Cost For Bottom Paint

Jetmart

Jetmart

Member
Aug 10, 2010
282
Great Lakes - Lake St Clair
Boat Info
2004 Formula 37PC
(Previous 2004 280 Sundancer)
Engines
8.1 Volvo
Can someone give me an approximate cost to get a virgin boat that never had bottom paint applied to it cost ? I know the type of paint comes in a wide range a varieties but a good long lasting fresh water paint will do.
The boat is 37' X 12'.
 
Good friend with a 260 had his barrier coated and painted and it was $1200... Have yours barrier coated to be safe since its a virgin bottom
 
Jetmart said:
Can someone give me an approximate cost to get a virgin boat that never had bottom paint applied to it cost ? I know the type of paint comes in a wide range a varieties but a good long lasting fresh water paint will do.
The boat is 37' X 12'.
Click to expand...

Our 320 had a bare bottom when we bought her. We paid $1500 to strip the wax, fill a few small dock rashes with epoxy, sand the gel, 2 coats of tuff stuff epoxy and then 2 coats of ablative paint. Since you are painting a bare bottom 320 in SE michigan this should give you a real good idea what the job costs. Let me know if you want any info. The paint has held up very well in the two full seasons. The only thing that I would change is the height of the water line. The paint starts right at the water line so when it sits in the water you can barely see the paint. Because of this I get a little scum line just above the paint line. I plan to tape it off in the spring and raise the paint line about 1".
 
I went through this myself last year with our 280. I largely did it myself So you might be able to extrapolate a reasonable cost for your area. Mine started with excessive paint that was on top of a poor base coat.

So I started with having the bottom soda blasted. I contracted that out for $ 745.00. They came, tented the area, and left the boat and area clean. Soda blast will expose little bubbles that are in the gelcoat. These need to be cleaned up before paint can go on. So I spent about 3 hours inspecting the hull and spot sanding and filling in with epoxy, and then sanding smooth. About $ 30.00 in materials. They did the trim tabs as well, but left the drive for me.

The boot stripe and around the drive had to be masked, an hour and about $20. Get the tape with the masking film attached. Its a 3m product I got from an auto supply place.

I then went with a barrier coat. I choose Pettit's epoxy barrier coat. I purchased 3 gallons. This is enough for four (4) coats on a 280 bottom. But, you have to get the mixture volume right. If you mix the whole gallon you are screwed because the paint may cure before enough time has elapsed to allow a second coat. This stuff is very temperature sensitive and temps were in the 40s and 50s, so I lucked out and was able to start the seceding coats with the batch from the previous. Just don't mix new stuff in with the old. Cost for this was about $ 70.00 per gallon, $ 210.00. I used cheap foam rollers, cheap brushes, and throw away paint trays. Another $ 50.00.00. About two hours per coat for mixing and prep.

This was then followed by two coats of Pettit Hydrocoat. I bought two gallons at $ 114.00 per gallon. Figure the same two hours per coat as well.

I was able to do this over the course of a week. If you can spend the time and would be limited to weekends, you need to think about having someone do it for you. There is a specific time window with the epoxy for not only when the next coat can go on, but also when it is too late to re-coat without sanding the whole hull. So doing it over several weekends would also require a couple hull sanding adding substantial time to the effort.

In all I figured I spent under $ 600.00 in materials, $ 745.00 on the contracted prep and somewhere around 16 man hours over a week long period.

It was well worth it. The boat came out of the water last fall in perfect condition. The only 'failure' was that the epoxy did not stick to the trim tabs. This spring I do plan to re-coat the whole hull again, but with a contrasting color. The paint condition does not require it, but by using a contrasting color I can tell in the future when the bottom coat of black starts to show through. I also have to figure out a better solution for the SS tabs.

Paying the yard to do it would have probably run in the $ 1200 to $1600 range. But since I was in the mess I was in because the PO had paid for a poor bottom job in the first place, I wanted to make sure that it was done right. While the yard we are in does first class mechanical work, dog jobs like bottom cleaning and painting to to temp workers don't always work out so well. The key words to this process are "preparation,preparation,preparation,preparation"

Henry
 
fwebster said:
A first class bottom job that last 3+ years in salt water runs $65/ft around here, but that included hauling out and blocking a big boat.
Click to expand...
I've not been able to get 3+ yrs since the days of lead. My last one was about $60/ft. Awlgrip/Awlstar and an extra coat on the smile. A diver cleans it 1/month in cooler months and 2/month in the warm ones using terry cloth to keep the slime off. The best I've done is about 18 months.

I need to see the schedule of how your guys do it. I'd love to get three years. Thanks.
 
I just bottom painted my 300weekender this weekend. I paid 250 to get it sandblasted last fall after doing some glass work i went over the whole bottom with 80 grit on a DA. I put 4 coats of interlux 2000E interprotect at 220 bucks a gallon at 1 gallon and 3 coats of interlux micron CSC at 90 bucks a gallon and 1 gallon a coat. In fresh water used seasonally some people are getting 7 years out of this at my club if they dont powerwash. my other boat started to wear through the outer coating and needed touched up after 3 years and 340 hours. I hope this helps a bare hull would only require roughing up with 80 grit and wipeing with acetone before coating.
 
This may be a crazy question, but I am wondering if you can just do the barrier epoxy and not the ablative paint (at least not this season). Ive had to spend some money on other things so knowing i will do this my self and my boat has never been painted and is in great shape im wondering if it will serve the same purpose and create a barrier from the water without the ablative paint so i can save some money. And if so ho will it look and clean up or will it look terrible. My boat has never sat in the water more than a few hours it's entire life until last summer when i bought it and it was in Lake St. Clair from June 10th until Sept 30th. I used it about 80 hours. This season will like be the same scenario. Advice will be helpful.
 
Considering 98% of the expense is getting the bottom prepped and barrier coat on, it seems counter-productive not to get at least one coat of bottom paint on. I'm not being harsh, barrier coating prevents water from leaching into the fiberglass and creating blisters, and it provides a mechanical and chemical foundation for the actual bottom paint. It is not meant to be a 'top coat'. There is a time window between when the last coat of barrier cures and when the first coat of bottom paint must go on. Once that window has passed, the hull has to be sanded, and possibly re-coated with fresh barrier (that needs to be confirmed by actual paint mfr on the specific product). In any event, going all season will leave the bottom in a condition that will require extensive sanding and may result in a less than perfect result.

I would recommend getting at least one coat of bottom paint on the bottom. If you go with the Pettit Hydrocoat you should need a little less than a gallon. The nice thing about this stuff is that it is water based, and leftover will keep in the can until next spring.

Henry
 
Ok Great. So the most expensive part is the epoxy paint based on how many gallons i would need to cover to 10ml. Then i can get bottom for around $50 a gal and do a coat and then apply next year.

How critical do you think it is to do anythign this season, considering it will be only the second season in fresh water? Can i get by waiting till fall?

Thanks so much for the replies. it's very helpful.
 
Donning Kevlar. Here we go.... Check with Line-X. They were experimenting with their product applied smooth as a barrier coat almost a decade ago. I never delved further into it. Maybe they dropped it. I know it's used on decks as part of a nonskid treatment.

Maybe you could be an experimental case for free?!?
 
dpmulvey said:
Donning Kevlar. Here we go.... Check with Line-X. They were experimenting with their product applied smooth as a barrier coat almost a decade ago. I never delved further into it. Maybe they dropped it. I know it's used on decks as part of a nonskid treatment.

Maybe you could be an experimental case for free?!?
Click to expand...

I own a LINE-X franchise and it would be a wonderful barrier coat. However,it's tough to spray smooth and measuring the thickness without a ferrous substrate is impossible with a standard Elcometer. It would be extremely expensive at $3-4 per square foot for 25' and smaller boats and more than double that for mobile applications. Assuming a 60 mil coating, you're talking .5 pounds per square foot
 
Last edited:
almostenuff said:
I own a LINE-X franchise and it would be a wonderful barrier coat. However,it's tough to spray smooth and measuring the thickness without a ferrous substrate is impossible with a standard Elcometer. It would be extremely expensive at $3-4 per square foot for 25' and smaller boats and more than double that for mobile applications. Assuming a 60 mil coating, you're talking .5 pounds per square foot
Click to expand...


Thank you. Now I know. I shall tell you this though. If I were purchasing "the last boat (ha!)" I would seriously consider it. I saw a fellow drop $8K on a strip, blister grind, hooded dry out, fix and r/r of his 38. That was in 2009. I cannot fathom the cost today.
 
almostenuff said:
I own a LINE-X franchise and it would be a wonderful barrier coat. However,it's tough to spray smooth and measuring the thickness without a ferrous substrate is impossible with a standard Elcometer. It would be extremely expensive at $3-4 per square foot for 25' and smaller boats and more than double that for mobile applications. Assuming a 60 mil coating, you're talking .5 pounds per square foot
Click to expand...

I thought the magnetic Elcometer only worked on dry film thicknesses (on a ferrous substrate)? Why couldn't you use a comb gauge for wet film thickness and extrapolate a dry film from that? I know that is what shipyards use for new construction.

David, no need for Kevlar. Without a whole lot of technical stuff, coatings used below the waterline, i.e. constantly submerged, are different chemically from those that see a wet to dry cycle. The biggest distinction is that coatings that harden, or dry develop micro channels as the solvent out gasses. Even with water borne coatings, the water acts as a solvent in this context. These micro channels create tunnels back to the substrate allowing osmosis to put water in contact with the substrate. On a surface with a wet to dry cycle, this is an issue, but it is not the end of the world. For a true barrier coating, one needs to have a coating that cures without outgassing, i.e. not solvent based. Hence epoxies are a good choice. As a side note this is why powder coating is preferred for stuff like aluminum even though the powder coating is just ground dried paint. Paint leaves micro channels powder coating does not.

Line-X is a polyurethane. That by definition is solvent based. As a result a poor choice for a below waterline coating.

Henry
 
OK.....I got it. FIX IT!

I liked the idea of being able to beach the boat (on purpose or not...don't ask!) and have no glass damage.

Oh well.....it was a thought and explains the reason Line-X is used above the water line but not below.

Thanks for the lesson. Maybe your explanation is why I never heard a lot of hoopla over the subject.

Thanks again.
 
Henry Boyd said:
I thought the magnetic Elcometer only worked on dry film thicknesses (on a ferrous substrate)? Why couldn't you use a comb gauge for wet film thickness and extrapolate a dry film from that? I know that is what shipyards use for new construction.

David, no need for Kevlar. Without a whole lot of technical stuff, coatings used below the waterline, i.e. constantly submerged, are different chemically from those that see a wet to dry cycle. The biggest distinction is that coatings that harden, or dry develop micro channels as the solvent out gasses. Even with water borne coatings, the water acts as a solvent in this context. These micro channels create tunnels back to the substrate allowing osmosis to put water in contact with the substrate. On a surface with a wet to dry cycle, this is an issue, but it is not the end of the world. For a true barrier coating, one needs to have a coating that cures without outgassing, i.e. not solvent based. Hence epoxies are a good choice. As a side note this is why powder coating is preferred for stuff like aluminum even though the powder coating is just ground dried paint. Paint leaves micro channels powder coating does not.

Line-X is a polyurethane. That by definition is solvent based. As a result a poor choice for a below waterline coating.

Henry
Click to expand...
Henry, LINE-X is a high pressure hot spray that drys in 5-10 seconds (that's why it's the best-no time to run), therefore you can't use a comb gauge. It's actually a two-part polyurea-not polyurethane. We use it in many submersed applications.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Forum statistics

Threads
113,184
Messages
1,428,135
Members
61,094
Latest member
Linword
Back
Top