Fire Escape Rusting

Outside iron does have to be painted every year...take a look at the forth bridge. ;-)

Is it galvanised or painted?

Is it bolted together or welded?

Can you tell exactly where the rust originates? The bolts/welds, on treads on ground or wall attachment points?

Was it supplied fully finished or primer only?

It may well be normal.

I think you do have to repaint every year.

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.

Every 20 years now:

Urban Myth

MBQ

Do ya reckon?

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'll stick with my opinion,thanks

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 ;-

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.

Christian.

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.

On a thread hijack......

what would you (or anyone else) recommend for the best stuff to paint a non-galvanised, rusting, outside steel balcony with then Bookworm. ?

Ours is suffering badly where the previous owners used to bodge it up with normal gloss paint once in a while.

and... :¬) what would be the best method of preperation to halt existing rust?

I am thinking a compressed air "needle gun" for initial attack of paint & rust flakes.

'tis a job for this summer. :¬(

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.

Finnegan's "Brown Velvet" then some sort of gloss.

Wire cup brush on 9" angle grinder. Use a knotted cup brush to get rid of heavy deposits.

Sorry, that's now called "No. 1".

The message from "The3rd Earl Of Derby" contains these words:

Or galvanised. Might be well worth it!

The message from "Pet_@_www.gymratz.co.uk_;¬)" contains these words:

I'd be tempted to take it off and get it galvanised.

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.

Chromate primer, or zinc primer.

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.

I was thinking of anti-rust treatments like Jenolite

Not so good if its already corroded.

Agreed galvanisation is the best starting point, but f its been drilled or welded or assembles with non galvanised bolts, or non steel ones...

To those who think that Hammerite works, think again. Utter rubbish the one time I tried it.

Just polishes the rust. Gritblast to SA2.5 is only way to remove rust.