Well the project is finally well underway. The port quarterberth sole that I had to take out:
The replacement, installed:
The old galley sole:
(Exactly! There wasn't one.) Here is the new one, installed:
Material was 3/4" exterior grade A/B 5-ply plywood. I cut full size templates out of 1/4" luan plywood, and test fit them. Stain was General Finishes water based stain in Black Cherry. Then 3 coats of West System epoxy (I used the 207 Special Clear Hardener) on top, bottom and edge grain. Finish is Minwax Helmsman Spar Urethane in satin, as follows: One coat, dried and sanded very lightly with 220 grit, as per the instructions. Second coat went on, and while wet I sprinkled table salt fairly evenly (which was difficult) into the wet urethane. After drying, I removed the salt with water, and added one more coat of urethane, for a total of 3 coats.
For those of you contemplating this, it is easier if the cabinetry can come out. I was only moderately successful with that. I tried taking out the nav station, and could not find the last few screws that would have had it come out completely. Ultimately, I removed a panel (which you can see is missing, in the picture), plus enough screws and cleats came out of other places that I could lift it a bit. The combination let the admiral slide the finished panel in easily. Many thanks to HMT2, who has recently done this on his 31, and spent a lot of time with me on the phone, answering questions, texting pictures, and offering confidence-building suggestions, especially regarding the nav station.
So when it came time for the galley sole, I really didn't want to take the forward cabinet out, or even any of its individual panels. Instead, I just made the sole smaller, so it does not run under the midship portion of the forward galley cabinet. It's actually in two pieces, in case anyone is wondering how I got it in without removing the galley cabinet.
We didn't care about teak and holly, so I decided not to spend the money. I'm doing the whole boat, so everything will match. Once I started thinking about the total encapsulation with epoxy, I decided that marine ply was also not imperative. Yeah, there potentially are voids in there somewhere, but I checked all my edges after cutting, and found only one void, which I filled using a syringe and thickened epoxy. The salt for anti-skid was one of the ideas from another thread I started. Thanks for everyone's help on that topic, we tried lots of options, and this is the one we liked best under bare feet.
Its not perfect, but I am pleased. Panels are darker than other wood in the interior, because I ended up applying two coats of stain. I followed the application directions, but was unhappy with the unevenness of color even using the foam brush specified. A second coat helped a lot with that, but obviously overshot the depth of color. We knew we didn't want gloss on the topcoat, for fear of starting a cycle that had us constantly "equalizing" wood finishes instead of sailing, but after seeing the satin I might have opted for semi-gloss. Finally, we live in a condo, so I did all of the epoxy work and finishing in the same room that I had done all my sawing in. Consequently, there are blemishes in the epoxy coats and the topcoats from particulate in the air. But we don't care - look at what we had before.
Now comes the hard part, the main (salon) sole. Settees will have to come out, as the floor runs under them, and I'll have to decide where to cut the whole into smaller pieces, as a one-piece floor will not come through the companionway.
The replacement, installed:
The old galley sole:
(Exactly! There wasn't one.) Here is the new one, installed:
Material was 3/4" exterior grade A/B 5-ply plywood. I cut full size templates out of 1/4" luan plywood, and test fit them. Stain was General Finishes water based stain in Black Cherry. Then 3 coats of West System epoxy (I used the 207 Special Clear Hardener) on top, bottom and edge grain. Finish is Minwax Helmsman Spar Urethane in satin, as follows: One coat, dried and sanded very lightly with 220 grit, as per the instructions. Second coat went on, and while wet I sprinkled table salt fairly evenly (which was difficult) into the wet urethane. After drying, I removed the salt with water, and added one more coat of urethane, for a total of 3 coats.
For those of you contemplating this, it is easier if the cabinetry can come out. I was only moderately successful with that. I tried taking out the nav station, and could not find the last few screws that would have had it come out completely. Ultimately, I removed a panel (which you can see is missing, in the picture), plus enough screws and cleats came out of other places that I could lift it a bit. The combination let the admiral slide the finished panel in easily. Many thanks to HMT2, who has recently done this on his 31, and spent a lot of time with me on the phone, answering questions, texting pictures, and offering confidence-building suggestions, especially regarding the nav station.
So when it came time for the galley sole, I really didn't want to take the forward cabinet out, or even any of its individual panels. Instead, I just made the sole smaller, so it does not run under the midship portion of the forward galley cabinet. It's actually in two pieces, in case anyone is wondering how I got it in without removing the galley cabinet.
We didn't care about teak and holly, so I decided not to spend the money. I'm doing the whole boat, so everything will match. Once I started thinking about the total encapsulation with epoxy, I decided that marine ply was also not imperative. Yeah, there potentially are voids in there somewhere, but I checked all my edges after cutting, and found only one void, which I filled using a syringe and thickened epoxy. The salt for anti-skid was one of the ideas from another thread I started. Thanks for everyone's help on that topic, we tried lots of options, and this is the one we liked best under bare feet.
Its not perfect, but I am pleased. Panels are darker than other wood in the interior, because I ended up applying two coats of stain. I followed the application directions, but was unhappy with the unevenness of color even using the foam brush specified. A second coat helped a lot with that, but obviously overshot the depth of color. We knew we didn't want gloss on the topcoat, for fear of starting a cycle that had us constantly "equalizing" wood finishes instead of sailing, but after seeing the satin I might have opted for semi-gloss. Finally, we live in a condo, so I did all of the epoxy work and finishing in the same room that I had done all my sawing in. Consequently, there are blemishes in the epoxy coats and the topcoats from particulate in the air. But we don't care - look at what we had before.
Now comes the hard part, the main (salon) sole. Settees will have to come out, as the floor runs under them, and I'll have to decide where to cut the whole into smaller pieces, as a one-piece floor will not come through the companionway.
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