Best Practices For Painting Wrought Iron in St. Louis, MO

When you think of wrought iron, you might think of an old rusted gate that surrounds a property, an ancient home that nobody in the neighborhood visits because it is presumed to be profoundly haunted.

Of course, it doesn’t have to be that way — wrought iron can be quite lovely and can be painted any color you like — provided that you know how to prepare and subsequently paint it the right way.

With that in mind, let’s have a look at the best practices for painting wrought iron in St. Louis, MO.

1. Remove Rust And Chipped Paint With A Stiff Wire Brush

You’re first going to want to remove all of the rust and chipped paint that is on your wrought iron with a stiff wire brush.

This is an important step in the painting process because you’re not going to want to paint on top of either chipped paint or rust for different reasons.

There are those who would tell you that it doesn’t make a difference because your paint is going to be on top of it and what you can not see will be fine in terms of paint, right?

Absolutely not — your rust will first of all cause problems in that it will make your wrought iron not even, and it will be bumpy and downright ugly.

Furthermore, rust will continue to be there under the paint causing damage to your wrought iron — so you are best off entirely removing that rust and chipped paint with a stiff wire brush.

2. Sand With Medium Grit Sandpaper

The next step in the painting process is sanding over the surface of the wrought iron with medium grit sandpaper, just to smooth out everything and get it fully ready for the primer.

Without a good sanding, you will invariably see imperfections on the surface of the wrought iron when you are finished painting the last coat of paint on it.

3. Use Proper Primer To Prime Wrought Iron

Priming is the next step in the wrought iron painting process in that you are going to need to have the primer layer go on prior to your painting the wrought iron with the color or colors of your choice.

Primer going on before paint is essential because it is helpful to help the paint properly stay on the thing you are painting (in this case, wrought iron) and it will ultimately help the paint job last longer.

When you are looking for a primer for your wrought iron, look out for primer that is meant for exterior use (there is a difference) and ideally you’re going to want to use rust-resistant primer.

The reasons that you should prefer rust-resistant primer should be somewhat obvious but if it isn’t, it’s because you’re going to want to avoid having rusted wrought iron in the future, so it is certainly helpful to have rust-resistant primer.

4. Sand Primed Wrought Iron

The next to last step in the painting process is to sand the primed wrought iron so that it will finally be ready to be fully painted in your paint or paints of choice.

Though it would seem that this is not necessary, it’s actually quite important in that it will once again help the paint to evenly and smoothly go onto the surface of your wrought iron.

Clean the wrought iron with tack cloth because you’re not going to want to get metal flakes mixed in with the paint.

5. Paint With Rust Inhibiting Paint

You’re now ready to apply the coat or coats of paint to your wrought iron, and it should go spectacularly well because you have been preparing up until now for this step.

If you use just normal paint meant for exterior painting, you will likely get chipping, which is not quite what you are going to want.

Instead, the best thing to do is to use a direct to metal sort of paint that is much more appropriate for wrought iron as this too has its own element of resisting rust.

If you haven’t identified a reliable painting contractor yet, Selah Painting would love the opportunity to be your go-to exterior painter in St. Louis, MO. 

Call us at 314-207-0185 to book a FREE estimate and let us help you enhance the exterior of your home because you have better ways to spend your weekend.