# Seacock / Thruhull Replacement quote



## CLucas (Feb 10, 2007)

Confession time... I'm a DIY-guy to a point, but am not comfortable when it comes to holes in the boat. I've read tons of material on the topic, including some great posts by people on this board on the topic (Halekai for one), but at the end of the day have decided this is something I'm going to bring in hired help for. My club is largely a DIY place, but many people do bring in help for major projects. My Pearson 30 is a great boat and I'm in the process of a thorough refit. My biggest headache right now... nearly every one of my tapered seacocks are frozen or covered in blue-green corrosion which scares the crap out of me. Pearson had some messed up construction practices... They had the incredibly bad idea of using a gate valve at the raw water intake (fully operational, but there's that recurring nightmare of it coming off in my hand...) and not using backing plates any place else. Now that you've fallen out of your chair in horror, my question...

I have a guy - who I trust and I believe is up to the job -- coming to look at the boat tomorrow to give me an estimate. Assuming replacement of the seacock alone, how many hours would you estimate for this job (per seacock). What if the thruhull also needed to be replaced (I assume it will).


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## Freesail99 (Feb 13, 2006)

First off, there is a nut 180 degrees from the handle, if you losen that nut the handle should be able to move freely. You may want to try that first. 

I replaced two seacocks on my boat, took an average of 45 minutes and I did replace the backing plates.


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## sailingfool (Apr 17, 2000)

I don't think this is a job where board members can provide an estimate for your boat, the effort involved will vary wildly depending the on ease of access, the difficulty of removing the old valves, any need to remove/add backing plates, etc.


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## CLucas (Feb 10, 2007)

sailingfool said:


> I don't think this is a job where board members can provide an estimate for your boat, the effort involved will vary wildly depending the on ease of access, the difficulty of removing the old valves, any need to remove/add backing plates, etc.


I'm just looking for ballpark -- in part so my breath isn't taken away when I get the estimate. Part of the challenge is that they are incredibly difficult to access for the purpose of attempting to unseize them (2 in particular). Once operational, access will just be a little awkward.


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## CLucas (Feb 10, 2007)

Freesail99 said:


> First off, there is a nut 180 degrees from the handle, if you losen that nut the handle should be able to move freely. You may want to try that first.
> 
> I replaced two seacocks on my boat, took an average of 45 minutes and I did replace the backing plates.


Thanks.

On one, I was able to loosen the nut after hitting it with PB Blaster and letting it sit. Using a mallet, I wasn't able to drive the tapered plug out and was reluctant to put too much torque on it. On others, the access is impossible to be able to get a mallet in for the purpose of free-ing it up.


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## Freesail99 (Feb 13, 2006)

CLucas said:


> Thanks.
> 
> On one, I was able to loosen the nut after hitting it with PB Blaster and letting it sit. Using a mallet, I wasn't able to drive the tapered plug out and was reluctant to put too much torque on it. On others, the access is impossible to be able to get a mallet in for the purpose of free-ing it up.


Why do you have a tampered plug in the seacock ? Has it completely failed and is letting in water ?

This nut would be on the other side of the secock opposite from the handle.


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## CLucas (Feb 10, 2007)

Freesail99 said:


> Why do you have a tampered plug in the seacock ? Has it completely failed and is letting in water ?
> 
> This nut would be on the other side of the secock opposite from the handle.


Tapered, not tampered.  These are older style seacocks from more commonplace ball valves. Spartan still makes them (http://spartanmarine.com/image/25.jpg). Here's an exploded diagram of one:


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## Freesail99 (Feb 13, 2006)

My spell check program changed Tapered to tampered and I didn't catch it.


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## sailingdog (Mar 19, 2006)

SF's points about the estimates being pretty boat specific is a good one. The job isn't all that difficult to do, and anyone with a modicum of skill and Halekai's graphic guide to doing the job can do it. Most people can probably replace two of them with the proper preparation and tools in the course of a weekend, even if new backing plates need to be installed.


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## craigtoo (Aug 17, 2007)

CLucas said:


> Tapered, not tampered.  These are older style seacocks from more commonplace ball valves. Spartan still makes them (http://spartanmarine.com/image/25.jpg). Here's an exploded diagram of one:


Hello,

I had the same problem on my boat. 5 of my 6 SeaCocks were frozen. They are the Spartan type you referenced above.

I would offer one suggestion before you bring your guy in. Loosen the nuts on the opposite side of the handle. Plug the hole in the hull with rags / stopper. Pour some vegtable oil in the line (if possible, in my case these were the cockpit drain THulls) and let it sit / soak the Seacock for a few hours. That may free them up. Once free clean and service etc.

I had to contort my body into positions that I never thought possible. But I was able to free all SeaCocks.

Good Luck,
Craig


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## Freesail99 (Feb 13, 2006)

Loosen the nuts on the opposite side of the handle, is what I suggested in my first post.


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## craigtoo (Aug 17, 2007)

Freesail99 said:


> Loosen the nuts on the opposite side of the handle, is what I suggested in my first post.


Yeah! ....saw that.. I wasn't clear... I was just offering the vegtable oil idea... but after I re-read it didn't really make sense if you didn't loosen those nuts too so I put it in there... that's all...

craig


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## TSOJOURNER (Dec 16, 1999)

*Replaced 3 gate valves*

On my recently purchased 1975 Ericson 27, I replace three thru hulls and gate valves (with ball valves) while she was on the hard.
I too did a TON of research, and eventually became comfortable with the job and went ahead.
It took me time to find the right size thru hulls (online), but the time it took to remove the old thru hulls and install new ones was relatively quick. I'd say my good friend (helper) and I took about 1.5 hours (very cautiously) to replace all three.

Cost of materials (2 brass, 1 marelon) was about $225ish if I recall.

Good luck.


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## zakrobinson (Aug 21, 2007)

I ended up cutting the bronze nuts off with a sawzall, if its in a really bad spot and its the mushroom type or a rawwater intake you can actually cut the mushroom off from the outside being very careful not to shave the hull. On the larger brass thru hulls, like the outflow from the head, I cut them close to the nut from the inside, then put the blade of the sawzall in the hole and cut the brass nut into 2 peices. Works great, just do it super slowly otherwise you will find yourself cutting into fiberglass. It took me about 10 -15 minutes to cut each fitting out.


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## CLucas (Feb 10, 2007)

craigtoo said:


> Hello,
> 
> I had the same problem on my boat. 5 of my 6 SeaCocks were frozen. They are the Spartan type you referenced above.
> 
> ...


That's worth a shot -- thanks. At least on one, I successfully loosened the nut opposite the handle. I removed the hose (in this case a galley sink drain), gave a few shots of PB Blaster and let it soak a while (whack it a bit, then repeat the process). Was careful not to remove the retaining nut so I didn't damage the threads and also didn't use a steel hammer. I'm more comfortable doing work on the boat now and perhaps am not as "timid" as I was when I first got the boat.

Good idea, thanks.


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## Maine Sail (Jan 6, 2003)

*With all due respect..*

1) All bronze will eventually turn green when located in a bilge.

2) Spartan marine seacocks, if that's what they are, are perhaps one of the best, and longest lasting, seacocks ever built!

3) They CAN be rebuilt and continue working for many, many years!

4) My neighbor paid $465.00 in just labor to replace two seacocks and that did not include parts.

5) RE-BUILD the Spartans if that is in fact what you have.

6) If it's an old Pearson you may have a thick enough hull to not need backing plates. Still I'm surprised to find someone installing top quality Spartan Marine seacocks without a backing plate.

7) You don't say if these are through bolted or not. This factor will add significant cost if you pay someone to do it.

8) Can you get us a photo of the current installation???


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## ambianceack (Aug 27, 2006)

I had a frozen seacock of the type shown in the diagram above- loosened nuts and still wouldn't budge, squirted silicone spray or attemted to and still frozen. After wiping the silicone spray away, I then used a butane torch with a 24" hose adapter ($50.00-combined) which allowed me to heat the seacock in the limited access area. the gentle heat and a 18" long with 2-inch inside dia. pipe over the handle of the seacock and pulling very gently, allowed enough movement. This took all of 10-minutes. Once loosened, I was able to completly dissassemble, clean,apply thin coating of winch grease and rebuild within 15-minutes. The culprit was some bottom paint that freezed the seacock. I was able to perform the work since its on the hard, if your boat is in the water, its likely you will have to pay for a haul out. I am not sure what a boat yard would cost but 10-minutes is likely a minimum of one hour. Heat and beat usually works with metal, just how hard you do that is the key,go slow. Hope that helps.


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## TSOJOURNER (Dec 16, 1999)

I too enjoy this site and have learned much. Sometimes information is too much "world-view" and too little answer the question asked.

One of my gate valve thru-hulls was replaced Friday in Rock Hall, MD. I spoke with the maintenence supervisor who said they billed for four hours of labor ($ 75.00 and hour), the parts were about $ 125.00.

After reading all the information on this HAD I DONE IT MYSELF I would have made fiberglass backing plates (they used raw plywood). I would have glassed in the plates and used the fitting with the screw holes and put the three bolts thru the hull, glassed them in and painted over them. I would have followed the best ideas at several sites that had the greatest agreement amoung the posters.

I continue to learn that the experience of the sailing community (those who have done work themselves) can provide in-depth "how-to knowledge" and the ability to determine what your own standards are.

My work was paid for by the PO as a condition of sale ($ 475.00). If I did it myself I would have taken longer...done it better...the money saved would have been a bonus. That raw plywood will always bother me.


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## sailingdog (Mar 19, 2006)

I hope the seacocks and through-hulls you bought were BRONZE. Brass should never be used on a boat in an underwater application, unless you're looking to sink the boat. Also, you shouldn't mix metal through-hulls with plastic seacocks. 


marcusn said:


> On my recently purchased 1975 Ericson 27, I replace three thru hulls and gate valves (with ball valves) while she was on the hard.
> I too did a TON of research, and eventually became comfortable with the job and went ahead.
> It took me time to find the right size thru hulls (online), but the time it took to remove the old thru hulls and install new ones was relatively quick. I'd say my good friend (helper) and I took about 1.5 hours (very cautiously) to replace all three.
> 
> ...


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## badsanta (Oct 16, 2006)

The problem I had was when I went to remove the frozen valve, it turned the thru hull, thus distroying the thru hull seal. I found a site that hat sold one foot peces of one inch thick marine glued plywood that I glassed in real nice and installed Groco flange adapters. That worked great. I was always told not to put a stright thread in a tapered hole. This corrects it and makes a great strong instilation. the ones on the boat could not have been in more than a turn or two in. Now threads all the way in and with the flange bolted down it will be an easy swap of the valve. I am so happy with it. Much better than the boat yard guy. check it out groco.net/new-prdcts-home/ibvf-08.htm


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## Lion35 (Sep 28, 2007)

> After wiping the silicone spray away, I then used a butane torch with a 24" hose adapter


I used boiling water pored over the seacock once, not as much heat as a torch but much safer and it worked like a charm.


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