Our MAINTENANCE Checklist: Keep Your Houseboat Shipshape

Welcome to this week's episode of Deep Houseboat Life, where we will be sharing valuable insights on how to maintain your houseboat. Whether you're a new or casual houseboat owner, or have been living on one for years, regular houseboat maintenance is a crucial part of keeping your vessel in top shape.
In this video, we will take you through our comprehensive houseboat maintenance checklist. From the annual maintenance budget to major expenses and the products we use to maintain and repair our houseboat, we cover it all. This is the checklist we actual use to maintain our houseboat on Lake Lanier.
Our tips range from the basic houseboat maintenance tasks to the ones we've learned through trial and error on our Lake Lanier houseboat, so you can avoid costly mistakes and keep your houseboat in the best condition possible.
So if you want to learn how to maintain your houseboat and keep it in tiptop shape, join us in this week's episode of Deep Houseboat Life. Don't forget to hit the subscribe button for more videos on houseboat tips like this!
☞ How We WINTERIZE Our HOUSEBOAT On Lake Lanier
• How We WINTERIZE Our H...
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🕘Timecodes:
0:00 - Intro
1:32 - Three types of houseboat maintenance
3:03 - Washing and detailing a houseboat
5:47 - Winterizing a houseboat
7:21 - Mechanical preventative houseboat maintenance
All music from Epidemic Sound, appearing in below order:
1. The Middle, Instrumental Version (Kylie Dailey)
2. It’ll Be Alright, Instrumental Version (Cody Francis)
#deephouseboatlife #houseboatlife #houseboat

[@DeepHouseboatLife]

Thanks for watching our video! What else should we add to our annual maintenance checklist for our houseboat? Did we miss anything major? We always appreciate learning from other houseboaters.

[@SergeantPope]

When you get around to waxing, I'd recommend 3M marine restorer and wax. It's not cheap, but it's really great at cutting out the chalk and shining up fiberglass in one easy step. With so many large flat surfaces on a houseboat, you'll want a buffer as well. Paying people to wax is crazy expensive. In my opinion it's better to do yourself because it's really not that hard. Just don't do it on a hot day because that is no fun at all.

[@DeepHouseboatLife]

Good afternoon. Great to hear from you and thank you for the recommendation. When I was in high school my dad used to hire me and a few friends to wax our houseboat. It was a lot of fun, but really hard work even with a buffer. Luckily we were cheap labor and payment was usually pizza and a few afternoon and morning water skiing sessions. I am not sure I have the same energy I did 20+ years ago, but it might be fun to give it a try. I also read that applying wax in the heat isn’t the best, and to do it in the spring or fall. Thank you again and we will keep yall updated on the progress.

[@hungryhungryhummer]

Always use wax never that poly coat stuff no matter who talks you into it. It lasts longer but once it starts to go, it is expensive to remove and ruins the striping on the boat. We got one of those extreme heaters from your recommendation. Works fantastic! Best part is you don’t have to mount it.

[@DeepHouseboatLife]

We love our Extreme Heater and so glad that you are enjoying yours as well. It is also easy to test to make sure it works properly before any cold weather sets in. In these instances, an ounce of prevention is worth MORE than a pound of cure! Thank you for the recommendation on the poly coat stuff, and I will avoid doing that. The striping on our boat is the original striping from 20 years ago and I would hate to damage that.

[@robertnelson980]

How about a video on types of hulls. Pros, cons, care, etc.

[@DeepHouseboatLife]

This is a great idea and question we get often. Our hull is aluminum, and all the houseboats built today are aluminum hulls. I think Gibson houseboats were the only houseboats with a fiberglass hull, and Lazy Days houseboats have a steel hull. Unfortunately, some marinas will not let a steel hull houseboat (like a Lazy Days) into the marina due to possible corrosion. We have heard stories about some aluminum hulled houseboats having excessive pitting due to electrolysis, which is not good and very dangerous. This is a great topic and we will be sure to add this to this list to videos this year.

[@robertnelson980]

Do you use battery tender on the batteries in winter?

[@DeepHouseboatLife]

Hey Robert, Yes we do have a multi-stage battery charger for the engine and house batteries. It was installed at the Sumerset factory when our boat was being built, and even has a switch on the main breaker panel. This is great to keep the batteries in great condition. It is reassuring to have this and know the batteries are ready to get the engines and generator running after months of not being used.