Best Paint for Raw Steel Gate: Powder Coating vs Traditional Paint, Primers & Topcoats

The steel gate is galvanized rather than painted. Galvanizing is exhausting the topic. Further painting is just an unnecessary expense. Unless someone has to be, for example, black and there are no other more interesting expenses - this is the only argument. In the region where I am now, nobody paints galvanized fences (companies, because private people generally do not build steel fences) or other galvanized structures.

However, if you decide to paint instead of galvanizing, even if you use paints / varnishes for hundreds of zlotys and paint without proper surface preparation (even car painters sometimes cannot), rust will appear relentlessly after a few years. The only right way is sandblasting - professional (not with any porcupine, fini, or oil sanding roller) and painting right after - with paints / varnishes checked by someone practically over the years. The seller and the websites of paint manufacturers are the worst advisors in this case, and the only ones available to the layman. Forum talks that Kowalski has painted such a paint and is great, it does not mean that in 3 years he will not be tearing the rust with kilograms and he will not boast about it anymore. Professionals keep the acquired knowledge to themselves, etc.

Cleaning with wire brushes, grinders and an attempt to degrease with solvents is the way to rust in a few years. Improper painting even after proper sandblasting, the same effect as above.

Overall, you are in a losing position. Painting steel requires experience and appropriate equpiment and it is not a one-time process like planting a tree. Painted steel will rust anyway the question of whether in 25 years, 10 or 2 years, and during the course of it, corrosion centers still have to be removed.

ziemek56 wrote:

Very durable and resistant "ship" paint

I have a port nearby, painting ships is quite profitable for many people ... You will say that a ship is wet in salt water, yes, but the paints do not only work a miracle, they only require constant maintenance and who wants to look after the fence?

freebsd wrote:

At car chassis

Anyone else doing it apart from the fanatics of monuments? You can patch the holes, but it will rot in a few years inevitably. When you splash the 'lamb' you can't see at most until it falls off.

witek1965 wrote:

the terms of the valuation are very unfavorable.

In such a life, when you build an industrial fence near your house, you have to pay industrial rates ... It's easier to make a hinged split gate. It is not a problem to galvanize a smaller size and no rails, rollers, bearings, grease, no grease or anything will jam, etc. And if you use wood as the main building material and steel only as a supporting structure, then you do not need to strip the rust, just splash it with impregnation agent. every few years and for two generations is enough. Only sometimes you need to put a padlock on, apparently sport is health, but who would like it, it is better to put the drive on the remote control so that there is something to service every few years :D

In general, investment in a fence is money wasted, I am still amazed that people in Poland can afford such excesses and look for unnecessary activities / problems instead of taking care of pleasures.

witek1965 wrote:

If I decided to powder coating, does the steel have to be hot-dip galvanized beforehand? or covered with a primer, e.g. with a red (this is what an employee of a powder paint shop recommended to me) ...

I read the thread when it already has 17 posts. I add my opinion. Let me start with the fact that an employee of a powder coating plant could not advise you on the technology of powder coating with a primer - unless it is not a paint shop but a paint shop, and this employee is not necessarily a painter there. As for the merits: the gate is to be protected against corrosion, as it should be done for steel structures exposed to weather conditions: such as steel lighting poles, road safety barriers, steel architectural elements, etc. And, of course, balustrades and fences (gates in them) made by reliable companies that produce them. And do not think about it, just call such a company and order anti-corrosion protection rather than the execution of the whole thing. In addition to knowledge, these companies have appropriate means of transport, usually their own paint shops and most importantly - considerable discounts in galvanizing plants. . I forgot to write that if your gate is not genuinely new, such a company can clean it earlier, for example by shot blasting.
As for the cost, the layer of zinc applied in the bath guarantees over a dozen years of anti-corrosion protection without any painting, and when painted with a gun with ordinary zinc paint, it extends this period by another dozen or so years. But it has to be done right, not by a paceman but by a professional. Note that by dipping in a zinc bath, the layer of this zinc is ideally the same thickness over the entire surface. This cannot be done with any non-immersion painting technology. What's more, if the gate is made of closed profiles, these profiles are also galvanized on the inside. As for the cost of this protection, if this gate cost you between PLN 200 and PLN 500, close the thread and paint with a brush with good paint. If PLN 500 - 1000, also with a brush or a gun, a very good varnish with a primer. If you order over 1000 according to my instructions - if you could afford such a gate, you must also afford its protection, according to the sentence "Who has money goes to Wieliczka, and who does not, use a salt shaker with a finger."
greetings