Fixing Soft Wood In Boats

Fixing soft wood in boats.

Finding soft wood in your boat can make you feel ill. The cause can be from many things, and the soft spongy wood has little structural strength if any. Replacing it can be major work. Depending on how bad and extensive it is will determine what needs to be done. You can do some repairs on soft woods in place and not have to pull it out and replace it. It can be done with clear penetrating epoxy sealer that will treat, seal and restore the wood.

The soft wood needs to be well dried out. Then the sealer is put on the wood. The soft wood will suck in and penetrate the soft wood where the mold roots have traveled into the wood and also into the good wood fibers. More sealer is added as the wood sucks up the sealer. When additional sealer is added to the wood before the first application is fully sealed, everything seals together. The result is a hard epoxy filled board that cam be drilled and worked like regular wood.

If there are holes and gaps or in the wood, the gaps can be filled with thick epoxy filler that bonds to the sealer and wood restoring the shape needed. This can be sanded, sawed and painted and worked like reel wood. The impregnated wood allows for normal expansion and contraction like the original wood.

The sealer will also absorb into new wood but the absorption rate is much slower. 

There are a number of different brands of CPES Epoxy products. It is always nice to have different repair options open to you. Color can also be added to the products. 

Sealing and restoring the bad wood can be an option that is well worth looking into when doing some repairs.