Marine Soda Blasting

Many boat owners let the marina/shipyard decide on cleaning and repainting boat bottoms simply because there haven't been many options to choose from. Conventional methods of bottom actually might be damaging to their hull—scraping the marine growth and excessive sanding ruins the protective gel coat.

Once the gel coat is damaged, water can get between the coating and the fiberglass. It then begins to cause blisters, fractures, and delamination of the gelcoat. The original gel coat is smooth in texture and serves as a protective barrier of the underlying fiberglass. A quick coat of bottom paint and the owner is totally unaware of the condition of his hull because of the cosmetic effect of the fresh paint.

Most boat bottoms have never been completely stripped simply because it is costly and very labor-intensive using conventional methods. So bottom paint has been applied year after year. After a point all that is left is layered coats of peeling paint and gelcoat failure—not such a pretty sight, but most important the hull integrity is diminished and the loss of boat operating performance due to a rough bottom surface and the added weight of water that has been wicked into the fiberglass.

Soda Blasting can repair these blisters in the gel coat, as well as strip the paint so that the gel coat can be inspected and treated.