Decorative iron, www.deciron.com, fabricates railings and ships them all over the USA. We also install locally here in Charlotte NC. Most customers buy their railings in a powder coated, and only in certain cases they prefer prime and paint.
Either way standard black color is the best choice from a maintenance perspective, for it is easy to fix if there are scratches or even some rusting.
Just get a spray can of Professional Rust Oleum Enamel and spray it on. Commercially used powders are polyester and any good enamel sticks to it.
Although our railings are double powder coated, due to wear and tear or scratches at installation, with time you might find some rust spots. It also happens in certain areas that yellow clay accumulates at the bottom welds. If you do not clean them, with time it will crack the paint and real rust will start to appear.
So, wash your railings periodically to avoid problems, don't let them get dusty for long time, like your car.
If anyways some rust appears, don;t panic! Just rinse them with water, let the railings dry and then apply the professional Rust Oleum on every problem spot. You will need to sand the rust down, only if you have neglected it and the problem is major.
This recommended enamel has chemicals that will react with the rust and still protect the metal, even you you did not remove the rust.
There are other brands that provide similar products as well.
Early remediation is the key to enjoy rust free railings for a long, long time. Once you have remediated them, you will enjoy years of maintenance free wrought iron railings.
No matter what they tell you, the truth is that any iron rails made by any company will present this problem about 5% of the time, ours are not an exception.
Moreover, eventually you are going to have to repaint them because of time and mother nature not because the product was not carefully protects, but because the paint or powder coating gets dull due to sun exposure.
If you see the iron bridges in the US hiways, you will notice the difference between a brand new on and an old one right? Now, the US government is very strict when it comes to rust protection , for they don't want to spend money in remediation down the road. But they have to spend it anyways.
What about aluminum?
People think aluminum rails will last longer than iron railings, not true. Iron (mild steel) is a more durable material. Aluminum has the tendency to bend, get dented; and the powder coating or paint applied to them also gets affected by the UV rays of the solar light and you are going to have to repaint them anyway.
And remember, we fabricate aluminum railings as well. Is just that it is what it is.
The truth is that even though we double powder coat our railings, and we even galvanize them upon request, nothing can beat nature for too long.
However, if you follow these guidelines, your iron railings will endure for a lifetime, and more.
As was said, for ease of maintenance we always recommend to use standard black, or any standard color, for the matching spray paint is readily available in any hardware store like Home Depot, Lowe's or any paint company like Sherwin Williams, Porter, etc.
If you decide you want a matching color we will give you a small sample you can use later on to get the matching paint prepared.
For your touch ups, you need to look for a High Gloss enamel, which matches what dupont and cardinal call a semi gloss powder. In the powder coating world high gloss looks like a mirror. Semi gloss is what you would call semi gloss.
However, some people are brave. They don't care about the little extra effort to maintain their railings, because they just want a different look, other than black. Take for example these wrought iron railings a customer here in Charlotte NC made. They are an "Olive" color, green/brown maybe. They match perfectly with the stones they put and the furniture they had in mind for their porch/back yard.
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| Back door entrance |
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| Porch railings |
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| This leads to the back yard |
They looked at the RAL dupont colors we offer for powder coating (there over 100 colors) and decided to go with this one. We fabricated this ring band railing railing, in the color of their choice. The process took about 3 weeks, and they loved it!
Now, its a kind of embarrassing to say this; but this one of the few jobs that we had to go back and fix it, for my powder coated had a party or something of the sort, and the quality of the finish was not to our regular standards. then we had to struggle trying to get the matching paint to get our customer back to full satisfaction and happiness.
That is the reason we always recommend standard colors!
We also had a customer order a balcony in Blue, we will definitely update you guys on that one. We haven't heard from him, so I believe this was one of the 99% of the cases that our finish product is just maintenance free! (until of course the killer sun kicks in)
Check out our new website guys! You will find great products and great prices.
We even have special discounts for builders and contractors.
There are some guys that make a living installing our rails in different cities of the US, we give the dealer treatment and referrals!
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