Steel Hull stripping
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Your media will be decided by the profile you need to leave on the metal to get the paint to stick. Sand will probably be too fine. Crushed glass is economical as is slag (Black Beauty). Garnet is probably the best but more pricey.
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LeoKa
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Box keel
What makes my hull even more challenging is that the keel looks like a box. It has two 800/800 gallons tanks in there. The diver who cleaned the bottom couple weeks ago, gave me a video, which shows the bottom before and after cleaning. It will be interesting to see, when the boat is hauled out and I will find out that I won't be able to reach some corners with the wand.
I hope this will not be the case.
What makes my hull even more challenging is that the keel looks like a box. It has two 800/800 gallons tanks in there. The diver who cleaned the bottom couple weeks ago, gave me a video, which shows the bottom before and after cleaning. It will be interesting to see, when the boat is hauled out and I will find out that I won't be able to reach some corners with the wand.
I hope this will not be the case.
stadams08
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Hello,
I suggest you reach out to a local "Dustless Blasting" company. You can see the effectiveness of this system on youtube. It is very cost effective and relatively eco friendly. If you cannot locate one locally you could reach out to Dustless Blasting and they could refer someone. The process uses media, most often glass, in a water stream which keeps the surface from heating up. This allows the media to work much more efficiently. It is really amazing to observe. Good luck!
I suggest you reach out to a local "Dustless Blasting" company. You can see the effectiveness of this system on youtube. It is very cost effective and relatively eco friendly. If you cannot locate one locally you could reach out to Dustless Blasting and they could refer someone. The process uses media, most often glass, in a water stream which keeps the surface from heating up. This allows the media to work much more efficiently. It is really amazing to observe. Good luck!
janice142
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Are you talking inside bilges or outside hull?
I know the title says hull however our biggest problems were inevitably inside. And we (meaning Daddy) would cut out the plate and replace same.
I know the title says hull however our biggest problems were inevitably inside. And we (meaning Daddy) would cut out the plate and replace same.
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Lepke
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https://www.dustlessblasting.com/marine
One of the better systems. I had a couple early models. Probably too expensive for home ownership. You might look for someone with the equipment. Can be used on fiberglass and even wood with caution (reduced pressure, sharp angle). There is no overspray, no dust, media only travels a few feet. We used it many times inside hulls. It doesn't use a lot of water, so it can be captured. Plastic sheeting was laid down, made a berm by putting beams under the sheeting edge to hold the water. A 60' boat could have the bottom done and all the water used would be within the berm. In hot weather, little water was left, just the media and paint residue. Cleanup was done with a big wet vacuum and no sign of blasting could be seen after sheeting was rolled up.
I also had very high pressure water blasting, probably 25,000+ psi. Diesel driven pump. It used a lot of water that had to drain thru an expensive filtering system because there was no reasonable way to capture it all. It had to be tented. I sold it a month after getting the dustless blaster. Filtering waste water might be illegal by now.
One of the better systems. I had a couple early models. Probably too expensive for home ownership. You might look for someone with the equipment. Can be used on fiberglass and even wood with caution (reduced pressure, sharp angle). There is no overspray, no dust, media only travels a few feet. We used it many times inside hulls. It doesn't use a lot of water, so it can be captured. Plastic sheeting was laid down, made a berm by putting beams under the sheeting edge to hold the water. A 60' boat could have the bottom done and all the water used would be within the berm. In hot weather, little water was left, just the media and paint residue. Cleanup was done with a big wet vacuum and no sign of blasting could be seen after sheeting was rolled up.
I also had very high pressure water blasting, probably 25,000+ psi. Diesel driven pump. It used a lot of water that had to drain thru an expensive filtering system because there was no reasonable way to capture it all. It had to be tented. I sold it a month after getting the dustless blaster. Filtering waste water might be illegal by now.
stadams08
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Bare and Clean Dustless Blasting
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Alabama Boater
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To put the size of this job in perspective, about a year ago I went through the entire bottom job on my 37' Tiara. Wet media blast, vacuum sand, barrier coat and 3 coats of bottom paint. I used a 3500 psi pressure washer equipped with wet blast kit, 1800 lbs of Black Diamond ... very aggressive to remove 8-10 paint layers. I had to final sand the bottom to get the nubs that blasting didn't remove. In all, I spent 6 days in prep and 3 days in barrier and painting. I was on my own land and had no major cleanup time. I didn't value my time and had the equipment but still had material costs of over $3k. A yard quote was $7K but I was not sure of total prep being done?? I will never do it again!!
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LeoKa
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The problem is not the find a business, which does dustless blasting. The boatyard, or marina, is hard to find, which allows it. Like I said earlier, the Port Townsend DIY marina is an excellent place, but they don't allow dustless blasting. Only sand blasting.
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LeoKa
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Do you think this job will last for 8-10 years, as few claim? If not, when and how will you handle this next time? Do it another way, or hiring it out?
stubones99
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Dry Ice blasting is designed for places where you don't want grit in the machinery. Things like printing presses and food handling machines. That way, all you need to clean up is what you blast off. Dry Ice blasting uses chips or flakes of dry ice and 150+ PSI air to drive them at the surface around 400mph and the cold makes almost everything brittle and the impact can chip away at the buildup. I don't think it would be ideal for boats, since dry ice is expensive and has to be ordered for each job, since it is a perishable item.
The cool thing about it is that it will blast off buildup and not damage lucite or in many cases painted surfaces. A former neighbor designed a dry ice blasting system and I saw him use it a few times. With machinery, you don't have to worry about sand or other media getting into gears and bearings, and all you swept up was what you knocked off the machine since the dry ice melts to CO2 and goes away.
The cool thing about it is that it will blast off buildup and not damage lucite or in many cases painted surfaces. A former neighbor designed a dry ice blasting system and I saw him use it a few times. With machinery, you don't have to worry about sand or other media getting into gears and bearings, and all you swept up was what you knocked off the machine since the dry ice melts to CO2 and goes away.
Ventana
Senior Member
We owned a 40' steel sailboat for a bunch of years, and did our own maintenance. I know first hand what it takes to try to remove 30 years worth of bottom paint and various coatings.
I have worked in the marine industry for several decades, currently for an aluminum boat builder. We have several sand blasters, several wet blasters, and one of the stupidly expensive 40,000+PSI water jet blasters.
My best advice would be to shop around and pay someone to do this job, it is the best money you will spend on a metal hull.
If you insist on doing it cheap, rent several vacuum sanders, buy several cases of grinding discs, and hire a couple guys from the local Home Depot. You might get the hull done before word gets around and the Home Depot guys start refusing to work for you.
Anyone that suggests buying some cheap equipment, watching a video, and doing it yourself, has obviously not taken their own advice.
My 2 cents.
I have worked in the marine industry for several decades, currently for an aluminum boat builder. We have several sand blasters, several wet blasters, and one of the stupidly expensive 40,000+PSI water jet blasters.
My best advice would be to shop around and pay someone to do this job, it is the best money you will spend on a metal hull.
If you insist on doing it cheap, rent several vacuum sanders, buy several cases of grinding discs, and hire a couple guys from the local Home Depot. You might get the hull done before word gets around and the Home Depot guys start refusing to work for you.
Anyone that suggests buying some cheap equipment, watching a video, and doing it yourself, has obviously not taken their own advice.
My 2 cents.
stubones99
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Probably not. You're not trying to protect a gelcoat coating under the marine life, but instead get down to clean metal. If you have a fiberglass boat and trying to get to fiberglass, then it might be a better approach since it seems to bounce off plastics but abrade buildup on top of the plastic.
In your case, the occasional embedded silicon grit on the steel which isn't a big deal. I would wet blast it with sand and water. Just move your blocking around to get under everything. Make sure to prime it quickly once it dries or you'll get rust again overnight.
I think Stripper is correct. We have just finished having the bottom of our Duck blasted and primed. It is not the first boat we have had done.It was an expensive and laborious process and required strict oversight.
You really have no other choice. It's a case of "Pay now or pay later". This is not an area to cut corners.
If you use a wet blast process, add something like 'Holdtite' to the water, as it will delay the rust flash.
You really have no other choice. It's a case of "Pay now or pay later". This is not an area to cut corners.
If you use a wet blast process, add something like 'Holdtite' to the water, as it will delay the rust flash.
I’ve been following this and still think the environmental risks are being underplayed. Yards these days are under tremendous pressure. Get a little copper show up in a drain it’s not supposed to and you could face a mortal wound. DIY blasting is a great way to lose your yard. The issue is not the media, the issue is what you are blasting away. Dustless blasting works by using water. I may not know how they work clean, but my first instinct with anything bottom paint is sure as heck to not let it get wet and run to a drain.
Seriously, pay someone or vacuum sand with cheap labor. You will need decent vacuum equipment too, Home Depot stuff is not good enough.
This thread is stressing me out!
Seriously, pay someone or vacuum sand with cheap labor. You will need decent vacuum equipment too, Home Depot stuff is not good enough.
This thread is stressing me out!
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LeoKa
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I’ve been following this and still think the environmental risks are being underplayed. Yards these days are under tremendous pressure.
This thread is stressing me out!
At this point, I put everything on hold. Not only because there is no clear solution in sight, beside paying someone to do it at a well equipped yard. I still don't know exactly, what is going on with the hull? As I mentioned, the diver told me about blisters on the hull. This is a steel boat, so blisters should not be common, if the paint job was done properly. This is the main point. The PO paid tons of money to a yard to do the bottom. This was 3 years ago. Epoxy and such. Maybe it is a 3 years lasting job, but I cannot imagine an owner paying this much money for a bottom work every 3 years. At least, I don't hear this from other owners.
I have a haul-out scheduled for the end of year. I will know more at that time. I think I will not do any blasting now. I will patch it up and paint it. Blasting can wait another year.
So, blasting, wet blasting, stripping, is not really what I am after. I want to make sure that I get a lasting job for the money. Maybe it is just me, but I only trust what I see and do. I had so many bad experiences, by hiring out projects.
I am sure not everyone feels the same.
sbu22
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What ghost said. I just read the entire thread & found it fascinating that waste containment, control, and disposal were not mentioned until now.
Regardless of the removal media/method, the coating system constituents may contain regulated heavy metals and/or other constituents . At a minimum, the waste streams require characterization (sampling and laboratory analysis) prior to release or disposal. Accredited labs at that.
These are federal regs, generally enforced through state agencies. You do not want to get sidewise in a "promiscuous disposal" situation - penalties generally start at $30 k/occurrence/day and may, depending on jurisdiction, include the possibility of criminal charges. If you think the regulators reserve those penalties for international petrochemical enterprises and not for just some guy trying to maintain his boat, you'd have it exactly backwards.
This comment is based on 30+ years in the business of hazardous materials management.
Regardless of the removal media/method, the coating system constituents may contain regulated heavy metals and/or other constituents . At a minimum, the waste streams require characterization (sampling and laboratory analysis) prior to release or disposal. Accredited labs at that.
These are federal regs, generally enforced through state agencies. You do not want to get sidewise in a "promiscuous disposal" situation - penalties generally start at $30 k/occurrence/day and may, depending on jurisdiction, include the possibility of criminal charges. If you think the regulators reserve those penalties for international petrochemical enterprises and not for just some guy trying to maintain his boat, you'd have it exactly backwards.
This comment is based on 30+ years in the business of hazardous materials management.
Okay, one last thought. Epoxy should last more than 3 years. If it’s blistering, you will want to incur the big bill fix it sooner, rather than the even bigger bill later. That said, the more likely scenario, is that you have a compatibility or prep issue with the bottom paint that went on top of the epoxy. If that is the case, I would sleep much much easier. You would simply need a prep sanding to put new bottom paint on. In fact, you would not really want to remove the epoxy if it was still functioning I don’t think.
Consider that the most likely scenario here is probably not as bad as you were anticipating. I don’t recall this point being made, but too tired to read it back. Hope it’s the case. Maybe you could get a sample of a blister and see if it’s just bottom paint.
Consider that the most likely scenario here is probably not as bad as you were anticipating. I don’t recall this point being made, but too tired to read it back. Hope it’s the case. Maybe you could get a sample of a blister and see if it’s just bottom paint.
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LeoKa
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No, we have not talked about the quality of the existing paint. I do not have any info on the material they used on the hull.
I will know more, once the boat is hauled out.
Again, I do not plan to do any blasting this year. It is not in the budget.
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LeoKa
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almost there
I think there is a solution in sight.
I've just talked to a friend at my marina. He is going to Port Townsend for sand blasting. The Yard's requirement is to use vacuum blaster and he is good to go. The Yard provides the tarp and cleanup after the job.
He found a vacuum blaster for rent $75/day. He's estimate for the blasting is 2-3 days, plus painting. He has a steel hull, as well.
This sounds reasonable to me. My roundtrip haul out is a little over $750 plus laydays around $50/day.
Of course, plus my labor.
I think there is a solution in sight.
I've just talked to a friend at my marina. He is going to Port Townsend for sand blasting. The Yard's requirement is to use vacuum blaster and he is good to go. The Yard provides the tarp and cleanup after the job.
He found a vacuum blaster for rent $75/day. He's estimate for the blasting is 2-3 days, plus painting. He has a steel hull, as well.
This sounds reasonable to me. My roundtrip haul out is a little over $750 plus laydays around $50/day.
Of course, plus my labor.
