Looking for a bit of advice...I’m looking at buying a narrowboat which comes at a good price, however the survey recommends gritblasting and painting the baseplate, because apparently it is thinner than usual and has ‘widespread pitting’ There seems to be two schools of thought when it comes to baseplate maintenance from what little research I’ve done, ie painting or leaving as is because of thickness/lack of oxygen etc. I would prefer not to have to blast and paint it if I didn’t have to because of the expense.
Here’s an excerpt from the survey for more details....
‘The base plate had a nominal thickness of 8mm, but point thickness measurements indicated some diminution. The majority of readings were above 7mm, the lowest reading being 6.1mm.
Widespread pitting, not uncommon on narrowboat base plates, was widespread, resulting in shallow craters with an estimated depth of 0.5 – 1mm, but no loss of structural strength was detected with hammer testing.
1. Given the comparatively thin base plate, grit blasting and applying a protective paint coating would greatly reduce the chance of serious diminution in the future. However, boatyards are reluctant to take on this work due to the limited access beneath the hull.