Our Narrowboat Blacking Service
Coatings we offer
Bitumen offers a high quality, durable look and finish to your boat hull. It is cost-effective, anti-corrosive and protective against the harsh marine environment. We recommend re-coating every 2 to 3 years.
Intertuf offers a high quality, durable look and finish to your boat hull. It is cost-effective, anti-corrosive and protective against the harsh marine environment. We recommend re-coating every 3 to 4 years.
Keel Black is a single pack bitumen that is economical and long lasting that expertly protects steel hulls from erosion. This is a water based single pack bitumen so is a lot kinder on the environment.
Epoxy 2 pack is our most long lasting finish, Epoxy paint is completely reliable in harsh marine conditions and can last up to 6 years before needing a refinish.
Use our calculator below to work out the cost of blacking your boat.
Note 1: An automatic £220 is added for slipping the boat
Note 2: If choosing Epoxy 2 Pack please be aware the cost of the product is not included in the service charge
Blacking is the process of applying a protective coating to the steel hull of your narrowboat. Typically the parts of the hull below and including the top rubbing strake right down to the chime on the base plate. Called blacking because the commonly used coatings are black in colour. This layer is designed to protect and therefore extend the life of your steelwork, with the added bonus of keeping your boat looking smart in the process.
Our slipway and concrete apron is able to accommodate three boats up to 72ft long at any given time. A fast efficient service is assured with our ‘ASCOM35’ boat hoist (Hull-Raiser) able to lift narrowboats ashore and will soon be able to lift widebeams too, or we can pull you out with our tractor and trailer.
The Process
Our reputation for high quality long-lasting blacking relies on meticulous preparation, professional expertise no short cuts and simple hard graft. We start by reviewing the history of your hull, gaining an understanding of what previous coatings have been applied to ensure that our blacking team are able to provide professional guidance where required. A video inspection of the hull follows, including reviewing the condition of your sacrificial anodes, and inspecting and then plugging up any skin fittings.
Next the hull is jet-blasted with high pressure hot water, removing most of the contaminants from the surface, before we use a professional wire brush power-tool to remove, smooth and key the surface of your hull, paying close attention to any areas of rust and pitting where bare steel has been exposed for some time. We do offer bottom plate blacking (at an additional cost), but note that in most cases this is unnecessary. The final step is the application of the requisite layers of your chosen coating. Your boat remains on the slipway for a period of time, largely determined by the type of coating and the weather, to allow the paint to cure, then relaunched…looking splendid.
Our operation follows accepted environmentally friendly protocols to minimise contamination of the watercourse.
Blacking FAQs
This depends on how long the boat is, what the weather is doing and what coating you decide to have applied. We book the boat in for a whole week for the blacking process, but it normally takes a round 3 day to complete. All bookings need to be flexible as our blacking program is weather dependent.