Painting a metal railing
Also, how to fasten a door threshold and dealing with failed kitchen cabinet repaint
Q Can I really paint a stripped and sanded exterior metal railing without priming first? On your website you mentioned that priming was not needed before applying Tremclad paint.
A I’ve used Tremclad for 40 years and it’s always been an excellent paint for exterior steel and iron. I’ve never seen it peel. The manufacturer claims that no priming is needed except in a few cases, and I’ve found this to be true.
Galvanized steel is one material that does require a special primer, even when using Tremclad. It sounds like your railing is made of bare steel (as opposed to galvanized steel) since it did have some rust. If it’s clean and dry, then you’ll have no trouble using the Tremclad colour of your choice directly, with no primer.
For some reason, sandblasted surfaces are supposed to be primed, even sandblasted steel or iron that would otherwise not need priming.
FASTENING A DOOR THRESHOLD
Q How can I reattach an exterior door threshold? I do rot repairs for a small restoration company, and when I replace the bottom 6 to 10 inches of rotted door casings there’s no way to drive screws up through the sill to secure it into the new casing.
A You’re almost certainly dealing with an aluminum or plastic threshold, right? In this case
I’d recommend construction adhesive.
Most brands are no good in my experience because they don’t dry hard nor strong. A product called PL Premium is different. It’s a polyurethane formulation that’s extremely strong and hard when cured. It even cures just fine in slightly moist conditions. You’d be wise to avoid driving screws down through the threshold because that could allow water to leak down into the underlying wall frame, causing rot.
FAILED KITCHEN CABINET REPAINTING JOB
Q Why did my kitchen cabinet repainting job fail? I washed the cupboard doors and drawer faces with TSP, but now the paint is peeling off around the knobs. What can I do to fix this? Besides peeling, I don’t like the colour I chose. The cabinets are about 30 years old. A I’m sorry to hear about your troubles. What type of paint did you use? Your work with TSP was a good start, but a light sanding (to boost paint adhesion) is a good idea, too.
Did you use a 100 per cent acrylic latex primer, followed by 100 per cent acrylic latex paint? This stuff usually is very resistant to peeling.
You’ll need to start again, beginning with sanding. Take the doors off, remove the knobs and do the work on a bench. It sounds to me like the peeling paint is caused by grease residue that built up on and within the wood around knobs. This is usually the place where oils and dirt build up most and this will definitely cause paint to peel.
I really like today’s flat latex paints for cabinets. There’s no sheen at all and the results look great.
Flat paints are super-tough these days, too, and the lack of shine hides imperfections. Sanding by hand with 100-grit paper is your best bet. You don’t need to remove all the old finish, just the loose stuff. Sanding will roughen the surface and boost adhesion, especially around knobs.
Also, I’d recommend painting just one drawer face and one door for now. Install them after a coat of primer and two coats of paint, then give them time to see how they hold up and how you like the colour.