Maryland Boat Painter In Annapolis and Kent Island

Maryland

Boat Painter


Painting Boats Since 2001

Maryland boat painter

Awlgrip Boat Painting

How to paint a boat:

  1. Acquire necessary equipment and supplies.
  2. Remove damaged, flaking, or deteriorated existing coating
  3. Perform repairs and fairing where necessary
  4. Prep, sand, clean, and tape the area to be painted
  5. Apply Primer. Sand and clean.
  6. Apply paint.

More Boat Painting

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Boat Paint Repair

About Boat Painting

  • Boat paint isn't house paint. As one of the few boat painters in the state of Maryland in the early 2000s, I've responded to a substantial amount of inqueries about my boat painting services. During many of these estimates, I've listened to the client compare boat painting to house painting. I respond by explaining that boat painting is much more similar to car painting. House paints are soft, latex, low-luster, thick coatings that will stick to any surface and cleanup with water. Modern house paints are non-toxic, low cost, and easy to use. Marine paints are hard, thin, high luster coatings that require substantial amounts of prep and and priming to adhere well. High quality boat paints are toxic, not cheap, require expensive equipment, and expensive solvents for thinning and cleanup. The low-luster nature of house paints hides dents, dings, and imperfections in surfaces. High-luster boat paints amplify flaws in a surface. Flattening agents can reduce the lust of boat paints at the cost of decreasing longevity and corrosion resistance. High quality high luster boat paints reflect the sun, reducing the heating of surfaces, and reduces the coefficient of thermal expansion that material endure as they increase and decrease in temperature. Less expansion and contraction results in a longer life for marine substrates as well as protective coatings. High luster paints are harder and less porous at a molecular level and are resitant to the corrosive elements in rivers, lakes, bays, and oceans.
  • Boat paints are like car paints. High quality marine topside paints are urethanes and high quality automobile paints are urethanes. The difference between car urethane paints and marine urethane paints is that the clearcoat and basecoat is combined in marine paints while it is seperated in car paints. The basecoat and clearcoat paint stages are combined for marine paints because boats have more surface area to paint than cars and the surfaces are more compicated. For these reasons, it takes much longer to apply a coat of paint to a boat than it does to a car. The seperate basecoat/clearcoat automobile paint systems require fast recoating process. Basecoat/clearcoat systems require mulitple coats applied in less than 5 minutes apart. It is possible to easily apply a coat of paint to a whole car in 5 minutes. Most vehicles consist of a few flat or slighly curved surfaces that are only a few feet across. Boats, on the other hand, consist of a large exterior hull, as well as a topside with complex topology. Marine paints allow for about 45 miniutes of time in between coats. This gives the painter time to apply a coat all the way around a large hull or around the complex surfaces of topsides.
  • Boat paint amplifies flaws. The high luster nature of marine and automobile paints amplifies flaws in the substrate. Small dings, dents, and cracks that aren't noticable initially may become much more noticable after application of a high luster coating. It can take substantial amounts of labor hours to prepare surfaces for marine or auto paint applicaion. Every little chip, ding, dent, and crack must be repaired or filled to prepare for a high quality coating. After that, mulitple coats of primer are applied. Epoxy primer is best for marine coatings due to its moisture resistance and flexibility. Sometimes more small imperfections become noticable after applying primer. Only once all the flaws are fixed and the surface is covered with cured, sanded, and cleaned primer, should paint be applied. Most marine paints can be applied by rolling and tipping or by spraying. Both methods have advantages and disadvantages. High quality results can be achieved using both methods. Spraying paint requires finely tuned expensive equipment including sprayers, air compressors, filters, hoses, protective equipment, and masking supplies to protect the surrounding vessel from overspray. The primary advantage of spraying is that all coats can be applied in one day without sanding in between. Rolling and tipping (rolling and brushing) requires little more eqipment than a paint roller and brush and nearby surfaces are not threatened by overspray. Paint application by roller and brush takes more time because the paint must be applied one coat at a time. Each coat must be alllowed to cure, sanded, and cleaned in preparation for the next coat. Application by brush and roller can be the only option in many locations where sprainying is not allowed due to environment restrictions or the danger of property damage from overspray. High quality results can be acheived using either application method.
  • Boat painting costs. Boat painting is usually not a low cost endeavor due the amount of skilled labor hours it takes to produce high quality results. I recommend purchasing high quality products for a boat painting project because the cost of high quality supplies is usually much less than the cost of labor for the project wether low or high quality supplies are used. Necessary supplies will often include: paint, primer, protective equipment, taping materials, mixing equipment, sanding equipment, and rollers and brushes or spray equipment. There are a variety of options for every supplies item and most of the time you get what you pay for. Do not expect high quality results when using low cost supplies. Over the years I've used most of the brands of supplies and I know what works and what doesn't. While I caution against using low cost suppies, a high price doesn't gaurantee high quality results either. The unfortunate truth is that the only way to find the best brush for a project is to have experience using all the brushes.
  • My boat painting services. While I'm currently too busy with a full time IT career and raising young children to take on large boat painting projects, I find time to do some small repairs and consulting about boat painting from time to time. I had some success in boat painting projects in the past, but the climate in Maryland is not ideal for the pursuit of boat painting as a full time profession. Boat paints cure well in a dry environment with temperatures between 60 - 90 degrees Farenheight. In Maryland, it gets too cold at night for proper paint curing for half of the year, is too hot to comfortably work outside for about a fourth of the year, rain isn't rare, and dew often coats boats at night with cure inhibiting moisture. Painting boats indoors is feasible, but I decided to not spend my time in buildings with toxic paint fumes. I'm experienced in performing repairs on Awlgrip, Awlcraft, and Imron marine paints. I offer high quality boat paint repair services for some types of marine paints.

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