Stripping a boat hull of old paint and marine growth is a long, tedious, high effort job to do by hand. Power sanders can help but can easily cause serious damage a boat hull requiring extensive and costly repairs. Harsh chemicals are not only dangerous to use but are hazardous to the environment and difficult to dispose of.

There is another alternative rapidly increasing in popularity in the form of Soda Blasting using Bicarbonate of Soda, more commonly known as "Baking Soda",. The technology is fairly recent having been developed in the mid 80's primarily for the purpose of cleaning the Statue of Liberty inside and out, a delicate task requiring effectiveness without damage. This same method allows the user to gently and quickly strip away layers of old coatings and marine growth from fiberglass, wood, steel or aluminum. In fact, we blasted the printing from a soda can leaving the bare aluminum surface like it was never even coated! The Eastwood Company now offers the benefit of lightweight and portable equipment easily obtainable to the user who wishes to strip a boat hull and all its fittings for repainting repair or full restoration. All glass, trim, lights and fittings can be left in place with no harm.

Perhaps the best feature of soda is the fact that it is completely inert and water soluble saving a great deal of clean up time with no environmental impact when the job is done. Of course the proper steps should be taken to recover removed coating particles before blowing or washing the dust away.

Soda as a blasting media has many other uses as well. It is widely used in auto restoration to strip paint from metal and fiberglass car bodies while leaving trim glass and rubber in place, all without harm. It is also used for mold remediation, cleaning stains from concrete, fire damage removal, cleaning years of tarnish from copper and brass fixtures.

As always, Eastwood offers our customers the latest and best in equipment and supplies to help make that project the best it can be. We now have several Soda Blasting units to choose from, and a selection of Bicarbonate of Soda Medias Available.