Hi, I'm interested in buying a residential houseboat, and am looking for some advice. It's a 40' x 16' boat with an aluminum hull; one third of the hull has a leak along one of the seams, which the current owner is maintaining with the aid of a sump pump.

The pump comes on when there is 1/8" of an inch of water in the hull; it went off while I was there, and stayed off for the remaining 15 mins. He tried to repair it at one point with putty, but he didn't keep the putty in place (with a plywood support?) so the leak reappeared. Question - is this a big deal? Should I forget about it altogether, or should I at least pay for a professional to give me an opinion? The owner said that (if he was staying) he would get a concrete hull constructed and get the boat onto that; how much would that cost?

Alternatively, how much do you think diagnosing and fixing the leak in the seam would cost?I can cope with improvements/upgrades in the interior, but I am a newbie when it comes to boats, so the exterior I'll need to pay for the first few fixes.Thanks for any help.

I'd get an estimate from someone who knows what they are doing. You'd think they could pull the boat out and weld it or something. I'm no expert but I've never heard of a concrete hull, it sounds like he's talking about putting it on a concrete pad of some sort, but I don't know. Then it would be a housedock instead of a houseboat!

Pull boat get alum welder to redo seam . should be about a grand.