- Timeline depends on how long the spots have been sitting and how deep the etching is. Light, fresh water spots take 1-3 hours at your Lake Norman dock or driveway in Cornelius, Mooresville, or Huntersville, because we can lift them with specialty removers and light polish. Severe spots that have sat for months or years take 4-6 hours, because we're compounding and sometimes wet sanding to reach the damaged layer underneath the mineral deposits.
- You'll see us treat the spots with acid-based removers first, then check the surface with our gloss meter to see whether the etching reached into the gelcoat or clear coat. Fresh spots wipe away with the remover because the minerals haven't bonded yet. Etched spots need compound and polish, because the minerals ate into the surface and we have to correct down to clean material. We measure before and after so you know the spots are actually gone, not just hidden.
- Lake Norman is brutal on boats from May through September. Boats sitting in the water at Peninsula Yacht Club, Morningstar Marina, and LNYC get splashed constantly, and when that water dries in the North Carolina heat, minerals bond to the gelcoat within hours. Cars get spotted too, from sprinkler overspray, rain drying in the sun, and automatic car washes running hard Lake Norman water.

