6 Advantages of Powder Coated Wrought Iron Fences
When it comes to Las Vegas home security and property safety, fencing is an important element. The right fence keeps pets in, unwanted characters out, and provides a decorative element to your home’s appearance. For course, choosing the right fence for your property isn’t as easy at it seems. Between the hot sun and desert winds, Las Vegas homeowners must choose their fencing options carefully.
Wrought iron fences can be a beautiful addition to your home and a highly reliable choice for fencing. Unlike wood, wrought iron does not dry, crack, or crumble in the Nevada sun. While wrought iron is solid through and through, it needs a protective coating to prevent rust and long-term decay. While paint and clearcoat last a while, there is no better way to adorn your wrought iron fences than with powder coating.
How Does One Powder-Coat a Fence?
Powder coating is an eco-friendly way to coat a fence in pigment and protective polymers without toxic paint solvents. The way it works is through static electricity and oven curing. First, the fence is sand-blasted and stripped of all imperfections. Then the powder coating is applied with a gun that statically charges and propels the pigment and sealant as a powder. The powder sticks to the metal in an even layer and when cured in an oven, the powder actually bonds to the metal itself forming a perfect sealing coat. Fences are powder-coated in sections.
The Advantages of a Powder Coated Wrought Iron Fence
1. Decades of Durability
It is a well known fact that paint on a fence eventually chips away. Paint can be scratched, scuffed, and carved into. If the fences, the paint cracks and flakes away from the dent. But powder coating doesn’t do any of these things. Powder coating is incredibly resistant to scratches and scuffs and it is nearly impossible to carve into. Because it is bonded to the metal itself, it also does not flake or chip away over time. If your metal fence is dented, the powder coating is reasonably flexible and usually flexes with the dent to maintain a perfect seal, and moves again with the fence if the dent is hammered out.
Powder coating can last flawlessly for decades, preserving your fence and your property value without the need to repaint or, worse, strip and then repaint your fence every few years.
2. Chip-Proof Rust Resistance
The other problem that powder coating solves is rust. Las Vegas may be known for a dry desert climate, but it does occasionally rain here. And when it does, fences rust. The problem with paint is that from the smallest scratch to large flaking chips, the seal that paint provides is easily broken and gets worse over time. This exposes a fence to long-term rust which can eventually reduce the integrity of your fence sections.
Powder coating prevents this problem by profoundly resisting scratches and never flaking away. Because powder coating doesn’t chip, it doesn’t open up your fence to moisture and the risk of rust. This means your fence will look great and resist weather-related damage for a long time.
3. Extensive Choice of Color and Finish
One thing not many people realize about powder coating is that the pigment and finish selection is incredible. Most assume that powder coating is limited to what factories provide, black or gray stippled finish. But the options are far more vast than that. With professional powder coating, you can have any color or hue that you can envision for your home.
If the powder coating studio you’re working with doesn’t have the shade you want, they can mix it up from the existing colors. They will then coat and cure a test scrap of metal to show you how it comes out so you’re sure to be happy with the final result.
As for finishes, you might be surprised to learn that powder coating can range from a smooth polished-metal or candy-paint-shiny texture to the rough ‘wrought iron’ texture you’re used to. You can even have marbling and ripples, though these are more common for art pieces and vehicles and tend to weaken the coating with variable thickness.
With a powder coating service, you can have any color and finish you want for your home fence. And any other metal objects you choose to have powder-coated.
4. Real and Perceived Security
It’s a subtle psychological fact that a home with chipping paint on its fences looks less cared for and more vulnerable to intruders, even if this is not logistically true. This requires homeowners with painted fences to constantly strip and repaint to maintain the appearance of security and discourage intruders from attempting to breach their fenceline for opportunity.
A powder-coated fence requires very minimal maintenance, just a hose-down every few months, to look as pristine as the day it was installed. This, in turn, reminds would-be intruders that your home is well-cared-for and not likely to be a rewarding target.
5. Upgrade New or Old Fencing
One of the great things about powder coating is that it is a refinishing option for both brand new fence and old fence that has seen a few rough years. The first stage of powder coating, for any item, is sandblasting. This creates a clean, smooth surface that is free of any old paint or finish, free of any rust, and free of dirt or grime that might hinder the coating process.
Because of the sandblasting stage, you can actually bring in sections of your old wrought iron fence even if it has a few spots of rust and old chipping paint to be refinished and made better than it was before. Or you can choose new wrought iron fence sections to have powder-coated in whatever color and finish you prefer giving you far more selection than you get directly from the manufacturer.
6. Eco-Friendly Refinishing Solution
Finally, powder coating is remarkably eco-friendly. With liquid paint, the solvent and sealant are contained within a toxic liquid solvent. Excess toxic mixture runs down the drain and the solvents evaporate into the air creating ‘paint fumes’ each time something is painted. But powder coating isn’t like that at all. Not only is powder coating solvent-free because it is applied with static electricity and set with heat; it also doesn’t involve waste or losing material down a drain. With the right prepared space, any excess powder that does not bond to the item falls into a tarp which is then folded to recollect the clean powder to be used in another project. No waste, no toxins, no drain pollution when you choose to powder coat.
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Want to learn more about powder coating? Interested in restoring an old wrought iron fence or refinishing a new fence? Contact our team today! AR Powder Coating is proud to provide high-quality powder coating services to Las Vegas and the greater Clark County area.
