Potential for water infiltration
Posted: Mon Aug 17, 2015 1:18 pm
The sides of my companionway hood are made of 1" nominal timber, i.e., they are 3/4" thick. A problem I have with the manual is that I never know whether the lumber dimensions as stated are nominal or actual--it seems to be one way one time and another the next. In this case though, 1" lumber is called for but I'm pretty sure it is actually supposed to be 3/4" thick because otherwise the companionway hatch slides would not fit into the grooves on the hood sides.
To the point: When I drilled the holes for the hood screws, I centered them at 3/8". Made sense at the time, but then I cut the grooves for the hatch slides and they are 3/8" deep. So the screws are exposed. And their holes. (The hatch slides were also catching on the screws a bit, but I tapered the ends and fixed that problem.)
So, rainwater is going to flow over and down the sides of the hatch, onto the slides, and on into the grooves and the holes, where they will infiltrate the wood. Has anyone else had this problem? What did you do about it?
One possible solution is to back the screws out and use a chip brush to get some unthickened epoxy flowing in there, then put the screws back in. That ought to seal the wood. One problem with that is that there are two screws I could not get out. One of the screws would not budge and I ended up shaving off the sides of the slot--the other one simply broke off. I can try to get as much epoxy around them as I can and hope it seals. Another problem is that the excess epoxy may cause the hatch slides to stick, but since I will use unthickened epoxy it should be OK.
Any thoughts or ideas about this will be greatly appreciated.
To the point: When I drilled the holes for the hood screws, I centered them at 3/8". Made sense at the time, but then I cut the grooves for the hatch slides and they are 3/8" deep. So the screws are exposed. And their holes. (The hatch slides were also catching on the screws a bit, but I tapered the ends and fixed that problem.)
So, rainwater is going to flow over and down the sides of the hatch, onto the slides, and on into the grooves and the holes, where they will infiltrate the wood. Has anyone else had this problem? What did you do about it?
One possible solution is to back the screws out and use a chip brush to get some unthickened epoxy flowing in there, then put the screws back in. That ought to seal the wood. One problem with that is that there are two screws I could not get out. One of the screws would not budge and I ended up shaving off the sides of the slot--the other one simply broke off. I can try to get as much epoxy around them as I can and hope it seals. Another problem is that the excess epoxy may cause the hatch slides to stick, but since I will use unthickened epoxy it should be OK.
Any thoughts or ideas about this will be greatly appreciated.