T&T: refinishing hardwood floors

[bob Austin]

Remember that the vast majority of "teak and holly" floors are only very thing
vineers.  They will scratch and sand thru easily.  I would recommend if
possiable that those floor boards which can be removed be taken to a garage or
some dust free place for refinishing.

Because of the relitative fragility of vineers, we have refinished the floors
on several boats with a thin epoxy finish.  The old finish has to be stripped,
and the floor cleaned and perhaps lightly sanded (consider the vineer).  Then
several coats of clear epoxy are applied--wash between to remove amine blush.
Finally several coats of good urethane varnish to give UV protection.  In the
future, if necessary, the urethane can be replaced, but the epoxy will be
there for the duration of the boat and will protect the wood.

For stair cases, we like to put stripes of walnut shells embeded in epoxy.
These can then be epoxied over, then varnished.  This is an excellent non skid
surface.  Another alternative is clear glass beads embeded in epoxy, and
treated in the same way.

For a "proper" teak and holly floor, we have made them out of teak decking and
hard rock maple (a bowling alley floor).  The origional teak and holly floors
had the holly (often it is magnolia currently, or other white wood)--is set
about 1/16" proud of the teak.  Since the planks run fore and aft, this gives
a good non skid surface on the sole of the boat.  We have kerfed the bottom of
the decking to give compound bends, and epoxyed the teak/white wood, to the
hull or floor boards--keeping them in place with weights until the epoxy was
set.

Bob Austin

Bob Austin