Some say balsa ,, others foam material.. ??

[Jasper Windvane]

As I have researched, and planned out my repair, I've come
across differing opinions on the core material to use when
repairing a deck. I believe Casey says to stay with the original
material.. in my case balsa which is what I am using .. but on
another web site, the recommendation was a foam ..

I've made my decision but for what its worth .. what is the difference,
and is one better than the other?

[MikeD]

This question has been asked and answered many times on this forum. Try the search button and you'll have hours of reading on the subject.

I'm no professional and far from an "expert", but what finally made me decide to use CoreCell for my recore was knowing that if/when water penetrates the decks again, it will never rot like the balsa core did.

Turns out my decks weren't as bad as originally thought, so I have a mix of original balsa core and CoreCell (mostly where the hardware attaches) Tim finished off the job last year complete with his usual excellent documentation...

Tim's Log of Sea Glass deck job

The Sea Glass Project thread

So, FWIW, I am very pleased with the CoreCell and wouldn't hesitate to use it again.

[bcooke]

It all works fine. Whatever you feel like.

The more boat work I do the more I realize there isn't a 'best'. Everything has its plusses and minuses.

Balsa is cheap and easy to work with but I have used foam too.

Done right, there will never be water intrusion into your core again.

-Britton

[Tim]

The effectiveness of any core material is directly related to how it is installed, and to what steps are taken during installation to ensure no chance of water ingress through known avenues.

There are good reasons to choose any commonly-available core material, and each choice has its negative qualities, ranging from cost to durability to workability. Just don't be sucked into the "balsa is bad, foam must be better" misnomer. Nothing is any good if it's improperly installed or neglected.