Do you roll or brush?

[Bad Obsession]

When you put the bottom paint on your boat do you roll the paint or do you brush it? I have seen both methods used and I know that when you roll you have to do a little brush work too. What size brush or roller do you use?Is it possible to use a power painter to do a bottom job?I brushed mine last time with a large brush but it took a while to do one coat. I am thinking about rolling it this year.

 

[Terry Cox]

I get very good results with the high density ...

one inch rollers from HD. I sand the hull using the material that looks like window screen on a plastic swivel painter's pad that screws onto a painter's pole works great to prep the hull before applying the paint. I always apply three coats of ablative and it's been four years since the last job. My diver says I'm good for another season.Terry

 

[FrankR3878]

I roll

I use a regular good quality 1/4 or 3/8 paint roller. The real cheap ones seem to start shedding fuzz near the end of a gallon. I use a cheap brush to get at some of the rudder nooks and crannies. As for spraying - if you can contain the overspray/mist it would probably be OK.

 

[MoonSailer]

roll

used roller can be placed in freezer wrapped in plastic and reused.

 

[Jim Seamans]

Just ROLLED my Saturday

Easy as pie..Use a painters handle that you can adjust out while rolling. then you can stand out from under the hull to paint. Roll everything you can then use the brush. Just don't stand up to fast or you will have colored hair, clothes.. etc.

 

[Ian McGain]

another tip

I pour my bottom paint into a five gallon bucket, as it always takes more than one gallon to paint the bottom. I use a mud mixer (used for wall joint compound- available at Home Depot/Lowes) to mix the paint on site with a drill. Add screen that hangs inside 5 gallon bucket (also sold at Home Depot and Lowes) and you are ready to go. Roll with paint stick. Just make sure you don't back-up and kick the bucket. New laws suggest a drop-cloth under your boat. If you use the window screen suggested in the above post to sand ( this is used to smooth wall joint compound on dry wall) they have a fitting that you can fit to a shop vac to knock down the dust.

 

[RichH]

I prefer a smooth bottom paint job.

I perceive it makes ablative last much longer and the smoothness more easily releases slime, etc. I first roll-on a layer using a WEST system foam roller and let cure (a few days). Then I take a palm or larger vibratory sander and knock all the peaks of the roller application FLAT ... just the 'tops' of the peaks. Then using a small roller and polyethylene trowel, I apply 'stripes' ( 2-3 ft. wide) of paint and spread it FLAT using the flattened peaks as a 'form' for the trowel to float as it fairs the paint into the 'valleys'. between each stripe I leave a 1 ft. 'dry area'. Allow to dry/cure then go back in and fill-in where the first set of stripes 'wasnt', then Let cure. Then at a 45 degree angle to the first set of stipes, I continue applying stripes, etc. until all is FLAT and faired. In the 2nd and 3rd years I just trowel-on the stripes. This is the way that one applies epoxy to a male plug mold. The result is a hull bottom that is babies-ass smooth. The hull is then FAST and very good for 'light wind' sailing.

 

[Warren Milberg]

A friend of mine used to

bottom paint his H25 with a 4-in brush. I was painting my somewhat longer H28.5 at the same time, using a 1/4" roller. It took me about a half hour to tape the waterline, and about 20-min or less per side to paint each side and the keel. I used a throw-away chip brush to paint up around the shaft log and knotmeter impeller. I was done in less than an hour and half. I then walked over to my friend with H25. He was on his back, with paint dripping in his face, still painting the first side of his boat....BTW, I use a 1/4" roller rather than the recommended 3/8" roller as I only put on one thin coat of ablative each season. One thin coat works very well for me in the moderate fouling area of the bay where my boat lives.

 

[nick]

DIY Spraying

Does anyone know why you can't just go and hire a compressor and spray gun and put on International Micron? International claim it should ony be done by professionals.

 

[Ernie]

Why not to spray

I imagine most marinas have become as "eco-aware" as mine. I've found that the new regulations are so strict, they almost dictate that you have your yard do it for you. There are all kinds of restrictions about using "dust free" sanders, having plenty of ground cover (tarps), and just generally keeping all traces of bottom paint (new or old) off the ground. Don't get me wrong, I'm concerned about the environment too, but sometimes they drift into overkill.Anyway, back to spraying. You could probably do it yourself, but there are a few caveats. 1. Bottom paint is awfully thick to spray, although you can thin it out. 2. More than probably any other kind of paint, bottom paint is very toxic. That's how it works! So, you would most likely have to not only protect the ground, but you'd would also have to build a "tent" around the boat to prevent overspray. Just for giggles, check out your intentions with the yardmaster. But be prepared to be read the riot act about polluting the environment. Actually, if you saw the fines they face for polluting, you might better understand why they don't want just anybody doing this work.

 

[filthy liberal scum]

I used to spray my bottom paint on!!!!!

there is only one way to spray bottom paint on and that is with an ---AIRLESS-- sprayer. if you use a compressed air sprayer the paint has to be really thinned down and the resulant spray will be very fine particals and will drift everywhere and on to other boats nearby and you'll be paying for their cleanup. plus you would be wasting most of your paint that would be drifting away in the air. there is no lose of paint with the airless and overspray is only a couple of inches from where you are aiming the gun. i found it is a very good way to apply paint if it is going to be wet sanded later to prep for racing, as it requires very little sanding to get a a surface that is as smooth as a babies bottom.use a compressed air gun and be prepared to clean up a lot of other boats with the drift.P.S. if you've ever been in an auto paint shop and seen the cloud resulant from air sprayers you would understand what i mean.S/V Que Pasa?

 

[Lou 14643]

Help with the prep side of the equation

I always wonder when I'm sanding (using a random orbit sander with vac attached) how much of the good paint I'm needlessly removing. I use a multi-season ablative paint for my 27' boat. I get two coats plus extra at waterline, leading edge of keel and rudder from one gallon. I wonder when I'm seeing what looks like clean, tight paint if I need to sand it at all. Areas under where slings were when my boat yard operater pressure washed the hull at haulout clearly need cleaning, as does the sometimes scummy waterline, but the rest of the bottom looks pretty good. I'd appreciate thoughts.

 

[Rich (P303)]

Roll...roll... roll...

your boat. Any short napped roller will work.If you are the racing type... you might want to do what RichH suggests.I wouldn't consider spraying. Some of that bottom paint is pretty nasty stuff... you wouldn't want to thin it down to get it out of the sprayer. It will probably end up on what you don't want it on too. After it is all prepped and taped at the water line... I can roll my 30' in about 1 1/2 hours. Wear a respirator.

 

[filthy liberal scum]

lou and rich

lou, i would only just kiss sand to remove any stuff the power washer missed. other than that just enough to get a clean bottom. there's no reason to remove perfectly good paint, especially at $100 plus a gallon.rich, granted a short knapp roller will work fine, but it takes a lot more work to sand it out for a racing bottom. i found it also takes a lot more paint to do it that way. when i was racing i used to use vc offshore at $140/gallon, i always wanted to make sure that every drop of paint i put on the bottom was'nt wasted. with the airless sprayer method,then wet sanding with progressive 220 to 400 and finish with 600grit i had a mirror finish bottom that lasted me the season with no problems. i only needed 3 qts of paint to do my O'Day 30 S/V Que Pasa?

 

[RichH]

Cpn Jim .....

Sure, spraying is a great way to do this but my marina keeps its dry stored boats so close that the risk of overspray onto them is just too much. With rolling and troweling I can get close to the surface finish of a spray job. Many years ago at my present marina we had a boatowner who sprayed on Baltoplate under tarps .... during the spraying the tarps lifted and the overspray drifted downwind and landed on several boats.

 

[filthy liberal scum]

rich, my point was!!!!!!

with the airless there is no overspray. the paint partical drops are too large to drift. when i mask off the boot stripe i use 3" wide tape above the 3/4" and never get any overspray on the hull of my own boat. airless is the key.