Letter 16257

Painting galvanized pipe  

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How do you prep and paint galvanized pipe?

Joel W Parham
- Gainesville, Texas

An earlier visitor to the site reported that cleaning with a scrub brush and tri-sodium phosphate took care of the prep work. Then you just paint it. This assumes you are talking about a consumer application! A manufacturer who is making painted galvanized pipe should be careful to make sure that the pipe is not chromated after galvanizing, but is immediately painted instead. Visit www.galvanizeit.org to learn more.

Ted Mooney, P.E.  finishing.com Brick, New Jersey

I have already purchased galvanized pipe. Can I now paint it? If so, do I use Rust oleum? On separate occasions, both at Lowes and Home Depot, I have been told that I could and told that I couldn't. . . thanks muchly for your answer

philip browning
- auburn, alabama

The reason you get conflicting answers, Philip, is that painting galvanized materials is a difficult problem but no one is going to say it's impossible, because it's not; plus no one can say what's "good enough" for you.

If you are selling a product made from this galvanized pipe it's one thing; if you're just trying to scrape by with a personal project, it's another. But for personal use get a primer made for the application like Bulldog Tie Coat [link is to product info at Amazon] and you should be okay. Good luck!

Ted Mooney finishing.com Brick, New Jersey