We had our fire escape newly installed about a year ago, and it is already starting to rust in places. This doesn't seem normal to me, and I don't think the company has done the work properly.
What do you think I need to check physically on the fire escape, such that I can basically tell the guy "you should have done X,Y,Z, this isn't good enough etc etc", and so he doesn't try and fob me off with "oh, didn't you know you have to repaint these every year" or similar
You might want to go over it and remove all old paint and use a chromate type primer on it though. It may be that it wasnt given a decent set of primer in the first place.
Paint will blister (more so on iron) from the suns heat which will then be enough for rain(water)to penetrate below the surface and find its way onto the steel,this will then start lifting the paint more heavily as time progresses.
Hence why maintenance of the outside of a property has to be maintained where and when its needed every year to keep it in good condition.
I recently saw a programme on TV; about ..... the Forth Rail Bridge ! Apparently it's in the process of being encased in a 'plastic ' coating.
A moments googling ( actually 0.22 Seconds) revealed ;-
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coating system employed for the steelwork requires blast cleaning to bare metal; an application of zinc based primer to prevent corrosion (35 microns); a glass flake epoxy intermediate coat providing a barrier (400 microns); and, a polyurethane gloss top coat to give an attractive "Forth Bridge Red" finish (35 microns) on all of its estimated 400,000m². This system which has been tried and tested in an offshore environment is designed to give a 20year life which means the bridge may be free of its legendary painters after 2009 for a short while!
So; it's not an urban legend that the rail bridge needed an permanent team of painters to maintain it's surface -even if it was longer than annual visits between coats; but it will be an urban legend after 2009.
Although modern trains put fewer stresses on the bridge than the earlier steam trains, the bridge needs constant maintenance. "Painting the Forth Bridge" is a colloquial term for a never-ending task (a modern rendering of the myth of Sisyphus), coined on the erroneous belief that, at one time in the history of the bridge, repainting was required and commenced immediately upon completion of the previous repaint. According to a 2004 New Civil Engineer report on contemporary maintenance, such a practice never existed, although it is the case that under British Rail management, and before, the bridge had a permanent maintenance crew.
Wrong! Please read the posting by Brian Sharrock. He is quite right. I once worked for the company that supplies that system and, providing prep is meticulas, 20 years in a salt laden atmosphere is quite normal.
Thats why North Sea Oil Rigs aren't painted with Dulux.
For painting iron/steel exterior items I've always used "Hammerite" paint. As for halting rust...hmmm! thats a case of how bad its got a hold? for surface rust I used a bottle of stuff from a car accesory shop, wasn't cheap and came in a quarter of a pint plastic bottle,for the life of me I cant remember the name but it contained a chemical that nuetralised the rust with a protective finish for painting over.
Where are you going to even _find_ a chromate primer these days ? Apart from being horribly toxic, they're also far from the best choice for steel.
A fire escape ought to have been galvanised to begin with. If it wasn't, then it needs a good coat of zinc-based primer (Davids 182, or some others) onto clean bare metal.
Ive had best success with stuff like 'jenolite' which IIRC turns iron oxide into iron chromate - a tougher proposition by half..then maybe a zinc loaded primer to pseudo galvanize.
Ideally you would then use something like a tow pack epoxy paint al la marine (yacht) paint..
Cleaning is simply down to getting everything loose off. - wire brush,sandblasting, Nitromors etc.
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