Most people know us for kitchens, bathrooms and paint. Fewer know that some of our favorite work happens in a boatyard.
Boating is our owner’s favorite pastime, and over the years the paint side of the company followed him down to the water. Today that work runs as Tenhulzen Marine Services, and it covers the two jobs every boat eventually needs: fresh bottom paint and good varnish.
Why winter is the time to do it
Around here, fall is when boats come out of the water. Owners lay them up for the season, and the smart ones use those months to get the boat ready for spring instead of scrambling in April when every yard is booked.
That quiet stretch is exactly when bottom paint and varnish work makes sense. The boat is already out. Nobody is missing a weekend on the water. And when the season opens, you launch with a clean bottom and brightwork that actually looks like brightwork.
Bottom paint is dirty, technical work
Bottom paint is the coating below the waterline that keeps marine growth from taking hold on the hull. When it wears thin, the growth moves in, and a fouled bottom drags through the water. The boat gets slower and burns more fuel doing it.
Redoing it is not a weekend touch-up. Old coating has to come off, the surface has to be prepped properly, and the new paint has to go on in the right order so it actually bonds. It is messy, and it is exactly the kind of work where preparation decides whether the job lasts.
These photos are from a bottom paint job our crew took on at the end of September. Full suits, respirators, and the whole work area tented off so the dust and overspray stay where they belong. That containment matters for the crew, for the boats parked next to yours, and for the water.
Varnish is where the patience shows
If bottom paint is the hard labor, varnish is the finish carpentry. Teak rails, trim and brightwork look incredible when they are cared for, and weather badly when they are not. Sun and salt break a finish down, and once water gets under it the wood starts to grey and lift.
Good varnish work is mostly prep and patience: getting the old finish right, building thin coats, and not rushing the cure between them. That is the same discipline our painters bring to fine interior woodwork. In fact, we have been using marine-grade varnish on interior wood finishing projects for more than a decade, because it holds up where ordinary finishes don’t.
Why a painting company, and why us
Plenty of people are surprised a remodeling company paints boats. It makes more sense than it sounds. The skills that make a cabinet finish look factory-perfect or an exterior repaint hold up through a Northwest winter are the same ones a hull and a teak rail need: careful prep, the right coating for the surface, and a crew that doesn’t cut corners where nobody will look.
We are also boaters ourselves. We are members of the Everett Yacht Club, and a lot of our best relationships started on the dock. We understand what it means to hand over your boat, and we treat it the way we would want ours treated.
Get on the winter list
If your boat is coming out of the water this fall, now is the time to plan the work, not in March. Call us at 425-785-5327 or email
fr*******@te*******************.com
, tell us a little about your boat and what it needs, and we will get you on the winter schedule.
