Removing Bottom Paint with a pressure washer?

[jpallen01]

I have an Oday 240 I picked up last year. Stripping the antifoul and barrier coat is on my list of to dos. I picked up the pressure washer yesterday and started to clean the bottom down and noticed I was able to power off much of the painted surface. It seems to be down to the gel coat. The surface left is just slightly discolored from the black bottom paint but that's about it. I'm guessing the bottom wasn't properly painted in the first place.

Does anyone have a similar experience or thoughts on if this is a bad thing for me to be doing? It seems all I'll have left is a light sanding to prep for painting on the barrier coat and then antifoul. Can it be that easy?

 

[Tim R.]

You should be fine. Gelcoat is fairly hard. Just make sure you keep the tip adjusted to a fan pattern and not a spout. Also do not get closer than 18 inches and keep moving.

It sounds like the boat was painted before removing all of the mold release wax if the paint comes off that easily.

 

[blue noser]

hi, i just did my mak 25 with my friends pressure washer, save me a pile of work, just do like tim said and its so much easier, now i have to buy one lol, its the only way to go

wade

 

[sailingdog]

Tim—

It is more likely that the boat was painted with an ablative paint. A pressure washer, properly used, will strip ablative paint like nothing else.. A pressure washer won't even annoy, much less remove, a hard epoxy paint if the surface was properly prepped.

 

[Roy10289]

I'm a little confused. If pressure washing works so well to remove bottom paint,then why do people have the bottoms sand or soda blasted at a much greater cost? Will a pressure washer take off multiple coats of ablative paint leacing just a smooth gelcoat again ready for barrier coat or new antifouling paint?

 

[jsalley]

I'm a little confused. If pressure washing works so well to remove bottom paint,then why do people have the bottoms sand or soda blasted at a much greater cost? Will a pressure washer take off multiple coats of ablative paint leacing just a smooth gelcoat again ready for barrier coat or new antifouling paint?

Pressure washing should only remove ablative pain, assuming other types of paints are applied properly to correctly prepped surfaces. My question - has anyone pressure washed a bottom that has previously been barrier coated? It should be OK, but I'd just like to know that someone else has done it successfully before I try it next season.

 

[sailingdog]

As I said... a hard epoxy paint on a properly prepared hull will laugh at a pressure washer... A pressure washer will generally take off loose or badly adhered hard paints, and ablative ones...but not a good layer of hard epoxy paint.

I'm a little confused. If pressure washing works so well to remove bottom paint,then why do people have the bottoms sand or soda blasted at a much greater cost? Will a pressure washer take off multiple coats of ablative paint leacing just a smooth gelcoat again ready for barrier coat or new antifouling paint?

 

[Steve Dion]

When you power washed the bottom, where did all the old paint go?