Let me ask you a direct question- when you are/you had been planning for your home painting, had you put the same level of stress on metal painting, as you had done for interior painting?

I am sure you would have done lots of research on Type of paints for Interior and Exterior- whether economy, VFM, Premium or Luxury?

Type of sheen- Matt, sheen, Gloss Which color?

Which texture on wall?

Wall paper?

But for metallic structures- whatever Painter suggests…

Protection and Decoration

Most of the paints have both the aspects, some have more of decoration than protection and some have otherwise.

It is true that exterior and Interior paints also add lot of protective values to our buildings and rebars used in them, but aesthetics play a major role in the paint selection.

We have metallic structures in our apartments- balcony grills, Balcony separator; in the villas- main gate, balcony grills and many others. They are installed mostly in the beginning and are supposed to last for decades. They contribute much to the safety aspects on the residents. With so much of importance of these structures in our houses, should not we have enough information, should not we have done enough research, should not we have sourced the right paints for vital parts of paintable surfaces in our houses?

Even though many painters don’t have information, but there is an entire new world for the protection and coating of steel structures. Their coatings and application practice are much developed and highly technical. Steel structures of railways/metro, factories, malls, ships, shipyards etc. are coated with Epoxy, Inorganic Zinc Silicate and top coated with Polyurethane or Polyaspartic. Most of the steel structures are blasted with Sand, grit or with steel shots to remove the rust layer and create a surface profile to give higher protection to the surface. These types of coatings give a performance life of 10-25 years to the steel.

Nevertheless, those kinds of surface preparation and complicated application practices are not feasible for our household structures, therefore painters recommend normal Red oxide primer over lightly sanded steel and topcoat them with basic enamels of any color.

ypes of coatings give a performance life of 10-25 years to the steel.

Looking at the need of giving a strong protection to the iron gates/grills, a feasible technical recommendation will be to

• If there is existing paint, can be removed using strong solvent or using paint remover.

• To do a thorough surface preparation of the steel/surfaces using a power tool like grinder or powered wire brush like cup brush.

• To remove all the loose powder, solvent wiping.

• Application of Surface Tolerant (or Mastic) 2 pack epoxy, or at least Zinc Chrome, Single pack Zinc rich/Zinc Phosphate primer.

• Application of 2 pack exterior grade (acrylic based) Polyurethane, or application of enamel over strong primer will also be a secondary option. These systems will protect the steel for 5-7 years along with color retention, if done properly.

There are special primers for Galvanized Iron, for Powder coated materials, for Aluminum and copper and same PU can be applied.

The recommended products may not be easily available for a normal resident, Mazon solutions can make these products available to the houseowners either from other manufacturers, or from their inhouse brand- Mazon Paints.