[/url]

[QUOTE=benethridge;20566]I've been looking at Lonseal to do the same:

[url]http://www.lonsealspecialty.com/show_product/LONWOOD%20MARINE[/url][/QUOTE]

Defender has it at better prices than I found elsewhere so far.

I am just starting this project. All pieces are out of the boat and using a stripper they are ready for light sanding and then finish. So afar has been a nice project. I used that citrus stripper stuff and found it worked pretty well. Then after washing I used WM teak cleaner and brightener. The use of cleaner and brightener BEFORE sanding has always been my practice. So right now the pieces are all bare and back to original T&H look. Not to the finishing step which I anticipate will go well as the finish comes on. 

Another ​helpful tip I have learned is to scrape the stripper dregs off using a sheetrock knife. It has a nice scraping effect which removes everything without gouging the wood. In the pictures you can see the knife and also a fully stripped, cleaned, and brightened floorboard in the background. All that is needed now is a light sanding and urethane...

Scrape with sharp scraper and heat gun as discussed, chemical stripper to remove whatever is in the pores or cracks that the scraper didn't get.  Waterproof sides and back with epoxy (critical). Clean wood of everything, mineral spirits and clean rag will do it, Varnish with Epiphane clear gloss.  Dilute the first coat so it really sinks into wood. Wait adequate time between subsequent coats.  Sand between coats to remove bumps and smooth the surface.with ever finer sandpaper 100 after first growing to 200, 300 and 400 grit.  I kept adding varnish layers until Get a glass finish. Usually about 6 coats. (Don't see the indentations of the wood pores or grain). Usually about 6 coats but could be more.  To alleviate coats way do a wood filler to smooth out the surface with mineral spirits each time.  In the first board down the companionway us a grit material I believe it's interlude intergrip.  It will give you better goofing on thr teak where's you come down the latter.  Using this method I did all the .

this turned out well for me. Did all teak on board 10 years ago and still looks better than new.  Every fall I clean it wit Murphy soap and that is it.  The rest of the season I just enjoy the naughty, warm and relaxed atmosphere it provides