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Epoxy: Fiberglass Delamination
By:Robert Regester
Date: 8/21/2002, 6:13 pm

Don't know if this has been answered but here goes.

All fiberglass may eventually delaminate from wood depending on which system is used and the use and state of the wood adhered to. Epoxy seems to be the best for direct wood adhesion but all systems will work better if mechanically fastened to the hull. I read a good book on this called "Fiberglassing wooden boats" or "How to Fiberglass Wooden Boats" which is now out of print but I got in the library. The author had quite a bit of experience saving wooden hulls (mostly larger boats) using fiberglass and had seen much of the delaminating of fiberglass jobs. One of the delaminations he saw was an epoxy job that had taken some of the wood with it. The cause being the deterioration of the wood beneath the fiberglass. Evidently, water getting behind the fiberglass can start this. The method used may not work for kayaks, but the minimum he used on a regular boat were 1 layer of mat, 1 layer of rove (for bidirectional strength), then mechanical fastening such as staples or nails while the first two layers were still in the plastic stage (might be kind of hard on a thin kayak). Followed by two more layers of mat. On a properly built kayak, I suppose, one layer of mat with mechanical fastening followed by another layer of mat or cloth would work. Unfortunately, mat may not look as good as fiberglass cloth but fiberglass cloth allows the resin to crack between weave, allowing water to penetrate. Mat has multidirectional fibers and has better resistance to water penetration because of it. I have no idea what could be used for mechanical fastening on a kayak but the fasteners should not go through the hull. The next step is to either encapsulate the interior to keep water from getting behind the fiberglass, or never get it wet! The authors shop had customers that had wooden boats fiberglassed by his shop that did not have the delamination problem after 20 years.

Hope this helps some.

Messages In This Thread

Epoxy: Fiberglass Delamination
Robert Regester -- 8/21/2002, 6:13 pm
Re: Epoxy: Fiberglass Delamination
Jay Babina -- 8/22/2002, 3:20 pm
Re: Epoxy: Fiberglass Delamination
Pete Rudie -- 8/21/2002, 11:30 pm
Re: Epoxy: Fiberglass Delamination
Rob Macks -- 8/22/2002, 10:16 am
a combination of problems and cures
Paul G. Jacobson -- 8/21/2002, 11:30 pm