Unleaking a porthole

[Ram]

I've been plagued off and on the past couple of years with water appearing on the sole underneathj the dining table, which appeared to be (was) dripping from unde the side deck at the center of the table. After dealing with all of the other possible sources - resealing all of the skylights and caulking around the deck stanchions), I finally determined that it had to be coming from around the porthole. I managed to remove this entirely yesterday and reseal it. It is really not difficult to remove the nuts on the exterior. The screws can then be taken out from the inside. They are threaded through the brass ring as well as the nuts, so don't be fooled into thinking you can just push or pull them out. I found that the butyl tape on the back of the flange was reasonably snug and intact, but I pulled it off and replaced it with the softer grey stuiff they use on RV's which frankly is vastly superior. The real culprit I suspect, however, is that there is no seal between the innder edge of this ring and the port itself. I suspect that water was finding its way through there even though it is a tight fit - so I made sure the new tape overlapped this inner edge slightly. I got things back together without too much difficulty, although having a helping hand to hold things on one side while working on the other would have helped. Anyway, it's been raining like crazy today and things inside are dry as a bone. Yeah!

 

[wgthompson]

I have had good results in similar situations with Cptain Tolley's Creeping Crack Cure.
Honest.