DeFoul Anti Fouling Paint Remover

[DRS]

Has anyone one had any experience with this spray on anti fouling remover? They were at the Vancouver boat show and the guy is coming out to give me an estimate to do mine on Monday. Just wondering if anybody knows the product and or results.

Here's a youtube link for what its worth

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blBOYTe05po

[DRS]

Alright so I posted and no one replied. I guess I have to be the test pilot.

I accepted their proposal and decided to give it a try. The boat is a year 2000 and I suspect it has never had the bottom cleaned down to the barrier coat so there were probably 10 coats of antifoul on there. It took 2 over night applications with a pressure wash after each (Longer than normal the supplier claims due to the tempuratures we had, including frost one night). The pictures attached tell the story. Beats the crap out of scraping and sanding for days.

Obligatory disclaimer - I have no interest in this company or product other than that of a satisfied customer

[knottygurl]

thats pretty cool, and what was it that they sprayed on the boat, and a ball park costing if you dont mind
Cheers
Bill

[sailorboy1]

I can not even figure out what the product is for this tread! So what is it, what's it's name.

[DRS]

Product is called DeFoul Anti Foul paint remover. The initial post did show a video of it earlier. It appears not to be working now. Maker is Protocol Environmental Solutions Inc.

Heres a link to their web site

Marine Products

[ncarter]

I did not see a link at their website for distributors of the product or any reference to the actual cost. After they quote the job, please post the results.

[Jim Cate]

So, DRS... Your results look really good.

Now, the important thing that you still have not told us is how much did it cost to have it done? Come on and let us know... it puts the whole process in fiscal perspective.

Cheers,
Jim

[DRS]

About $2000 to do a 38 foot cat. I have know idea what it would cost for anyone else's boat

Click on the blue "Marine Products" in my previous post and it should take you to the web site

[skizzm]

I found the video again on YouTube. It is back up. You should check it out if you haven't yet. I am also hearing that there is possibly some insurance fine print on some boats. If you have more than 7 coats of antifouling, your insurance provider may not insure you. Thinking I would use this before I decided to sand.

[DRS]

I am not aware of any insurance issues. My intent was to see the bottom of the boat as I purchased it 2 years ago and although surveyed I still wanted to see what she looked like down to the barrier coat and to confirm one if fact existed. As it was I was able to see a couple of areas that had been previously worked on (thru hulls removed).
The DeFoul product was pretty slick. Sure saved a ton of scrapping and sanding

[raphaella]

In my personal opinion, anything that can just desolve antifouling and do a good job is just too STRONG for the gelcoat, better use sandblast method with baby powder or sponge particles, look at links on google, you'll be surprised, or like we did, scrape and sand, ok we'll never scrape and sand again, but gelcoat is still in perfect condition as new.

[Tricia]

I just finished stripping the bottom of my boat with DeFoul. The company was great to work with. Unfortunately I was in a yard that didn't allow pressure washing. I had 10-15 coats to strip. We applied the DeFoul and scraped twice. It did a good job, and left the bottom in fine condition. The process was disgusting - I'd recommend it for places where you can pressure wash it off and collect the remaining solids. Proper disposal of the waste remains an issue, though they claim what's left isn't classified as hazardous waste.

[osirissail]

If you look at the Defoul website and go to Distributors, there are none in the USA. I suspect the use of the product in the USA is illegal under EPA rules unless there is total recovery, storage and toxic waste disposal of all the Defoul liquid and anti-fouling.
- - To strip bottom paint you need an epoxy softener chemical which is normally methylene chloride. That is a rather toxic chemical which explains the total "moon suit" and respirator in the Utube video.- - Then also spraying paint or other toxic chemicals in the USA is illegal unless you have a total air recovery building around the boat.
- - Then there would have to be toxic waste disposal of all that stuff.
- - The website says you need 5 gal to strip 25 sq ft. That would work out to almost 100 gallons of the stuff to do my boat.
- - Add up all these costs up and you are looking at serious money, time and boatyard infrastructure costs which most probably would make the process many multiples more expensive than current dry or wet blasting the bottom paint off your boat. Disposing of blasted dry bottom paint is a lot more economical than toxic chemical mixed processes.
- - In the past there have been other "stripper" processes involving chemicals that you brush on and then put paper sheets over. They never worked very well and have virtually disappeared from the market.
- - However, use outside the USA would not engender all the restrictions and the only prime consideration would be the cost of the huge amount of the stuff you would need to do a medium to large sized boat.

[Special]

Originally Posted by DRS

About $2000 to do a 38 foot cat. I have know idea what it would cost for anyone else's boat

Click on the blue "Marine Products" in my previous post and it should take you to the web site

The product was incredibly awesome, although we did have to through our clothes out after the first scraping. It is an environmentally friendly product witch was very important to us, the product neutralizes the old paint and can safely be disposed of. It has a pleasant orange smell and is easy to put on.

[minaret]

Originally Posted by raphaella

In my personal opinion, anything that can just desolve antifouling and do a good job is just too STRONG for the gelcoat, better use sandblast method with baby powder or sponge particles, look at links on google, you'll be surprised, or like we did, scrape and sand, ok we'll never scrape and sand again, but gelcoat is still in perfect condition as new.

These guys did a couple of bottom paint removals in our yard awhile back. It made us laugh a lot. For us a bottom paint removal is generally a one day job for two guys, including tenting and cleanup, even on some large boats. These guys took three days on average. They kept saying it was "cleaner" than sanding, but of course we wouldn't let them pressure wash without a filtration and catchment system. I've never seen a messier process of paint removal than them scraping off all the toxic goo all over themselves. It stuck to everything, and there were a lot of complaints about toxic goo being tracked all over the yard and thus onto peoples boats. It was a real mess, and I believe they were banned from the yard after a few clients expressed their dissatisfaction.
The guy who did the spray application with an airless kept going on about how it was completely non-toxic. He even put his whole arm in a 5 gallon bucket of the stuff to show it wouldn't burn his skin. That really tickled us! He'd do a spray and then scrape and there would still be a bunch of paint on the bottom that wouldn't scrape, and he'd have to spray it and scrape it again, despite claiming it'll take off a ridiculous number of coats in one application. I never saw him do a boat in less than two sprays, and every time he would tell the owner about the "abnormal" amount of bottom paint on their hull. And then when they were finally done, the bottom would need to be sanded for prep for barrier coat or new bottom paint. Of course they didn't do that, it was too "dirty". So the client would have to come to us and pay us to sand the bottom anyway, which costs almost as much as the bottom paint removal would have in the first place. I've done hundreds of bottom paint removals and wouldn't use anything but a 36 grit softpad, or sand blasting if you have the setup. I cant imagine actually taking a scraper to the bottom of a boat, it would take forever with all the chips going in your eyes, no fun. Thats how we used to do it 20 yrs ago when no one knew better. Now it takes two guys average of about 6 hours actual sanding time to strip a 45' boat. We used to bet paychecks on who could finish their side first when we were younger...