If your topsides and/or deck are already painted with a quality marine coating, you're familiar with the advantages. But why would you paint a boat that's finished with gelcoat? There are several reasons, some practical and some aesthetic.

First, today's topside paints offer a less porous finish than gelcoat and thus require substantially less maintenance. With paint, maintaining the shine on your hull is a matter of washing and sealing twice a year — no compounding, no polishing, no waxing. Properly applied paint typically lasts longer than gelcoat too.

The difference in maintenance is even more pronounced on decks and nonskid. Gelcoated decks and nonskid are prone to staining with fish blood, parking lot grease, mud, leaves and other debris, and a variety of chemicals and foods.

They're also hard to clean — especially nonskid. Paint and sprayed-on nonskid provide a harder, less porous finish that's more resistant to stains and can be cleaned with nothing more than a freshwater hose and, occasionally, a brush.

Aesthetically, quality marine topside paints not only hold their shine longer than gelcoat, but also offer a brighter, deeper shine out of the box.

Finally, if your gelcoat is deteriorated to the point that it needs to be re-sprayed, painting is a substantially less expensive option than re-gelcoating.

Painting boats is what we do, day in and day out. Owner Cliff Jung is certified in all major brands of coatings, including Awlgrip, Imron, and Quantum by Engineered Marine Coatings.

All offer quality products, but each paint has unique strengths and weaknesses for certain kinds of projects — not to mention unique prep and application requirements. We can help you determine the best coating for your project.

Although painting is less expensive than re-gelcoating, it's generally more expensive and time-consuming than restoring gelcoat that has some life left. Even badly oxidized gelcoat can often be made to look new again with a careful process of wet sanding, compounding, polishing, and waxing.

If you simply want to change the color of your boat, or if you want the deeper shine and easier maintenance of a quality marine coating, painting is the way to go. But if you just want your boat to look new again, refinishing your existing gelcoat may be a better choice.

Because there are so many variables, it's extremely difficult to estimate the cost of topside and deck painting without seeing a given boat. We're always happy to give free estimates though.

We can also discuss the various options — painting, refinishing, re-gelcoating, or a combination — for achieving the results you want.