Painting Steel I-beams For Outside Retaining Wall

lyndon9

Im Building A Soldier And Pile Retaining Wall Using Steel I Beams And I Want To Paint The Steel. The Steel Has Some Light Surface Rust. What Is The Process Of Painting Steel?

Nestor_Kelebay

Remove the rust (perhaps using a hand grinder with a rotary steel wire brush) and then paint the steel with an OIL BASED primer meant for metals like Rustoleum's metal primers.

slickshift

Remove the rust
Coat with a quality industrial coating, possibly an epoxy or epoxy reinforced, from you local Paint Store
Your local EPA regulations will determine what is available to you
The Big Box Home Centers will not have the best available
Paint Stores and contractor supply places will have the best available

Nestor_Kelebay

Slickshift is right. An epoxy paint will provide much greater protection than an alkyd paint.

I was thinking "inside the box" of only oil based and latex paints.

You might also want to consider a "moisture cure polyurethane", which are also generally considered industrial coatings. On of the biggest names in non-yellowing moisture cure polyurethanes is Wasser.

http://www.wassercoatings.com/

Maybe e-mail them and describe your problem, and they'll recommend a suitable product.

But be warned. These products are not inexpensive. You'll be looking at $150+ for a gallon of a moisture cure polyurethane paint. Check with Wasser as to the performance of moisture cure vs. epoxy paints on metal. I suspect one possible advantage the moisture cure might have is that you may be able to reseal the can if you don't use it all so that you can apply a second coat. However, I believe there would be enough humidity absorbed into the paint while it's open that resealing the can might not be feasible anyway. Check with Wasser on that.