Rusty railings

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Ludwig

Hopeless romantic
Location
Lissingdown
As I cycle around I can't help notice railings outside people houses and there is always someone either painting or scraping the old flaky paint off and I have been scraping some old railings at my house and there is about 5 diferent colours from when they have been painted in the past. So I am thinking is it a complete waste of time to paint metal railings and it would be better to get them down to the bare metal and oil and wax them. Is it a waste of time painting wooden window frames and doors and oiling them instead because with paint you can't see the rot underneath and in some cases the paint will hold the moisture in the wood. If you look at a lot of properties the paint has flaked off altogether. I'm off now ...more scraping to do
 

Cuchilo

Prize winning member X2
Location
London
The problem with clear finishes is they don't give as good UV protection as paint . They also show up any defects caused by scraping back the old finish once you redo the job . It can last hundreds of years if you look after it but most people don't so everything gets a coat of paint to hide things .
 

Drago

Legendary Member
My Grandpa was very short sighted, only went to WWII by mistake. He saw an article in the paper that read "we're off to give the nun a good licking" and he signed up that afternoon.
 

mr_cellophane

Legendary Member
Location
Essex
In east London they took the railings away during the war to make strechers for the army. When the war was over they just welded the strechers back where the railings had been
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Archie_tect

De Skieven Architek... aka Penfold + Horace
Location
Northumberland
It's cheap, nasty unseasoned sapwood that rots faster than a dead badger.... no matter what you do the cheaper manufactured products from the mass window and door suppliers lets water into the joints and nothing stops it deteriorating...

You could always send your railings off to a zinc galvanising dipper to get them permanently protected... looks a bit industrial but you can still paint with the right paint.... or powder coat them?

Conversely cut up a Spitfire and make nice aluminium ones....
 
+1 for smoothrite. I have a 5 litre tin of it! I have done the radiators in my house (old cast iron) my windows (also old cast iron) and my front gate (you guessed it).

I scrape off the rusty bits and lose paint but then paint over whatever is left. I rather like the look of 6 coats of paint on old things.
 
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