Painting Steel Handrail


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Old 04-04-17, 07:55 AM
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Painting Steel Handrail

I picked up a steel handrail that was being used indoors and looks like it had been painted with interior wall paint (no clue what type). i want to install outdoors, do I need to repaint this? Any ideas on how I should handle this would be appreciated.
 
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Old 04-04-17, 09:37 AM
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For best results it should be stripped to bare, shiny metal then primed and painted with exterior paints. Stripping is the big part of the job so you can choose to install it as is and see how it goes and strip it in the future when it starts rusting. Or, if the hand rail has not been installed yet you can take it to an industrial paint stripper. The can remove all the paint quick and easy... for a fee.
 
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Old 04-04-17, 09:39 AM
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I agree stripping it down to bare metal is best, bare minimum would be to sand and apply an exterior oil base enamel. Interior wall paint will fail on the exterior.
 
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Old 04-04-17, 12:07 PM
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OK - thanks, by chance do you know a ball park cost on getting it stripped as mentioned?
 
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Old 04-04-17, 04:25 PM
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Shop around to get the best price. It can be sand blasted or dunked to remove the old paint. Many auto body and steel shops have sand blasters so you'll have more options for a good price.
 
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Old 04-05-17, 07:04 AM
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Any chance a light sanding and rust paint would work?
 
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Old 04-05-17, 08:28 AM
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It might work although I'd opt for a heavy sanding over light sanding. Applying an exterior coating will help a lot as it will prevent the interior coating from receiving weather. There is a possibility that the cold temps and humidity changes could cause the interior paint to loose it's bond.
 
 

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