How To Paint Rust-Stained Surfaces

Successfully block rust stains on surfaces, preventing them from seeping through to new paint work – our 2-step guide below walks you through on how to suitably prepare, prime and paint over rust with Zinsser products, featuring a decorative topcoat that is available in more than 4,000+ RAL, NCS and BS colours.

Zinsser Paint Rust Stains Products

• Zinsser Mould Killer & Remover
• Zinsser Universal Degreaser & Cleaner
• Zinsser Cover Stain
• Zinsser Perma-White Interior
• Zinsser AllCoat Exterior Satin/Gloss

Clicking on each Zinsser item will take you to its product page where you can add to basket.

The Benefits

Rust stains on buildings look dirty and suggest that a business or landlord isn’t keen on maintaining a property, which can lead to questions regarding quality of service or products – hardly the sort of reputation a thriving company or letting agent would want to have.

They can appear on exterior metal surfaces such as:

• Cladding
• Around guttering
• Under soffits
• Around signage on shop fronts
• On garage doors and loading doors at warehouses and workshops
• Interior structural metalwork

Customers are much less likely to enter a shop with a dirty storefront, just as tenants less likely to want to view a home with rust stains, resulting in less foot traffic.

First impressions are everything on the high street and for letting homes on the rental market; with Zinsser, you can quickly make a change for the better, in most cases on the same day, with minimal fuss and disruption for customers and staff.

Zinsser listens to contactors and develops new products – or adds features to existing products – to meet their changing needs, delivering world class products that meet “real world” challenges, providing tried and tested solutions to painting problems, such as painting over exterior water stains. Their exterior Allcoat paint allows problems areas to be covered in more than 350 colours.

Step 1. Surface Preparation / Priming

Clean the surface and ensure it is dry and free from anything that could interfere with the adhesion and application of materials and coatings to be applied.

Remove any loose and failing material by scraping or brushing with a stiff bristle brush to a sound edge, feathering this with a fine grade abrasive paper and removing all dust.

Signs of organic growth should be removed with the areas treated with Zinsser Mould Killer & Remover in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions and allowed to dry.

Areas that have sound paint remaining should be cleaned down to remove any contaminants with Zinsser Universal Degreaser & Cleaner, rinsing thoroughly with clean water to remove all residues and allowing to dry, before thoroughly degreasing with methylated spirit whilst changing the cloths regularly.

Fill any cracks and small surface defects with a suitable filler, as appropriate in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions, allowing it to dry before rubbing down with a fine grade abrasive paper and removing all dust.

Patch prime all bare and filled areas with one coat of Zinsser Cover Stain in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions, allowing a minimum of 2 hours to dry ( in normal drying conditions).

These patch primed areas can then be brought forward with one coat of Cover Stain; allow to dry and then apply one full coat of Cover Stain overall and allow to dry before decorating the surface.

Step 2. Decoration

Now the rust-stained surface has been prepared and primed it can be decorated in one of more than 4,000+ RAL, NCS and BS colours in RAL and BS.

For interior surfaces use two full coats of Zinsser Perma-White Interior matt, gloss or satin finish in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions. Allow a minimum drying time of two hours between coats.

For exterior projects, decorate with two full coats of Zinsser AllCoat Exterior Satin/Gloss, in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions, allowing a minimum drying time of one hour between coats.

More Information

If you require more advice on painting over rust-stained surfaces, give our technical team a call on 0113 2455450 (option 2) or send a message to [email protected].