Bottom job

B

BILL MORROCCO

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My son has a 29' Luhrs tournament fisherman and was quoted $4500 to soda blast the bottom and apply three coats of barrier coat epoxy. Sounded a little high to me. Is this the going rate? What are you paying for this job.

Bill
 
Sounds like a lot of money to me, but I have no idea what your costs are up in the frozen North.
For my 43' Hatteras here in Florida, I did my own bottom for less than $900 which included haulout, pressure wash and scraping, blocking for 4 days and relaunch during which time I put 3 coats of Micron Paint.
The cost if I wanted one of the local marinas to do it was $1500- $1800.
 
3 coats of epoxy??? Boy is that overkill. Have them requote with one coat. That's what I had before I had the bottom paint put on----15 yrs ago. They are smelling a sucker. Don't be one!
 
Sounds a little high. I had my 33' Egg Harbor blasted two years ago for $15.00 per foot. I applied two coats of epoxy barrier and two coats of ablative bottom paint. Materials cost me a little over $700.00. The epoxy coating is very labor intensive but still seems high.
 
IMO one coat would not guarantee proper thickness in all areas due to random imperfections in application.
 
THe paint manufacturer will rec a certain thickness for the barrier coats. usually that's 3 - 5 coats before any anti-fouling paint applied.
 
Sorry to hijack the thread a little bit, but its related.

What does the epoxy coat do? Is it like a primer that is required for the ablative bottom coat?

Thanks,
 
The cost seems to be in line with what I invested in my hull. The blasting was $900 and two coats of epoxy barrier coat was $3,000. If your son wants to invest some time he can tackle the barrier coat on his own. The toughest part of the job will be the detail sanding after the boat is blasted. If you use MAS Epoxy and get the timing right there is no sanding required between coats and you can get 3 coats on in two days. This spring I finished a bottom on a Sea Ray 340 that after sanding took 1 day to fix some issues on the hull and glass in 3 old transducer holes and the second day to apply 2 coats of epoxy.
 
Rugger8, the epoxy barrier coat prevents water penetration into the fiberglass, which can cause some very expensive problems, such as blistering & delamination.

You could consider it a "primer" in that it's there to protect the fiberglass. Whether it's actually required for ablative paint I don't know.
 
How many mils is 3 coats?? Can the desired thickness be achieved sprayed, rolled, brushed, bucket/mop?? Are you spraying 3 coats? That is a lot thinner than 3 rolled coats. Read the can for recommended thickness. Your top coat is only as nice as your bottom (epoxy) ones.
 
I am going to further attemp to hijack the thread; I have been told that newer boats like mine (2001) are not as susceptable to blistering due to improved resins. I have been to the factory where my boat is made several times and have witnessed the workers applying bottom paint directly to the prepared gelcoat surface.

Is the barrier neccessary for newer boats?

Dan
 
my understanding is that unless a barrier coat (or coats) is applied, all fiberglass can absorb water. for boats that are trailered, this is not a problem. for those that are slipped, it can be. different paint manufacturers have different guidelines as to how many coat (or coats) of their product to apply. a barrier coat is usually a 2 part paint/epoxy mix that is very thick to apply. it can be thinned so it rolls easily, but then additional coats are usually required. once thinned, it evaporates FAST, so be careful if you do it yourself because thinning it and leaving it in a pan for too long will mean lots of expensive paint disappearing into thin air (literally). i barrier coated my 26 ft boat after scraping and sanding the hull down. it wasn't that difficult, but it was very messy.
 
1986 Silverton 34 footer. Bottom blasted, barrier coating applied, two coats of VC Offshore applied. Cost me $4000.
 
Ductboy,

Find out if you have vinylester just under the gelcoat. If you do, no additional barrier coat is required.

Tom
 
The Interlux paint site has good instructions for their epoxy barrier paint.

5 coats for 10mil they recommend. Prep is critical. Spraying will use a lot more paint at $70-80 a gallon. One gallon rolled on for my 32 for each coat.

Then the first coat of anti fouling paint must bond to the last coat of epoxy barrier. Must be applied within a certain time frme.
 
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