Can anyone tell me if it is necesary to use the bond breaking tape
between slats? The 6mm (square edge, not rebated) strips have been
laid onto a ply deck using epoxy with 5mm spacers. The problem for me
is that my suppliers don't sell the stuff (ok I can get around that)
but there is loads of squeezed out epoxy left in the bottom of the
groove, so to get the tape flat is going to be a nightmare. I know
it's necessary if you're using rebated strips, but will the Sika
caulking really stick to the epoxy enough to cause a problem? I seem
to get conflicting replies, even from the professionals.

Cheers Pete

How thick are your strips? The key to this method is that the strips should
be thin, so that the adhesive they're stuck down with can overcome the
wood's urge to move with changes in moisture content. My read is that if
you strips are 3/16" or less, the adhesive wins and the seams won't expand &
contract much and the bond breaker is unnecessary. I recommend the Teak
Decking Systems STS-440 goo. It's a silicone and pretty elastic.

"pete" wrote in message
...
Can anyone tell me if it is necesary to use the bond breaking tape
between slats? The 6mm (square edge, not rebated) strips have been
laid onto a ply deck using epoxy with 5mm spacers. The problem for me
is that my suppliers don't sell the stuff (ok I can get around that)
but there is loads of squeezed out epoxy left in the bottom of the
groove, so to get the tape flat is going to be a nightmare. I know
it's necessary if you're using rebated strips, but will the Sika
caulking really stick to the epoxy enough to cause a problem? I seem
to get conflicting replies, even from the professionals.

Cheers Pete

Thanks for the reply, I would think that after sanding the strips will
end up between 1/4 and 3/16" also the epoxy I used is a little
flexible, so maybe I'm gonna have to do it the hard way. Damn.

On Sun, 4 Feb 2007 17:51:26 -0500, "Jim Conlin"
wrote:

How thick are your strips? The key to this method is that the strips should
be thin, so that the adhesive they're stuck down with can overcome the
wood's urge to move with changes in moisture content. My read is that if
you strips are 3/16" or less, the adhesive wins and the seams won't expand &
contract much and the bond breaker is unnecessary. I recommend the Teak
Decking Systems STS-440 goo. It's a silicone and pretty elastic.

"pete" wrote in message
.. .
Can anyone tell me if it is necesary to use the bond breaking tape
between slats? The 6mm (square edge, not rebated) strips have been
laid onto a ply deck using epoxy with 5mm spacers. The problem for me
is that my suppliers don't sell the stuff (ok I can get around that)
but there is loads of squeezed out epoxy left in the bottom of the
groove, so to get the tape flat is going to be a nightmare. I know
it's necessary if you're using rebated strips, but will the Sika
caulking really stick to the epoxy enough to cause a problem? I seem
to get conflicting replies, even from the professionals.

Cheers Pete

I would. What you want is a bond between the two slats, and NOT to the
deck. Boatlife makes a bond breaker tape, or you can use 3m's fine
line tape of the appropriate width.

West System has a cool publication called EpoxyWorks.

Here's an article from a recent edition on the installation of an
'epoxy laid' teak deck. No mention of bond breaking strips here.

http://westsystem.com/ewmag/20/index20.html

see:

Installing a teak deck on Zatara

MW