fix wood seperation

[MJS613]

Hi All,

I noticed last night that a bit of my wall is coming delaminated because of water. I know where the water is coming in, it's due to my hinge and hatch not being sealed right. I have the new hinge on the way to replace the old and hopefully fix my hatch issue. but my question is can I just put glue or epoxy in the cracks then clamp it to pull it back together?

[dmdc411]

As long as there's no rot, I don't see why not. Open up the delay a little, force glue, or thinned epoxy in there. Clamp it up.

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[TimC]

You could use a syringe to apply some glue or epoxy into the void and clamp. That would be a good but temporary fix. Better would be to drill a few holes deep into the lamination edge with a drill bit a little bigger than the needle on the syringe. At slight angles to the laminations. Then squirt your glue or epoxy and clamp.

Depending on the appearance of the outside or inside surface of your wall you could also drill for several small dowels in the delaminated area and clamp. That is if either wall side will not distract from the asthetics of the wall. For instance if you want to preserve the look of the exterior wall and don't mind dowel end grain on the interior drill to just inside the last outside lamination, drive a glued dowel in and clamp. Do this several times in that area and it should hold up well.

Whatever route you take be sure to waterproof that edge of the wall with epoxy or similar sealer.

[TimC]

I say just squirting glue in there and clamping is a temporary fix because you are gluing already glue saturated surfaces together and glue doesn't bond well with old dried glue. Or you will be lucky if it does.

Drilling a few holes whether doweled or not will open up some areas of fresh wood fiber for glue to adhere to. The more the better to a certain degree.

[MJS613]

Hi,

There is no rot as this just happened, over the past week or so, we had a few days of rain. It is going to get hot out again so it should dry it out nicely. I can't drill a dowel through the outside but I might be able to drill from the inside going just shy of the outer layer. I did have marine epoxy on it there but I am guessing I missed a spot or didn't apply enough in that area. Once I get it fixed I will make sure it is nice and saturated with the marine epoxy. I was thinking of putting some liquid rubber on it but not sure how that would effect putting the trim on when I get to that point.

[tony.latham]

I like TimC's idea of drilling a few 1/8" holes (I'd do it while clamped) to allow several reservoirs of epoxy to seep laterally into the crack and have fresh wood to adhere to. Once clamped, you'd want to refill the holes.

I'm sure that'll work if the wood is dry and your epoxy is the thinner stuff.

Tony

[halfdome, Danny]

Whatever method you use to glue the wall the first thing to do it let it dry completely.
I'd use 3/4" wood cauls on each side of the wall for clamping pressure.
A friend made many teardrops where the plywood, sealed with deck paint, would separate if stored outside under a tarp.
Tried to fix one and gave up, wasn't worth the time.

That edge needs sealing and in my opinion the best seal would be plastic laminate, melamine or aluminum.
My wall edges are covered in plastic laminate, ( plam, Formica)
You can buy melamine in different colors for around $11.00 for a 25' roll.
I would get it without the iron on glue and cover both the wall edge and melamine with 3 coats of contact cement and use a roller to apply, trim and you're done.
I tape the melamine to a piece of cardboard to spray the contact cement. You'll need to tape off the galley for any overspray.
You can trim it with a bearing router bit or a edge banding trimmer and clean up the edge with a smooth file and/or sanding block.
Being it's on a radius, the safest way to trim the edge banding is with a 1" wide smooth flat file at a 45 degree angle, taking easy strokes until you see it cut through.
Danny

[Pmullen503]

I like Tim's suggestions.

I would add that you cover that edge with glass cloth and epoxy. That's sure to keep any water out of any future delamination. If done properly, the cloth and epoxy will be transparent.

[MJS613]

There is no rain scheduled for a week or so, so it is drying out now, I got some epoxy to use to glue it back I will drill some holes I think and fill with the epoxy and clamp the crap out of it. Then sand and soak in marine epoxy again but take my time and make sure it coats well. After I do that I will look at how to trim it out. First thing I need to do is fix my hatch hinge so the water doesn't leak in, and the hatch sits right. Hopefully the new one will be here this week or next, it's in the hands of the postal service. Once I get the hinge changed and the hatch in it's proper final position I can see what kind of gaps I have and sort out the trim and seals. I was looking at doing aluminum trim with butyl tape underneath. If I seal with the melamine can I still put the aluminum trim over it?