Maintain your Stainless Steel Railings

Stainless steel is usually protected by an oxide layer that prevents the metal from coming into contact with air, water, and acids, it tends to easily rust when exposed to adverse conditions such as chlorides that are often found in marine environments and swimming pools.

To prevent your railings from rusting when exposed to these environments you need to do a number of things.

How to prevent rusting and corrosion

The best way of preventing rust from occurring on your railings is by passivation. This is a procedure that removes any free iron that may be on the surface of the railing. Iron can result from machining or welding. After passivation, a chromium oxide layer forms on the railing and the steel is said to be "passive" and requires very little care.

Once you have installed your railing systems, you need to maintain them for them to last for a long time. The best way of maintaining the railings is by daily rinsing with clean water. Doing this removes any chlorides that might be on the surface.

If the railing has any visible rust, you should remove it immediately using a passivation product. The product removes rust and re-passivates the surface. To ensure that the salts don't find their way into the steel structure, you should treat the passivated areas with a sealing product.

Maintaining steel railings that have rusted severely

If your railing has rusted to the extent that corrosion is crusty, it may be an indication of pitting. If you don't want to remove the steel rail, you should take measures to maintain it. You should note that pitted stainless steel usually requires more maintenance.

The first thing that you need to do is to remove the rust with an aggressive cleaning product. To prevent further damage to the railing you should ensure that the product is non-scratching.

After cleaning the steel you should seal the inter-granular structure using a high quality sealer. After doing this you should ensure that you do regular inspections and follow-up care in order to remove tarnish and lite rust as it appears.

You should note that steel needs to be more than dry to the touch for the cleaning products to work effectively; therefore, if you are treating pool rails, you should ensure that the steel is fully dry before applying the cleaning products. For ideal results you should allow the railing systems to dry for 48 hours before treating them.

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