Cabin Floor Cleaning tricks to share - Teak and Holly

[wiltsan]

I am putting off sanding and refininshing the cabin floors on my CD30.

Does anyone have any tricks or advice regarding how to get the internal cabin teak and holly floor boards clean and looking better to get another year out of them?

Thanks!

[moctrams]

After sanding and cleaning your Teak & Holly Sole, apply a coat of Cetol. That will bring out a more even finish. Wait at least 30 days; then apply a good coat of varnish. This process will only improve the appearance and color. It is important to wait the 30 days BEFORE applying a coat of varnish. I've seen it work in my marina.

[Ron M.]

The p.o. of my boat finished the interior with Cetol and it looked like hell.
The first winter I spent removing that awful orange stuff which was on everything below. After stripping and cleaning I applied 4 coats of Helmsman Polyurethane (matt) to all woodwork and it looks excellent after 5 yrs. The teak and holly sole got 10 coats. What a huge improvement and didn't take all that long.
For a quick fix : clean and apply furniture polish.have fun
________
Ford Fordor

[Russell]

I have never heard of cetol being suggested for an interior, no offense but I cant imagine it looking better then varnish, and given that its an interior I cannot see any reason why to choose it as UV is not a big problem.

As for making the current sole look better, I fear I can offer no suggestions, mine looks pretty bad and I havnt come up with anything to improve it. THough be very careful when ultimately going to refinish it, its a pretty thin veneer (mine is at least) and you will sand through it in no time.

[bhartley]

I just finished repairing the sole on Pyxis yesterday. The areas where the holly inlay was replaced made the sole look even rattier. Our sole didn't have any finish on it at all so that may make a difference here.

I gave it a good surface cleaning with Murphy's Oil Soap and warm water first to get off the worst of the grime. I wiped up the residue with paper towels and went over the new holly with the grimy paper towel to make it look a bit more like the rest.

Next I scrubbed again with a relatively weak TSP solution and a Scotchbrite pad wiping up the residue with paper towels. The final "rinse" was done with fresh water and a sponge. When dry, it got a all over light sanding with 220 grit paper.

Finish is a matte polyurethane. It is the same product we used on our wood floors in the house that have taken many years of abuse without refinishing or much cleaning.

Time will tell.

Bly

[Jim Davis]

Dries to a hard finish, not too slick and can be walked on the next day, also it does have UV and D&S protection. It is the only varnish, or look alike I use below. Oils, CETOL, ARMADA and "marine" varnishes take forever to dry and will pull the fuzz from your sweater six months later.

[Cathy Monaghan]

Regarding Minwax Helmsman Spar Urethane (Satin Finish) --



That's what I just spent all of last season and the winter applying to Realization's interior teak (removed whatever wasn't glassed to the hull and brought it home for refinishing -- BIG job). The instructions on the can, and on Minwax's web site, indicate that it is not for use on floors. Don't know why, anyway I just thought I'd point that out.

http://www.minwax.com/products/protective/helmsman.cfm

For floors, if you want to use Minwax, they recommend Minwax Super Fast-Drying Polyurethane for Floors or Minwax Water Based Polyurethane for Floors.

Until you're ready to do all the prep work and refinish you boat's cabin sole, you may want to try a restorer. When it's time to remove it and your floor's old finish, you'll have to first use a wax remover or degreaser. But as far as wood floor restorers go, you can try something like Floor Revive -- (Hope's Premium Home Care Floor Revive) -- but I have no idea if it'll make the floor slippery or not. You definitely don't want a slippery cabin sole. I suppose you could try it on the hardwood floors in your house first.



Cathy
CD32 Realization, #3
Rahway, NJ
Raritan Bay

[Emil Maurer]

www.ultimatesole.com

This is a product formulated for cabin soles.
I bought it but haven't applied it as yet.
Has anybody used Ultimatesole?

[barfwinkle]

I know that it is not the most durable finish, but I use Liquid Gold, as recommended by my owners manual, and as long as I use it on a regular basis, the sole looks great. Its the regular basis that tends to be a problem.

Fair Winds

[Kurt]

I've had excellent results using Minwax Fast Drying Polyurethane Clear Satin on all my interior wood woodwork. I apply it to the cabin sole using a chinese bristle brush, but use a soft cloth dampened with a little mineral spirits to rub it on all the other interior teak of my CD27. It's easy to use and looks great.

[Cathy Monaghan]

www.ultimatesole.com

This is a product formulated for cabin soles.
I bought it but haven't applied it as yet.
Has anybody used Ultimatesole?

Hi Emil,

I just started using Ultimate Sole for my wood project.

I've refinished the bulk of our CD32's interior teak with Minwax Helmsman Spar Urethane but I'm using Ultimate Sole on the salon table, the ladder (our boat's latter is ALL wood, no stainless) and eventually the cabin sole.

The salon table is a bulkhead mounted table with 3 legs. So far, I've got 3 coats of sanding sealer and the final 3 coats (just applied the last one this morning) of the high gloss finish on the table legs. They look fantastic! This stuff was alot easier and faster to apply than the Helmsman, which requires sanding between coats. The Ultimate Sole doesn't need sanding between coats if you can get the next coat on within 24 hours of the last. We did sand between the last coat of sanding sealer and the first coat of the glossy finish. Anyway, I like it.

Cathy
CD32 Realization, #3
Rahway, NJ
Raritan Bay

[mashenden]

While certainly I am not a pro, I have spent many an hour finishing with many a liquid in search of the holy grail of shiny and durable surfaces. Latest update - No such wood fountain of youth yet.

I suspect the "Cetol, wait and varnish" suggestion is intended to bring a warmer tone to the wood. More or less using the Cetol as a stain. I would not do this on outside wood as it may change the overall adhesion but inside does not seem to be a bad idea if that is the goal.

Personally, I'd use varnish inside (highest grade you can afford) since the look is second to none and the effort protected from the sun's UVs.

Cetol is, IMHO, the next best solution to varnish on exterior wood if you just do not have the time/patience/0 humidity/0 wind to build up 7+ freakin' coats. Less time invested initially and it will spruce up for a couple of seasons with a light sanding and another coat.

That said, this year I am going with varnish (5 down, 2 to go - Damn, I am not sailing yet).

The previously noted "orange stuff" may not have been Cetol. There is another finish (forget name), that ages to a nasty blaze orange chalky finish. This was popular (not with me, though) presumably with the crowd that had a hard time finding their hatch boards, and at a time before the boating crowd discovered Cetol. I started using Cetol when it was primarily marketed for finishing log homes, etc. (the pre marine, gloss, xtra UV protection, $$$ days). Can't say that I have ever seen it look overly Orange, inside or out.

OK- back to sanding...

Matt A

[Cathy Monaghan]

www.ultimatesole.com

This is a product formulated for cabin soles.
I bought it but haven't applied it as yet.
Has anybody used Ultimatesole?

Hi Emil,

I just finished applying the last coat of Ultimate Sole on the cabin sole of our CD32. It looks wonderful. Here are some photos of the refinished sole. Click on it to see some more. I also finished the bulkhead mounted table and the compionway ladder using Ultimate Sole.

<a href="http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y117/C ... ole/"><img width="540" src="http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y117/C ... 2.jpg"></a>

We'll bring the ladder down to the boat tomorrow and get a few more snapshots with the ladder in place.

Cathy
CD32 Realization, #3
Rahway, NJ
Raritan Bay

[Emil Maurer]

What a bang-up spiffy job you did! It really looks good.
The product also appears to do a good job. Congratulations.

I wonder what preparation you did? I gather you used their cleaner stuff prior to application? You must have done different preps for the table and the ladder? I like your putting the logo on the table top whose glisten stands out from the finish on the bulkhead behind it in the photo.

The lady who wrote Brightwork, The Art of Finishing Wood, Rebecca Wittman, which I'm just reading, remarks that you should stay off a cabin sole for a week after refinishing it. I am finding the book very complete about varnish though I certainly have very limited expertise.

Emil Maurer

[Carter Brey]

I do keep a copy of Rebecca Whittman's Woodworking on board, although I read it mostly for laughs.

I'm thinking of writing a companion volume entitled something like Hell, That's Good Enough. It will be aimed at my demographic: folks who live an hour or more away from their boat with full-time high-stress jobs that include lots of loonies and two young children at home who need to be ferried to and from school and the shoe store.

Key topics include:

--How to apply tung oil with a gasoline-powered snowblower;
--Touching up those hard-to-reach spots with a brown Magic Marker;
--How to darken the rest of your sole to match the stain where Billy urinated last season;
--How much can you accomplish in 53 minutes? The many uses of the broad side of a screwdriver;
--Should I have worked in the laundry room? Why varnishing in the kitchen may be lowering your child's math scores.

and many more topics of interest to the busy mariner.

Definitely not illustrated.