After we have poured our hearts into a new gate design and fabrication, the finish can be the icing on the cake that makes everyone “OOH” and “AHH”. Or, it can be completely distracting in all the wrong ways … like orange hair on an otherwise beautiful brunette.
Besides that, the finish needs to be durable – protecting and keeping your gate looking great over time. We cringe at the site of rust runs on an otherwise beautiful gate. It is so sad.
Most of what you find on the internet touts the superiority of powder coating over painting, but if you call us – we are going to recommend painting your gate. This article is about why we prefer paint.
Reasons We Prefer Paint
- Both applications seal the metal from exposure equally well.
- Quality paint applied properly can last just as long as powder coating.
- Paint has a different quality and texture about it we think appears more elegant than powder coating.
- We have the equipment and expertise in-house to paint our gates. So, we have ultimate control of our art and making sure it looks the way we intended.
- Faux-wood or faux-distressed painting is appealing to us. We cannot achieve some of the looks we want to with powder coating. We’ve gotten to be good friends with our Sherwin Williams rep!
- We do not have an in house means to powder coat our gates. We’ve not found a reliable powder coating option in our area that cares as much as we do about a flawless finish on our gates. We recently had to sand and repaint a gate at our own expense because the Fort Worth company we used did such a poor job.
Faux-wood painted steel gates
EXAMPLE – faux-distressed paint finish
Because Accidents Happen
We prefer paint because of who we build the custom gates for:
- Parents or grandparents of teenagers that drive too fast.
- Horse and cattle ranches with big trucks and trailers operated by employees who cut a corner a little too close.
- Businesses where delivery trucks are not always paying attention.
- Mobile phone users (all of us) who forget what we are doing, and stop in the middle of an electric gate that will automatically close while we are not paying attention.
NOTE! We are NOT arguing the virtues of powder coating. It is just not the best option for our custom gates.
Since we are also in the gate maintenance and repair business, we get the calls to fix our works of art when these rather inevitable accidents happen. If the gates were painted, and the damage isn’t too bad, we can fix what is broke and retouch the paint without too much expense. But, even when the damage is minimal to a gate that has been powder coated, you will need to have the entire gate sandblasted and re-powder coated. Insurance adjusters don’t always see it that way.
What about rust?
You don’t want to see rust runs on your gate after the first rain. And, powder coating is supposed to be superior because it is thicker and more durable, right?
The problem with that argument is the reason for rust runs are the pinholes left in the welds – not the finish. Powder coating does not fill in these pinholes, so you will see rust on both powder coated and painted gates.
fresh pin hole
rusty old pin hole
resulting rust runs from pinhole
You need to choose a fabricator that takes the time to weld your custom gate properly. You can easily see the difference. So, ask to see past works as you are shopping.
good weld
good weld
rusty bad weld
In all honesty, the occasional pinhole will occur. When it does, it should be filled in properly. The process and product is a little different depending on whether you are painting or powder coating.
- PAINTING – Pinholes are sealed with automotive body filler or seam sealer between the priming and painting processes.
- POWDER COATING – The first step is sandblasting. Then, because the powder coating process will cook out body filler, an oven cured sealant must be used. But again, we’ve not found a vendor that is willing to take the time to do this.
A great alternative is to go with a forced-rust finish. If this option works for your design, it is a low-maintenance, economical and “rustic-chic” finish. (I got that term from Pinterest). Our forced-rust finish has been very popular among several of our clients.
Another way to avoid rust all together is to select aluminum instead of steel. We want the gates and doors we design and build to forever be our artistic contribution to your ranch, driveway, or home. It is a bit more of an investment on the front end, but aluminum will never rust.
EXAMPLE – faux-wood-textured aluminum gate
There is a misconception that aluminum is too thin and light to be a durable gate. That is just not true. We are fans of aluminum, but I’ll save more on that for a future blog post.
What are your concerns about paint? What other reasons have you heard for powder coating? What do you think about a force-rusted finish or aluminum? Did we convince you to prefer paint?
We look forward to any comments or questions.
If you have time, visit our gate gallery and let us know your thoughts.
We at Steel Welding always use Paint!!!!
Appreciate you chiming in on this. We occasionally get a client that is adamant about powder coating. We have a new policy now.
I can easily scratch paint off with my fingernail. When a customer brings a part and doesn’t know if it’s been painted or powder coated, I’ll scratch with a fingernail and if it comes off it’s paint
I don’t know what kind of parts you are referring to, but we are not opposed to powder coating when it is necessary. There are some things that should be powder coated.
So far as paint scratching of … all depends on kind of paint and how it was applied.
Thank you for sharing!
What brand and or type paint do you recommend for painting existing fence?
There is not a simple answer to that because it depends on where you are and if the gate has been painted before. We use a high-quality oil-based paint, but we would recommend you use a local paint store/expert for some guidance based on your climate and what is already there. Thanks for contacting us.
Does a forced rust finish continue to rust?
The answer depends on the climate you are in. If you live on the coast where the metal is exposed to saltwater or other very humid climate, you would want to consider corten steel. That is the metal used to make rail cars because it will stop rusting at a certain point even in those wet and/or salt water environments.
HOWEVER, if you are in drier climates like ours, regular steel is fine so long it is built in a way that doesn’t catch water when it rains. In drier climates the rusting also gets to a point that it is so slow it won’t deteriorate in your lifetime (and longer).
Hope that helps. Let me know.
Why can’t you touch up a PC piece that’s been damaged in situ with wet paint techniques….prep, primer and enamel or epoxy paint?
You can. There are some kits you can get for touching up PC with paint. We’ve just had better success with touching up our painted gates. The overarching argument we are trying to make is that painting is just as good as PC so far as protecting the metal from the elements. If either are done incorrectly, you will have issues. And, we have more control over the paint process than we do PC … so we have had more problems with PC.
As a custom powder coater, I have a few comments on the paint vs powder coating debate.
First, I’ve never seen a paint as uv stable, and as durable as powder coating when applied correctly, which is why it is the go to finish for patio furniture. It is much tougher, can be applied much thicker, and is more durable of a coating, and it also bonds into the metal where paint only coats it. It’s so strong that it is very hard to even sandblast it off, and most paint strippers can’t even remove it.
Case in point: If you paint a piece of tin foil, let it dry, then crumple the foil into a ball, pull it back apart, the paint will fall off. Do the same with powder and no powder coating will come off the foil, no matter how many times you crumple it. I’ve actually driven my backhoe over a walkthrough gate to bend it back into shape, and no powder came off because it becomes fused to the metal. Yes, they both can seal it from moisture, but powder is superior when done correctly. Maybe I’m too ocd to let that kind of work leave my shop, but if it can’t perform better than paint, someone isn’t doing it right.
Also, any good powder coater will fill any cracks, dents, or pinholes with either lab metal or metal fuzion, which is like bondo but made of metal and easily able to withstand 400 degrees in the oven.
The other mistake, or perhaps just laziness many powder coaters do is they fail to pull the part out of the oven after the powder flows out, to check for pinholes or thin areas in the coating and shoot more powder and rebake it for the full cycle.
There are also colors and textures of powder that cannot be done with paint, and done right, including a phosphate coating prior to powder coating, the powder coating can stay on and looking great for 20+ years.
Your kind of service and attention to detail would be ideal. Sounds like you would make a great partner to work with on our gates. However, we’ve not found someone like you that exists near us. Thanks for taking time to comment!
As a homeowner who neglected the builder-grade powder-coated iron fence until it was too late, this article really educated me. Indeed, pinholes in the welds were where the rust started.
We’re building a new house with a new builder-grade powder-coated fence, and I’m researching how to better deter rust while it’s new. Calling around, the fence guys I’ve talked with matter-of-factly deny that powder coating rusts, but I’ve observed it myself. Then again, why would a fence builder want a fence to last longer? That would be self-defeating.
Thanks for this post!
Thanks for your comment! It is really impossible to avoid all pinholes – especially on fence because there is usually so much of it. You are going to have issues painting or powder coating steel either way. It is hard enough on gates. Really conscientious welders will minimize it. We do our absolute best, but they are sneaky. We have started suggesting to anyone that wants anything but a rust-patina for the finished on their gates that they consider aluminum. That is the only way we can completely avoid the issue. I’m not sure if that is an option for your fence, but if it is … you might ask about that.
for mishaps on powder coated gates, some know that matching aerosols & liquid paints are now available for powder coated finishes but what some don’t know is that you can now get powder coated patina looks https://patinapowdercoat.com
Very cool!