Hull Moisture?????????

[Guest]

I love these threads .....

I generally stay out of them ..... but this one caught my "keyboard" .....

The guy has mentioned "tenting" a boat and hasn't mentioned anything about preparation before or what will happen after ..... BUT it is assumed that the "tenting" is all that has been done ....

I would like to ask .... was anything done prior to this - eg Washing down to remove solvents / glycols etc. ?? We could go on of course but for what ??

 

[fisherman]

OK, I am told that steam cleaning is also advisable to get rid of contaminants. Would you skip the dehumidifier altogether? A boat like mine is going to have several tons of water in the hull
after thirty years afloat.
The case I quote was of a hull drying in the area needing repair, but also would be for a stripped hull prior to re coating with epoxy.

 

[Guest]

Steam cleaning ....

That is fine and actually could remove stuff better than just plain power-wash ...

I was interested in anothers Steam applied at pressure - unless he meant Steam Clean ?

 

[fisherman]

Re: Steam cleaning ....

I read years ago that the first Arun class lifeboats after a while in service were losing speed, and were found to be up to 3.5 tons overweight due to absorption.

 

[Guest]

Water take up ....

The amount can be far more than you realise ..... but 3.5 ton is a lot - that is 3500 litres ..... approx.

 

[Ben_e_Toe]

Re: Water take up ....

No expert, but from my limited knowledge there seems to be some confusion in this post between moisture in the form of absorbed water and glycol products created within the hull from osmosis. In my limited understanding, the former can be removed by drying/dehumidification, but the latter must be removed by gel peeling and hot vacing or hot pressure cleaning etc.

However, either way, both would have to be removed before epoxy coating.......

 

[Guest]

Glycol products formed ??

Glycol products are a result of poor lay-up, not formed later.

Water absorption is literally a factor of glycol / esters / capillary action etc. being present and drawing the water in ....

So as I see it no confusion ............