It is always best for teak deck (and owner who is paying) to repair any problems sooner than later. If problems are not taken care of, they will lead to other failures and repairs are more time consuming and cost more. Leaking teak deck may let water in to sub-deck or below the decks causing rot or mildew to ruin whatever is below.

Following information is mostly for old type decks with grooved seams and screw installation, new type decking like our standard or custom teak deck will not have these problems. Most frequent problems on old decks are:

• Loose or missing plugs over screw heads
• Leaking seams, caulk separating from teak
• Worn out seams and plugs

*Following tips and guidelines are result of years of experience and are found to be helpful and work in many cases, however every deck is different and by no means we guarantee the results on your deck, please use your local professional carpenter if you don't feel comfortable working on your own.

Loose or missing plugs over screw heads

This is probably easiest of the problems to fix but if it's happening at the same time as seams are worn out, you are facing a bigger job. Let's assume your deck seams are still good. Sign for loose plug is black ring around plug, it's caused by mildew as water gets in the screw hole. Fix this by drilling out plug with annular cutter like Hougen Rotacut, it is sheet metal tool but works great, see www.hougen.com/cutters/sheetmetal/Rotacut.html for more information. Remove any existing glue from screw head and back out screw. Countersink hole deeper ( you should have at least 1/4 inch above screw head) and for best results go for next plug size. Use dip of caulk in screw threads to ensure water tightness and install new screw. Glue in new plug with epoxy and after glue sets chisel of extra plug flush to surrounding teak. This procedure obviously works in case of missing plugs too.

Leaking seams, caulk separating from teak

Leaking seams may just need some re-caulking or in worst case the deck has to be re-done. Even small leaks or water penetration can be detected by hosing the deck and observing how it dries, where teak or seam stays wet longer than deck around should be carefully inspected for possible problem. If water just gets in the seam but not under the planking or into sub-deck, bad seams should be removed, teak edge cleaned to bare wood and seam re-caulked.

Worn out seams and plugs

If seams are worn enough to point where caulking is gone and many screw heads are exposed you have to figure how much of actual teak is left. If deck was originally 1/2 inch thick with 1/4 inch deep groove for caulk, remaining teak is only 1/4 inch thick and if seams have been leaking for longer time you should consider replacing your decking. If teak decking was installed over cored sub-deck you should take action as soon as possible because water most likely is ruining subdeck and time just makes repairing more expensive.