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Best outdoor paint for steel?

D

Dan Dubeau

Ultra Member
Steel railing, New construction, and the customer is looking for a durable, long lasting white gloss finish. While I wait to hear back from a couple local places for powder coat quotes, does anybody have better alternatives to the std Tremclad I was initially going to do.

I'm out of my element when it comes to finishes and stuff like this, so I'm curious what else exists that may also be as good as powdercoating.

Edit: forgot ? in title....
 
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I built a bunch of garden fencing from 1/4 steel rod and sprayed it with black, water-based Tremclad using an HVLP gun. Zero prep, no primer. Went a solid two+ years before showing any signs of surface rust. I was honestly shocked. With prep I bet it would last much longer.
 
I was planning on removing mill scale, wiping everything down with thinners, priming, then 2 coats of Tremclad. I figured that would be good for at least 3-5 years before any touchups or issues, maybe more. They don't want any issues ever, and powdercoating was brought up.....I don't even think powdercoating would provide that. At 42"x96" they're bigger than most powdercoaters ovens around here, so that's going to drive the price up I'm assuming. Anybody in the GTA have powdercoater recommendations?

On one hand, it absolves me of my most hated part of the process, and I can just simply pass on the costs. On the other hand, there may be some issues and some welding on site might be required due to some janky concrete on location, so I either measure everything %100 and hope for the best, or I finish on site fab, then uninstall and take to coaters. Not really something I want to do.

IMO there is no forever coating here, and ease of touchup and repainting should be a concern, but that's why I'm asking.....You can get Tremclad everywhere, and it's an easy job the Grandkids can do......I've also had good luck with tremclad and no prep here, which is why I was pushing it, and thinking that better prep and priming would extend that life too.

I'm communicating to the client through a GC here, so that further complicates things.
 
My experience has been that powder coat is excellent, but it’s extremely hard to get the product installed without some little chip or crack somewhere. Overtightened bolt, bumped corner, etc.

We’ve taken to electroplating before powdercoat (at least a copper flash), at work, to try to maintain a sort of ‘membrane’, seems to work so far.
 
Hey Dan,
You've got a good solid plan.
Ive painted 1000's of ft of railings this way. Top coat might chalk after 10 yrs or so, powder coating isnt bulletproof either.
P.C. is best with an epoxy primer under the color coat.
Another option beside tremclad is a urethane base industrial enamel from whatever paint co you have out there, I always liked that over tremclad
The key is surface prep, you should be good with what u describe.
When i painted i hung everything from hooks.
Best,
 
if its outside.....

powder coating looks great, but it does start to fail after a few years, chipped corner, overtightened anchors, poor surface prep....and then the problem becomes matching it, as well as matching the thickness on the repair, its quite obvious because of the thickness of the powder coat

number 1 would be to galvanize it, paint with the appropriate primer (there is a primer for galvanizing) and then topcoat with your white

number 2 would be some kind of zinc primer or epoxy primer with an industrial enamel top coat

i would suggest using a color that will be easy to get years down the road, makes a re-paint much easier if a guy doesnt have to get something specially mixed up
 
Keep in mind that being white it will need to stand up to more frequent cleaning than some other colors as well as the weather; I’ve seen many industrial coatings - including factory finishes that are guaranteed to withstand salt water environments for 29 years - fail due to the owner abusing the surface (and blaming the contractor/supplier/manufacturer).
 
In the 00's i belong to an organization for abt 6 yrs, NOMMA,

https://www.nomma.org/

I encourage all of you to check them out

I went to confrences in the US and I was very fortunate to hang out with some of the top metalworkers and blacksmiths on the planet. I met some great people there.

A guy i met from Ocalla FL said (as Phrax mentioned) carbon steel they would galvanize, prime with powder epoxy primer and then 2 coats of color coat. The only way they could get any life out of it by the ocean.
Also used stainless and powder coated that

Some customers were so rich that he built railings and such out of monel and bronze.. metalworkers to the 1%'ers
 
Using the same paint method you suggest Dan, Ive gone back and looked at jobs id done over 25 yrs previous, the paint was all chalked to hell, but shockingly there was zero rust. Its all in the surface prep and the right mil thickness on each coating layer.
You're tottaly on the right track Bro.
You do that and the finish will last for longer than it will matter for.
Best
 
Thanks guys. I'm going to try and steer this ship back towards painting. I'll look into the higher quality suggestions of paint and primer you guys have mentioned too, thanks. One of my big concerns with powder was cracking the mounting flanges. The concrete this is mounting to is a bit all over the place. I've actually got to repair a bit of it. I have a feeling a powder coated flange is going to be trouble when I start tightening these down. Not to mention the touch up, and maintenance. Truth be told, this is totally a tremclad kinda of job, but when someone gets an idea.....
 
I've used International products where I used to work. . We erected steel for under ground crushers. The paint was a 2 part epoxy very durable and easy to apply by brush. I'm sure it could be sprayed. I don't know the cost of the product but probably not cheap. I went back to the crusher installation about 6 years latter and it still looked like the day we installed it. Keep in mind this was in a wet humid under ground environment constantly being bombarded with rocks.

Products | International-pc

Products | International-pc
www.international-pc.com www.international-pc.com
 
Different approach - a buddy of mine owned a fabricating shop, for handrails he tried his best to get customers to go (switch to) with aluminum instead of painted (coated) steel.
Aluminum cost more but with zero painting cost the bottom line was the same. Aluminum may not look great - but it never looks bad.
 
Dan Dubeau said:
Steel railing, New construction, and the customer is looking for a durable, long lasting white gloss finish. While I wait to hear back from a couple local places for powder coat quotes, does anybody have better alternatives to the std Tremclad I was initially going to do.

I'm out of my element when it comes to finishes and stuff like this, so I'm curious what else exists that may also be as good as powdercoating.

Edit: forgot ? in title....
Click to expand...
I just picked up a gallon pail of white Tremclad to do some bare steel man doors for my shop. I know a industrial epoxy would be better but the prep and expense of it made me stick with Tremclad. In my case extreme sunlight will likely be the cause of the degradation of the paint.
 
Al would be a fun project, but I don't think it's happening on this one.

I'll give it to the end of the day to hear back from some powdercoat places on quotes, but then I'll try and steer this back to paint. I just want to get going on this, as it's been on/off/on/off/on for over a month now.
 
I sandblasted our old steel railings and we sprayed painted them a copper metallic with a few coats. Still holding up well after a few years. White though... it's the worst for showing rust. The decorative railing place in town says you have to repaint white every year. I'm not sure but white metal seems to always look rusty to me. I think zinc galvo spray sounds like a great foundational idea to me after doing great prep.
 
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