Per-foot pricing, every service
Every quote is by the foot so you know the number before we ever touch the boat. (Deciding what to hire out at all? Our DIY vs professional guide gives the honest split, and our 2026 Jacksonville price guide explains what every number below is built on.) Condition moves you within the range — a lightly used boat quotes at the low end, heavy oxidation or a neglected interior at the high end. Here's the full menu:
| Service | Typical rate | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Wash & wax | $17–$25 / ft | 22 ft center console: $375–$550 |
| Full detail (compound & seal) | $25–$35 / ft | 24–27 ft boat: $750–$1,050 |
| Oxidation removal / gelcoat restoration | $20–$30 / ft | Added to a detail when hulls are chalky |
| Marine ceramic coating | $60–$150 / ft | 2–5 year protection, correction included |
| Interior & mold removal | $12–$20 / ft | Vinyl, compartments, non-skid, mildew treated |
| Hull & bottom cleaning (in-water) | $2–$4 / ft per clean | Monthly plans for wet-slip boats |
| Pontoon detailing | $25–$40 / ft | Aluminum brightening included |
| Jet ski / PWC | $150–$300 / ski | Multi-ski discounts |
| Canvas & isinglass | $100–$300+ / enclosure | Cleaned, cleared, re-waterproofed |
| Metal & teak polishing | Quoted by brightwork | Often bundled with a full detail |
What moves the price
- Condition. Heavy oxidation means more compounding passes; a season of neglect in the cabin means more hours. This is the biggest factor.
- Boat type. T-tops, flybridges, extensive stainless, and teak add working surface beyond raw length.
- Frequency. Recurring wash plans price below one-off cleans — the boat never gets bad enough to need correction.
- Where it's kept. Wet-slip boats usually add periodic bottom cleaning; trailered boats skip it.
The cheapest detail is the one you don't need. A ceramic coating costs more upfront but turns every future wash into a rinse — most owners break even against repeated full details within two seasons.
What's actually included at each level
The single biggest reason two quotes differ is that they're not for the same work. Here's what each line on the table above genuinely covers, so you can tell which one your boat needs.
Wash & wax is maintenance, not correction. Hand wash, dry, and a fresh coat of protection over gelcoat that's already in decent shape. It will not remove chalking, water spots that have etched in, or a stained waterline — it protects what's there. On a boat that gets it every few months, it's the whole program, and it's why recurring customers almost never need the expensive work.
A full detail is the reset button: wash, clay bar to pull embedded contamination out of the gelcoat, machine compound to cut the damaged surface layer, polish to restore gloss, then seal. This is what brings back a boat that's gone dull, and it's the tier most people actually mean when they say "detailing."
Oxidation removal isn't usually a standalone job — it's the heavier correction step added to a full detail when gelcoat has gone genuinely chalky. If your hull leaves white residue on your hand, that's oxidation, and it takes more compounding passes than a standard detail includes. See oxidation removal for how severity changes the work.
Ceramic coating is priced differently because most of the cost isn't the coating — it's the correction underneath. A coating locks in whatever surface it's applied over, so any reputable installer does the full compound-and-polish first. A quote that prices ceramic at a fraction of ours is almost always skipping that step, which means paying to seal in the damage.
How to compare two detailing quotes
If you're weighing us against another detailer, these are the questions that actually surface the difference:
- Is the correction included in the ceramic price? The most common way to make a coating quote look cheap is to quote the coating alone and add correction later.
- Is it per foot or a flat rate? Flat rates favour the detailer on small boats and favour you on large ones. Per-foot is the industry norm and it's what we publish.
- What happens if the boat is worse than expected? We walk the boat and give a firm number before starting. Ask whether the other quote can move mid-job.
- Are there travel or setup fees? We don't charge them anywhere in the 904 — some shops do, and some mobile outfits add a fuel surcharge past a certain radius.
- Does the price assume water and power on site? We bring our own, so a dock without a spigot isn't a surcharge.
How we get to your exact number
Every quote starts with two facts: the boat's length and where it's kept. Length sets the base rate from the table; where it lives tells us what the water has been doing to it. A boat on a lift in near-fresh water at Doctors Lake has a completely different problem set from one in a wet slip at Mayport taking hard Atlantic salt — the first needs tannin and soft-growth work, the second needs salt, barnacles, and corroded hardware addressed.
From there it's condition. Send a couple of photos of the hull and the interior, or just tell us honestly how long it's been since the last detail, and we'll place you in the range rather than at the top of it. For anything involving heavy correction we walk the boat first and give you a firm by-the-foot number for the work it actually needs — not a range, a number, before we start.
Booking the boat and the dock in the same visit is the one reliable discount on this page: we're already set up with water and power, so the second job costs less than it would on its own.