Tile guy left the garage door open. Freak rain storm covered raw steel balusters. Have some minor surface rust now. HO wants dark paint, "NOT BLACK POWDER COAT!!!" I'm a bit worried about them having gotten wet.
Any paint suggestions? Need something that will prevent rust as well as hold up to kids abusing the railing over the years.
Almost forgot to mention it is an interior railing.
If the rain actually covered the steel and the steel was actually raw (no primer or finish) then it is surprising you only have minor surface rust. It wont take long before it all becomes rusty.
There is no way to apply powder coating to the steel on the jobsite. Powder coatings have to be baked in an oven at a pretty high temprature for a certain amount of time to turn from a powder to a coating that is adhering to the steel.
Any raw steel needs to be thoroughly sanded and primed with a good red oxide primer before any other finish is applied. Both of these tasks are critical to a good lasting finish.
The process steel fabrications go through in a shop where they are built is as follows.
1) Make the fabrication - steel ballisters
2) Sandblast to no less than a commercial blast
3) Apply red oxide primer to all sandblasted surfaces directly after sandblasting - the same day. The reason for this is that steel begins to oxidize immediately just from any humidity in the air. It may not even be noticable to the naked eye those first few hours but is still there. When tanks or any other steel strucures are painted they are always sandblasted first and primed on the same day they are sandblasted.
The fabricators will generally, even after blasting the steel, use a cheap thin coat of primer. Their only concerne is that the piece gets to the jobsite and installed without getting too wet or rusty before the painter can sand any spot rust, prime and finish. For the most part this works good unless the GC on the jobsite leaves them out in the rain. Then they have to be completely sanded or even mechanically cleaned before a good coat of primer installed.
You can thoroughly sand, prime with red oxide primer and 2 coats of ALKYD paint on top. Some of the industrial paints like those from Sherwin WIlliams have more rust inhibitors in them than does an alkyd house paint or something that can be used on wood.
Nothing you do on the jobsite will ever be as good as a good baked on coating but you can make them satisfactory with the proper preparation and the right coatings used.
