What are ongoing maintenance costs for a wrought iron fence?

Hi, trying to decide between a black steel or wrought iron front fence. The cost difference is about $1000, which puts it right in the “touch choice” zone for me. I’m wondering if wrought iron maintenance costs are significant over the longer term. If you don’t DIY fence maintenance, how much do you spend and how often? Thanks.

I finish a lot of product including metals and if these things have a coat of rust inhibitive primer on them and paint and that paint is maintained in such away that it does not peel off, i see no difference in the maintenance process or the long term cost. the paint will still have to be maintained every few years so it does not peel. (i just google “will paint adhere to iron or steel better” and could not find anything useful).

in so far as if you leave these alone with no coating, the iron will definitely rust more, faster. whether it continues to rust more and faster than steel if left alone, i am not sure. Some things seem to develop a coat of rust and the process then seems to slow.

A number of years ago, i bought one of those metal (i am not sure whether it is cast iron or steel but probably cast) “bowls” that hang in the corner of a horse’s stall to hold water and i treated it with some sort of rust “convertor” (with no paint over it) in my yard for one or two winters. when i finally moved it, i was sort of surprised as to how well that rust converto r had held up. it looked like it had just been put on. i am trying to recall who made that rust convertor and i think it was a rustoleum product. it was pricey.

My guess is, there is not a lot of difference between the two so long as whatever you do from the onset is the best possible thing you can do and it is done correctly by people who know how to prep and prime and paint a job and who will follow manufacturer’s directions including on stirring paint and understanding that if a manufacturer says to let a primer dry for 12 hours, that means 4 hours is not 12 hours. if the manufacturer says put two thin coats on as opposed to one thick coat, they are saying that for a reason.

You can now look at “epoxy” top coats or explore some commercial products like what they use on these railroad trestles around the city. Keep in mind that if you begin using expensive product, they may tell you to use etching acid on it to remove all rust before applying finish. that is a pain in the neck and years ago i finished the floor pan on a volkswagon beetle and simply clean it off, removed heavy rust, and primed it with rustoleum rusty metal product and painted it with their black paint. i was happy.

i repeat: whatever you do at the onset, be sure it is done correctly.

Aesthetically, get wrought iron. It’s so beautiful. Ironwork is an art. The design choices for steel are very limited. Steel is for factories. And prisons.

It’s not hard to maintain iron. and costs but the price of a can of paint and a cheap brush. Every year, examine your ironwork fence and,!m wherever you encounter rust, clean it with steel wool and then dab some paint on it. Try nto resist the urge to paint the entire fence. As thick layers of paint will crack off. You can keep it in good shape this way for many years. If you are diligent. Spring is the best time to paint the fence.

To address what whoa points out, about thick coats of paint: when over coating, a proper touch up includes a light sanding of an old finish. This is the same for trim inside a house as well as on exterior appurtenances. If we press a little harder around chipped paint to reduce the ridge, it is easier to feather new paint in. If people did this with every touch up or even around areas they are touching up, we would not feel compelled to have to strip old trim. A light sanding also aids adhesion over old paint.

Modern products include DTMs (direct to metal, meaning no primer required). They now market these for interior paints as well. I have not read about them and call me old fashioned but i am very much of the mindset that any paint requires a primer under it and have always used dtm’s this way. In the case of iron, i would use a rusty metal primer even on metal that appears clean.

Rustoleum has reformulated and is now selling their oil product in nys again (to meet epa regs). As far as ben moore, last year they told me they were reformulating the ir super spec but i had to buy some exterior oil for metal a couple weeks ago and it was still not on the shelves in nys (quarts were not banned, gallons were. For whatever reason, ben moore stopped shipping qts to nys).

Returning to the original poster’s situation, if we are starting with a new or a newly refinished fence and stay on top of any flaking paint and rust, you won’t have to worry about a lot of sanding.

whoa,

coming from a professional position, we must worry about every step in every process and with every step in finishing, we worry about what that will look like in 5 or 10 or 20 years (professionals do; we worry about that). when we do not, this kind of thing will begin to look like a “homeowner” did it in a few short years. I live in a queens home where people did not give a crap and it shows.

what i am about to say might not matter on rough cast iron, but i see balustrades in park slope that are fine and smooth and on those it will matter. when we are working on something fine, i tell people who work for me what we are aiming for is an auto like finish (we will never get there, but that is the goal; if i do not say that to people they will not make an attempt to achieve. they will slap paint on like monkeys and the entire thing will look like s**t).

When touch up areas where paint has chipped, it leaves a “ridge”. it is nearly impossible to blend and build paint in one spot where the chip is and if one tried it, it would leave a weak point in the p aint to either chip again or suffer the elements later. also, i suspect most places that chip will continue to chip (they are vulnerable spots). in order to overlay and keep it professional looking, it must be sanded lightly and “feathered” in. to do this, the paint around the wound must be sanded to bring the ridge down. BUT it also should be sanded because laying new paint over old dry paint will leave a weak point where the new paint will not bond mechanically to the old and that paint will be subject to peeling. this is why they say to lightly sand over old paint when recoating (they say this on the can). this is the difference between a “professional” job and a homeowner job. if the op gets a fine iron balustrade and spends a lot of money doing this right the first time, they will want to maintain it properly.

i did not want to say this here because it might be overkill for this board and for iron work (it would not be on a fine balustrade) but there is a product that we use to fill this “ridges” (so that if we spot a ridge we missed after we begin finishing, we do not have begin sanding spots). When i was a child it had lead in it and we called it “red lead”. I have some of the modern replacement now and i think the name of the product is “nitro stan”. it is a fine, fast drying filler that does not have to be primed. we put a thin layer in and it dries and we can keep on painting. Most iron i see has so many defects that i would not bother with this product but if someone on here has very nice iron, the Nitro Stan is available at Abbot Paint.

If you wish to know more about this process as professionals do it, i am teaching a wood finishing class here this saturday at 11 am. there is not a hell of a lot of difference between finishing wood and metal, especially when we begin talking about fine work (during the over coating process, it does not matter what is underneath, the process is the same; product may be different – or may not be). I have a floor with some wear and chips in it and i am going to explain this very process during that class on the floor and will explain how to blend this so it will not be visible (it involves light sanding on and around the damaged spot, sealing the damage with poly, a second coat of poly in that spot and perhaps a little out, another light sanding on the entire floor and then an overcoat; the floor guys will hate me for teaching this class). i will also be able to point to the wood in my crappy 1920’s queens home and show people what happens when people do not sand around chips as they repair them.

sanding and other prep work are the most important part of any painting or finish repair or touch up job. the problem with the current cast of painters is they do not believe in using sandpaper. i have hired painters in this city and handed them sandpaper and put them to work and they would leave for lunch and not come back even to collect the money i owe them because they do not believe in using sand paper.

I often talk to people about this stuff during home inspections. i cannot go into great detail during the inspections (hence this saturday class; it grew out of a customer’s suggestion). if you join it, i promise you, you will learn things you never heard about finishing before. i am not charging a lot of money. there is one spot left.

Steve
brownstonehomeinspection.com

About 10 year’s ago I saw a blacksmith in Grafton, VT demonstrate ironworking. He said that actual wrought iron isn’t used now and it’s actually mild steel. I don’t know if that has any relevance to maintenance.