Solo Blacking

[AlexK91]

Hi All

Just wondering has anyone tackled blacking by themselves. I have a 36ft narrowboat. And it's first time in blAcking it but only going to have help for the first two days. Pressure washing and first coat. Has anyone done it by themselves before. And do you think a week would be enough. 

Thanks 

[BWM]

You will be fine, just make sure that the pressure washer is a beast as a weak one will leave lots of crud behind.

[AlexK91]

12 minutes ago, BWM said:

You will be fine, just make sure that the pressure washer is a beast as a weak one will leave lots of crud behind.

I've been told the one there is really powerful and needs two people as really tiring.

Thanks

[Jen-in-Wellies]

Solo blacking is fine. I can put a coat on my 57' boat in a morning, leaving the rest of the day free before putting the next coat on the next day. Persuading others to help is more difficult and it is hard to make a blacking party fun. Easiest is a you help me and I'll help you arrangement with another boat owner.

Jen

[BWM]

Powerful is good, i've never come across one that required two man operation though. A decent  pressure washer will save lots of time, you may need a decent scraper for rough areas - some recommend using a powered wire brush but I have never managed to achieve anything with one, unless working on bare metal.

 Another thing to bear in mind is to wrap up well, because all that dry bitumen returns to a more liquid state when in contact with your skin! And it burns..

[GUMPY]

37ft that's kids play.

At 60 I was blacking a 61x11'6 barge on my own so 37ft should be a doddle. in a couple of months I will be doing our 60ft NB on my own and I'm 65.

[dor]

We have just done three coats on our 57 footer.  Two of us, using 4" emulsion brushes (a couple of quid from Screwfix), put on a full coat in two and a half hours.  If you have a week, then it is good to leave it a day between coats.

The brushes are effectively disposable, but if you wrap them well in cling film they stay usable for a couple of days.   Don't forget to do inside the weedhatch!

[AlexK91]

1 hour ago, Loddon said:

37ft that's kids play.

At 60 I was blacking a 61x11'6 barge on my own so 37ft should be a doddle. in a couple of months I will be doing our 60ft NB on my own and I'm 65.

 Brilliant. Ok I'm much happier now  I've never done anything like this before and suddenly thought is this actually doable. 

[AlexK91]

1 hour ago, dor said:

We have just done three coats on our 57 footer.  Two of us, using 4" emulsion brushes (a couple of quid from Screwfix), put on a full coat in two and a half hours.  If you have a week, then it is good to leave it a day between coats.

The brushes are effectively disposable, but if you wrap them well in cling film they stay usable for a couple of days.   Don't forget to do inside the weedhatch!

Thanks...I got some paint brushes cheap on eBay large ones think thier for emulsion. Ok awesome so should manage a coat in a couple hours alone then. That's a good idea with cling film thanks. 

Yes I been told about that I'll definitely remember to do that. 

2 hours ago, BWM said:

Powerful is good, i've never come across one that required two man operation though. A decent  pressure washer will save lots of time, you may need a decent scraper for rough areas - some recommend using a powered wire brush but I have never managed to achieve anything with one, unless working on bare metal.

 Another thing to bear in mind is to wrap up well, because all that dry bitumen returns to a more liquid state when in contact with your skin! And it burns..

Not two man operation as such. Only one person uses it but been told it takes its toll on you quickly as it's rather powerful. So handy to have someone to take over if needed. 

[Sea Dog]

1 hour ago, dor said:

Don't forget to do inside the weedhatch!

And if you have a bow thruster, go inside the tube and it's weedhatch too - only wait til it gets dark, then no-one will know.

[Jen-in-Wellies]

4 minutes ago, Sea Dog said:

And if you have a bow thruster, go inside the tube and it's weedhatch too - only wait til it gets dark, then no-one will know.

Don't black the anodes though!

[dor]

4 minutes ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:

Don't black the anodes though!

But they last a lot longer if you do...

[system 4-50]

I took a month over two-packing my 60ft narrowboat, 3 coats. I'm slow, and I don't paint when the weather is bad, and the stuff I used specified a week before return to the water. I will find out next year (that will be 4 years) whether I did a good job.  I'm nearly 70. I used hundreds of latex gloves and I managed not to get any paint in my hair.

[Slim]

Well, at 70 I power washed my 55' a couple of weeks ago in an afternoon. Had help with the blacking for the first time. It was well worth it!!

18 months ago I power washed, scarified the whole hull back to metal and put 2-3 coats of blacking on in a week. Nearly killed myself That was when I realiised  I'm getting on. 

   

Edited May 3, 2017 by Slim

[Bloomsberry]

2 hours ago, system 4-50 said:

I took a month over two-packing my 60ft narrowboat, 3 coats. I'm slow, and I don't paint when the weather is bad, and the stuff I used specified a week before return to the water. I will find out next year (that will be 4 years) whether I did a good job.  I'm nearly 70. I used hundreds of latex gloves and I managed not to get any paint in my hair.

I used international interzone last year and this can cure underwater, it's used to treat offshore oil rig legs between tides apparently.

 

9 months on and it's still intact (more than the usual bitumen ever lasted on my boat)

[Sea Dog]

55 minutes ago, Bloomsberry said:

I used international interzone last year and this can cure underwater, it's used to treat offshore oil rig legs between tides apparently.

 

9 months on and it's still intact (more than the usual bitumen ever lasted on my boat)

What level of prep did you carry out?

I've always thought stuff cleverly formulated to be used to represerve metalwork in a marine splash zone can't possibly be getting the level of prep quoted as essential for 2 pack used in Narrowboats. Surely such marine applications can't get hugely better prep than achieved by a high power pressure wash and scrapers? 

[ditchcrawler]

1 hour ago, Bloomsberry said:

I used international interzone last year and this can cure underwater, it's used to treat offshore oil rig legs between tides apparently.

 

9 months on and it's still intact (more than the usual bitumen ever lasted on my boat)

We use to blast down and then spray it on a calm summers day. In the actual tidal zone we used an epoxy like putty, the painters put it on with their hands like mud pies. The also coated the toes of their boots when the caps wore down to steel.

[David Mack]

6 hours ago, dor said:

 

The brushes are effectively disposable, but if you wrap them well in cling film they stay usable for a couple of days.  

Or simply leave them in water overnight, and just shake them out before using again.

[Bloomsberry]

3 hours ago, Sea Dog said:

What level of prep did you carry out?

I've always thought stuff cleverly formulated to be used to represerve metalwork in a marine splash zone can't possibly be getting the level of prep quoted as essential for 2 pack used in Narrowboats. Surely such marine applications can't get hugely better prep than achieved by a high power pressure wash and scrapers? 

Gritblasting is not allowed where I am moored so I had to do the prep by hand. I used a rotary tool in a drill called a Terco Blaster which is supposed to produce a finish like gritblasting. It is very time consuming so I concentrated on the vunerable areas ie. waterline, pitted areas then welding seams. Managed to treat them all but it took about 6 hours all in all (and it's only a 40ft boat).9 months on and there's no rust at the waterline and the blacking is still intact but only time will tell. I'll get the boat out again next year and see how it has performed and treat any areas showing signs of deterioration or not treated the first time.

Not sure if this level of prep is necessary, I don't think the oil rig legs get this much treatment.

Edit - just to add I've had the boat blacked using bitumen 3 times and each time there was clear rust at the waterline in under a year. I'm moored in a marina environment with lots of boats around me.

Edited May 3, 2017 by Bloomsberry

[bizzard]

I don't think keep taking a boat out of the water too regularly does an unpainted base plate any good. It will let the fresh air, oxygen get to it and accelerate the rusting. A jar of jam will go bad if you leave the lid off and let the fresh air in.    I'm searching for ways to survive without breathing that bloomin fresh air.

[Sea Dog]

16 minutes ago, Bloomsberry said:

 

Not sure if this level of prep is necessary, I don't think the oil rig legs get this much treatment.

 

International say "May be applied to reoxidized and slightly damp surfaces" which certainly beg the question!

Thanks for the update - do report again when you next haul her out.

[Bloomsberry]

15 minutes ago, Sea Dog said:

International say "May be applied to reoxidized and slightly damp surfaces" which certainly beg the question!

Thanks for the update - do report again when you next haul her out.

I did read where a dock stopped using interzone as it was getting bad results. It does beg the question that if interzone is designed to treat oil rig legs between tides but the dock can't get it to stick to bare metal in a dry dock then maybe the dock are doing something wrong.

 

[nb Innisfree]

Recently I singlehandedly pressure washed and blacked a 80 wide beam in 3 days, 3 coats and I'm 98.

[Sea Dog]

6 hours ago, nb Innisfree said:

Recently I singlehandedly pressure washed and blacked a 80 wide beam in 3 days, 3 coats and I'm 98.

In t'old days, when we used to black t'boats with t'wallpaper paste and t'brown paper, it would take me 2 days to do our dad's 100' canal trawler - and I were only 7 and it were in t'winter when we only 'ad 3 hours o daylight cos o bloomin' Tory daylight restrictions! Our mam used to skelp me wi t'long shaft tellin' me if I were any slower, all t'village kids would die o rickets due to t'shortage of gudgeon while t'boat werent out trawling on t'huddersfield, which were much wider in them days. You tell the kids of today that...

[Tim Lewis]

19 hours ago, AlexK91 said:

Hi All

Just wondering has anyone tackled blacking by themselves. I have a 36ft narrowboat. And it's first time in blAcking it but only going to have help for the first two days. Pressure washing and first coat. Has anyone done it by themselves before. And do you think a week would be enough. 

Thanks 

The hardest bit is the preparation which it appears is when you have the help. Make sure that you remove any existing loose paint and that any rusty areas are wire brushed   After that it is mainly waiting as it only takes a couple of hours to black a boat your size

Tim