"Thomas Wentworth" wrote in message
news:zGCvf.154$ID1.80@trndny01...
I was looking at an old boat that had a plywood cabin. The owner/builder
had covered the plywood with fiberglass cloth. Long time ago. He said
that
a surveyor who looked at the boat for insurance needs said that their was
too much water density in the plywood. The surveyor used some type of
device to test this. The surveyor recommended that the cabin roof be
replaced.

Question:: While I don't doubt that water got down under the fiberglass
cloth, I thought that if the fiberglass cloth was torn off and the plywood
was exposed then wouldn't it just dry up and then he [ friend ] could
apply
epoxy and then new cloth but make sure that the epoxy has saturated the
ply
surface and that way the ply could not get wet.

So, what about this problem.

I bought an old wooden boat, the previous owner had fitted a deck house
and sheathed in in fibreglass. so far so good. unfortunately he had cut
corners with the windows. they did not seal properly and the water got
behind the glass mat. in spite of a survey which pointed out some of the
more obvious faults, this was not specifically pointed out. it grew some
really magnificent mushrooms before I abandoned any hope of repairing it and
ripped the whole deckhouse off and built a new one. at the time it looked
good but like a few others before me I had parted with my money before I
realised the true extent of the problem
regards
Peter