trex decking for stringers

[yearley]

guys I am go to be putting stringers into my dorsett I am going to try a novel idea by using trex decking, I have done some research about epoxy bonding, and 3m 5200 and I think it will work, has anyone tried something this crazy. if not I will let you know:Runaway1:

[Wickline]

I have found that Trex is very flexible (like a giant noodle) and does not do well around water. I had a floating dock in the Spokane area with Trex decking and Trex had to warranty it twice before I finally gave up on the product and went back to redwood. I think they may have changed there formula now but that was my experience.
Dave

[Bflaherty]

I would suggest the product "Timber Tech" I used it on my new hot tub deck and it has held up really well even with the harsh chemicals and excessive moisture. Trex uses scrap, recycled, wood materials so it often has nails and other metals mixed into it which tend to rust and discolor it. Also because they don't care what kind of wood fiber they use it often expands an contracts with no rhyme or reason... Going all the way to a full vinyl decking like "AZEK" would provide the best rot prevention but I don't know how well it would handle epoxy and fiberglass bonding...
Definitely a cool thought, so let us know what you decide on and how It turns out...

[Helmar]

guys I am go to be putting stringers into my dorsett I am going to try a novel idea by using trex decking, I have done some research about epoxy bonding, and 3m 5200 and I think it will work, has anyone tried something this crazy. if not I will let you know:Runaway1:

Sorry I don't remember, but which Dorsett ??

Me, I am very Old School on this stuff and fell in love with the Skagit design and some of the larger Bell Boys were they use fiberglass stringers.

Skagit boats, you Never have to replace the stringers.

For me, I have seen a fair amount of different designs in fiberglass boats and this little Bell Boy that I have, the stringers are rotten and Gone. All I have is the fiberglass that helped hold them to the hull so I know where they were.

I was able to score some fiberglass roving, some good heavy stuff like the Skagits used.
So, my plan is to use some door skin (available at most lumber yards, home depot was clueless about it) that I use for pattern making.
The plan will be to make some wood boxes, say one and one half inch across the top for the floor to lay on, then whatever the height needs to be to meet up with the floor bottom.
The hull would have been ground to fresh exposed fiberglass were I will use the Fiberlay (Never and I mean Never had a problem with the Laminating Glass Resin from Fiberlay) to glass the heavy roving fiberglass into place.

One of my little tricks is to use a hot glue gun on the hull and glass roving to "tack" things into place.

Another way is to use the Fiberboard (not very cheap) that you can bend and move around and even make a tight radius if need be.
A friend of mine John Nelson has most of his Uniflite replaced by using it.
Once you fiberglass both sides, its All glassed, plus its air core so it provides some sort of floatation I would think.:cool1:

No matter which way I go, this boat will never need a transom replace again.

I think this just might be overkill but hey, keeps me out of the biker bars

[TheBronze]

I'd stay away from Trex or any other manufactured composite. Who knows how well it will hold up in the long run. And you don't want to be taking your floor up because of dodgy material. Go with wood and glass the whole thing in. Or, be fancy and make molds out of styrofoam and glass that. I was fortunate enough with the 404 to have those nice beefy glass stringers. No worries there!

[yearley]

reply

thanks guys, I am trying to try new things to learn more, I am going to go with encased foam, two part foam in between the stringers and seal it in, I am working on transom mold now, I am going to go with the pour in transom material (2 inchs) so I can drop a 4 stroke on the back. The foam in should assist in preventing stern heavy, and hopefully help in getting her on plane

[TheBronze]

Cool. Glad you are going the glassed stringer route.

As for the transom, I used a double ply of 3/4 birch with a thickened layer of resin inbetween and a heavy coat of 1708 on the deck facing side. It is rediculously strong. I have no hesitation on hanging ANYTHING on the back of the 404. I have no doubt that it could hold 400 pounds of outboard without a problem.

You might consider this approach vs pouring something in. It is really easy to accomplish and doesn't take much time.

I'm not familiar with any product that you can just pour in the gap between the inner glass (if there even is some) and the outer hull. Are they like resins? If so, be careful. Resin is very strong, but no by itself. It is very brittle without the reinforcing of fiberglass. Wood has great strength to weight properties. Tie it in with some fiberglass on the edges and the face and you are set.


Some thoughts on foam.
[ame="http://www.classicboatclub.com/forums/showthread.php?p=21554#post21554"]Foam Discussion - Northwest Classic Boat Club Forum[/ame]

[strobee]

You might research Nida-bond, Arjay, and Seacast products. They make pourable transom material. Seacast I believe uses fiberglass in the mix while Nida-bond and Arjay (the same product with different name) uses something else. The claim is very strong and will never rot.. Clint