July 27th, 2010 by bbergman

The underside of the boat must be tight and smooth to enable the watercraft to float sufficiently; the boat bottom also needs to be strong and to ensure that fiberglass repair is effective.

A boat gliding across the water at 25 to 30 miles per hour and hitting waves spaced every few feet will create significant pressure on the boat bottom and causes vibration to travel through the fiberglass. You also want to make sure the gelcoat remains strong during the cleaning and restoring process.

Damage to boats can include gouges to the fiberglass caused by scrapes against rocks, debris, obstructions in the water, trailers from when the boats are removed and replaced and collisions.

Even leaving the boat in the water for long periods of time with little or no attention and maintenance can lead to a boat developing gelcoat damage and blisters.

Repairing broken fiberglass and damaged gelcoat along with restoring a boat hull by hand is a long and tedious process that can take several people multiple days to complete.

Tasks include sanding, buffing, glossing, blending, smoothing and painting. That’s why more people prefer sodablasting over any other solution available. Imagine calling someone out to do all this work in one or two days max while you focus on your specialty areas, whether it’s customer service, marketing, building boats, meeting with clients and more.

Soda blasting frees you up to focus on what you’re good at, but also makes your workers available for other jobs as well. You will quickly discover the cost and times savings by hiring a certified contractor to handle the job for you.

If you need to repaint the boat, you will also need to make sure you match the new colors up with existing colors for a decent – ideally, perfect – finish.

July 16th, 2010 by bbergman

SodaBlast Systems™ revamped its boat website and launched added several new features to www.SodaBlastBoats.com.

The new website provides resources, tips, advice and links for marine industry professionals, boat owners and restoration experts on green cleaning.

Get information on boat hull cleaning, tips on how to remove blisters without harming the gelcoat and locate a certified sodablaster.

SodaBlasting is a process that involves a network of certified, specially-trained, independent Preferred Contractors who rely on mobile equipment to do the job on-site. They install the plastic tenting around the boat, perform the SodaBlasting and then wrap up the paint and other residue for disposal.

Boat professionals and restoration experts prefer sodablasting because it saves time and money cleaning and sanitizing without using harsh chemicals. The new website also has information about how damaging it is to the hull or gelcoat when you use the wrong cleaning methods.

Sodablasting is ideal for the marine industry:

• Marine Industry for:
• Boat Buyers Inspections
• Hull Preparation
• Paint & Antifoulant Stripping
• Gelcoat Safe Stripping
• Hull Blister Preparation
• Eco-Friendly Hull Stripping

The website includes an interactive area that allows users to view the cleaning process and leave feedback for company officials.

November 11th, 2008 by jacobg

BlueSkyNews is a boating newsletter based in San Diego, California. They have a monthly column with good ways for boaters to go green. This month they featured a story about a family owned business called Advanced Restoration, who uses a SodaBlast Systems blaster. “This creative company strips the bottom paint from boats using a non-toxic environmentally safe food grade product - ordinary baking soda. The baking soda they use is USDA/FDA/OSHA Approved.”

The company uses our Soda Blaster Mobile 200 system, which reportedly is much more efficient than traditional methods. “They can remove paint in 1/10 of the time that it takes for traditional chemical or sanding solutions without damaging the thin gelcoat, which in return saves the consumer time and money in dry dock.” The writer of the article has seen the work in person and also says “It reduces a hard labor intensive dirty job to a quick and clean one.” To see the full article on BlueSkyNews click here.

Get more information on boat hull maintenance at SodaBlastBoats.com

July 22nd, 2008 by SB Editor

Repainting a boat can be a very time consuming labor for the do-it-yourselfer, or hard on the wallet to get it done professionally. We’re talking thousands of dollars for a small boat. But to protect your investment, you can’t really afford not to do the proper hull maintenance.

Thanks to advancing technology it is possible to strip and prepare your boat hull for painting more efficiently than ever before. SodaBlast Systems has come up with a more economically friendly way to prepare boats for bottom painting. The SodaBlast Systems method is not unlike sandblasting, the main difference being that sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) is used as the blasting media rather than sand.

Baking soda is environmentally friendly, rinses away easily and dissolves in water. Not only does the SodaBlast method remove paint, but it also safely strips away marine growth. It does not harm non-blistered gelcoat, but can be used to open blisters in gelcoat and prepare them for repair. SodaBlastSystems has specialized contractors all over the world, which can be located at one of their websites.

On the other hand SodaBlast Systems also has great opportunities for those who want to start a business. For more information go to SodaBlastBoats.com