Nasty, Rusted Handrails

morgan

I'm looking at biding a handrail job for an apartment complex. i usually charge $10 linear ft. These rails are in horrible shape, with an enormous rust build up. Anyone had one of these recently, that could throw me a price and any difficulties they encountered? Thanks.

ProWallGuy

How long do you think it will take? 3 times the average, 4 times the average?
Charge 3 or 4 times your price. If unsure, hit them high, and CYA.
If you hit them high, give them a detailed scope of all the extra crap you will need to do to get the job done right.

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Teetorbilt

You might want to sell a replacement and sub it out.

If you still want to tackle it and there are major flakes, figure a couple of guys at laborfinder fees with welders hammers (which you will buy) to knock off the big flakes. Here you can go right and have it sandblasted or go semi-right and just Ospho in the smaller flakes. Now just prime and paint at your usual rate.

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You can't solve you're problems with the same level of thinking that created the problems.

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slickshift

Mmm...that's what I'm thinking...
I don't like the "horrible shape" thing
Not in an apt. complex

AAPaint

I use a dremel tool to clean handrails. Goes pretty fast for the details, etc. I usually bust my orbital with some 60 grit over the flat areas, and use the dremmel for the swirls, etc....The dremel makes fast work of sanding the details and gives you a far cleaner surface to paint on. I agree the next step should be ospho then prime and paint.

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-AAPaint

AA Quality Painting & Pressure Washing LLC
Jacksonville Painters
Jacksonville, FL.

Teetorbilt

AA, it all depends on how ugly ugly is. I'm thinking 1/8" of scale as 'pretty bad'. 1/4" would be 'very bad'.

__________________
You can't solve you're problems with the same level of thinking that created the problems.

Albert Einstein

Bret

To give you accurate advice, I would have to see a close up picture of it. Personally, I would make sure that the customer understands that as a result of lack of maintenance there is no way possible to make the surface look new unless you plan on putting 10+ coats of enamel on it to fill up the pitting.
Depending on the location and amount of work to do I would either disassemble the railing and have it sandblasted or keep it installed and grind the rust off with a wire wheel. The best metal primer I've used for an application such as yours would be Sherwin-Williams Kromic Metal Primer. Top it off with an industrial quality oil enamel.

AAPaint

I just did a rail that the scale was at least 1/4" thick because it hadn't been even touched in 15 years. It sanded down right nice with the tools mentioned above. I actually used the same Kromic primer Bret mentioned topped with Armor Seal waterborne urethane which makes for a quality coating system.

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-AAPaint

AA Quality Painting & Pressure Washing LLC
Jacksonville Painters
Jacksonville, FL.

Wallcoat Joe

We did about 450 LF on a house in Long Beach NY right on the ocean, and it as UGLY. We washed it with TSP and a Hotsy powerwasher shooting 4000 psi at 250 degrees through a 120 Turbo Tip. This pretty much stripped all of the scaling and flaking without the need for much hand work. To really secure the ability to give our 15 year warranty we chose to spend more on the product and went with Hammerite, its made by ICI and is bionic. To overcome the severe pitting we chose the hammered finish but in Fl. we usually use the smooth finish. The stuff is hard to find in large amounts but if you contact me I will guide you in getting what you need, we got set up as a distributer to save $ and time, they require a min. $2500.00 order.

Teetorbilt

AA, you may have removed the scale somehow but you did not 'sand it down'.
Iron Oxide (rust) is extremely abrasive resistant, zirconia pads only last a few minutes.

If you have found something that will tear through 1/8" of rust, please let us know. I have some buddies thaty are welders that would be interested as well. They are still chipping and burning in with 6011.

__________________
You can't solve you're problems with the same level of thinking that created the problems.

Albert Einstein

Wallcoat Joe

Check out the Hammerite zinc primer, you can get it from most paint stores but definately Benjamin Moore. There is also a product from Lanco paints that will do so check Lancopaints.com and look at products/primer section.

AAPaint

I'm sorry. I was under the impression that the scale was mostly peeling paint. This is what I was talking about that we had on the project I mentioned. Still, we sanded down the paint, hit the whole surface with ospho, primed, and painted and it came out beautifully. 1/8" of rust is a world of difference from 1/8" of paint scale.....sheesh!

Also, I agree with Wallcoat Joe, for steel surfaces zinc rich primers are the best way to go. That is what is used to protect chemical plants, water facilities, bridges, water towers, and other industrial steel usually followed by intermediate coats of epoxy, and finished with urethanes.. They come in two different flavors, organic and inorganic, with the latter being the better of the two because it most closely resembles zinc metal itself. Zinc primers protect the surface the same way galvanizing does by acting as an anode.

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-AAPaint

AA Quality Painting & Pressure Washing LLC
Jacksonville Painters
Jacksonville, FL.

Teetorbilt

AA, the actual quote was "an enormous rust build up", I assumed that it is scale. Enormous is a relative word.

__________________
You can't solve you're problems with the same level of thinking that created the problems.

Albert Einstein

AAPaint

Yup, wasn't paying attention!

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-AAPaint

AA Quality Painting & Pressure Washing LLC
Jacksonville Painters
Jacksonville, FL.