Boat Cleaning

B

bholcombe

New member
i have the oppertunity to clean boats. i have a hot water system. my question is if i should use chem or not? if so which type is environmentally safe and would clean the boats top and bottom...
 
In Australia our company cleans all our Navy vessels with & without hot water. We also use the Armex/Wadu system from Church & Dwight which we have used since the early 1990's. The substrates that we clean range from fibreglass, steel, stainless steel to aluminium.

Regards,

Steve Wilson
Blast It Clean It Paint It P/L
Australia
 
Barnacles

What do you reccomend to remove bad barnacle build up on 50 ft fiber glass? Just water and pressure?
 
I have a friend in the Keys that owned a boat dealership. He said they ether have divers do it (really expensive) or dry dock them for a few weeks to dry. Then PW the shells off, scrape and finally acid wash. Then apply good bottom paint. A lot of work no matter how you look at it.
 
Never cleaned a boat or ever even considered it. I have reupholstered and recarpeted more than I care to remember.
 
Not unless you use a lot of pressure and a 0 degree tip. The drive up car washes use about 1,200 psi and lot of Corvette owners use them. A 50' boat has a very thick hull and the gel coat is designed to withstand a PW.

I've PW tons of boats but none with barnacles just Zebra mussels.
 
IndyExterior said:
Not unless you use a lot of pressure and a 0 degree tip. The drive up car washes use about 1,200 psi and lot of Corvette owners use them. A 50' boat has a very thick hull and the gel coat is designed to withstand a PW.

I've PW tons of boats but none with barnacles.
Click to expand...

I learn something new everyday, I dont wash boats at all, I was just assuming, I have a small Boston Whaler flat bottom boat, it is made out of fiberglass and every time i run up on rocks it gets gouged so I figured a wand would possibley do it too.
 
Barnacles are tough done a few boats here but only with minor small barnacles on them. the best way is to scrape them off them PW with low pressure. then you have to use a hull cleaner then add a wax for gel coat and buff it on. alot more work that what i thought before i got in to it. but they were happy and now i say no to boats.:winknudge:
 
I thought about getting into boat cleaning.

I know a lady that used to scrape them when they were dry-docked. She made good money doing them that way but sure was messy and a lot of hard work, sure kept her in great shape! Not sure what she would do after the scraping but she always had a lot of work.

I was warned also about the gel coat, to not use much pressure on it or you can damage it.

I would look into it if I could get a good system of cleaning them but not too many calls for it.
 
If you lived near a marina I'm sure you could get all the work you want if you had a system. The service depts usually hate that kind of stuff.
 
After you get the Barnacles off. You might try Starbrite's Hull Cleaner. I use it on my boat and the water scum line and stains just wipe right off.
 
IndyExterior said:
I have a friend in the Keys that owned a boat dealership. He said they ether have divers do it (really expensive) or dry dock them for a few weeks to dry. Then PW the shells off, scrape and finally acid wash. Then apply good bottom paint. A lot of work no matter how you look at it.
Click to expand...

its actually cheaper to leave the boat in the water than dry dock it. that's how i got started( in the marinas). we still do some but there are a lot of lowballers doing this to good luck
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top