From the deck it looks like a simple porthole, and maybe it is. The bronze ring matches the
Sadly, after yesterday’s short-lived but heavy rain, I found a slow drip from one of the cap nuts holding it together. So the project for this morning is to re-bed the whatever it’s called.
The next part of disassembly was even easier. A thin flat blade of a screwdriver to gently pry the top plate off the deck, and the source of the leak was obvious. The bedding compound, whatever it once was, now consisted of clumps of powder. It was so easy to scrape off, it was amazing that water wasn’t pouring through. I took the upper and lower piece below and scrubbed them with a 3M pad to get the last remains off and dried them.
Then came the butyl tape. Ah, butyl tape. The sealant that sometimes clings to your fingers better than to the object being sealed. A strip on the top plate to seal to the deck and tiny individual strips to seal around each screw head. Tightening each nut, in a star pattern, so the butyl squeezed out more or less evenly all the way around, added nicely to my step total for the day.
A quick clean-up of excess butyl, and job done. But would it withstand a significant dousing of water? Why yes, it did.
Let there be light! And dryness.