Water leaks in through the houseboat hull

by Jim
(Center Hill Lake , Tn)

After being on the houseboat I bought (a 1991 Lakeview) it looked pretty good. Of course being a Navy guy, I knew there was a lot to be found.

About a month after I bought the boat, I was down in the crawl space below the deck, and I noticed there was water down along the keel.

After some investigation, I found out none of the bilge pumps were working, so I replaced every one of them and than vacuumed out all of the water.

A few day later I rechecked it, and found more water in the aft section. I dried all it out again and sat there until I saw where it was coming in from.

I found some very small places around the keel. To get this repaired, I was told it had to come out of the water to be welded ...cost of pulling it out is $1500, and cost about $850 to be welded. Does this sound in line with this work being done?

Also on the top deck where the rails are attached to the roof, it looks like crap. It looks like a two year old was turned loose with a silicone tube.

These rails are attached straight to roof. I was thinking I would like to raise the place where they are attached a half inch to make sure its sealed and no water can get through.

What kind of material can be used that the gel coat will stick to other than wood? Got a lot to do and looking forward to it.

Also how good is the Purasan septic system for houseboats? Is there a better system?

Thanks for any help, Jim from Center Hill Lake

Reply - Answer

Hi Jim, thanks for posting your question in the houseboat forums.

Now to answer some of your questions, yes, pulling out a boat that size would likely cost between $1000-$2000 dollars, and the $850 to weld sounds about right, depending of the amount of work to be done.

Now, it may be in your best interest to have any other work done at the same time that you are pulling the boat out. EX: any outdrive service, anode replacement, inspection for any electrolytic (galvanic) corrosion.


Lastly, hopefully some of our readers and visitors will share and post comments about their related houseboat LEAKING HULL experiences and tips.

Feel free to use the CLICK HERE TO POST COMMENTS link found near the bottom of this page.

Thanks again for sharing, IAN from all-about-houseboats

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