Protecting Your Wrought Iron

One of the main concerns that people have when it comes to choosing wrought iron is the maintenance. Most people do not know what the maintenance is on wrought iron and how important the maintenance might be. People just hear the word “iron” and think of rusty railroad tracks and sort of shy away from any interior design that incorporates wrought iron. One of the things that people need to realize is the fact that the upkeep on this metal is not as hard as you think.

The first thing that you need to do is just keep it clean. It is very easy to make sure that there is nothing sitting on the metal that will cause it to corrode. If you have this metal that is on the interior of your house this is very easy to do. You just need to basically dust your wrought iron rails to keep them looking great. The problems with maintenance on the wrought iron starts to give you trouble when the iron is outside exposed to the elements. The first thing you need to be aware of is bird poop. This is just as harmful to your iron fence as it is to your car paint finish. Bird poop is very acidic and can eat away any finish or coating that it lands on. This can lead to rust and corrosion that even with a hard sanding will not help. Another thing to be aware of is if you live next to the coast. The fog and dampness from the ocean can really cause the corrosion of the metal to speed up. These are the main things that you need to worry about but most can be avoided if you just keep the iron clean with soap and water. After mild soap and water is used you just need to dry it off and your good to go.

One of the questions with maintenance that many people do have when it comes to iron is what kind of finishes are out there. Mainly the only thing that you can do to really protect a metal like this one is to get a thick coat of paint with a clear coat finish. For interior design this has been seen mostly with the use of black paint. If you are lucky to find a fence or rail powder coat is always the best way to go as far as paint is concerned. For interior or exterior use you cannot go wrong with protecting your iron with a nice coat of paint. You will not have to worry about much and know that it will always look good and clean to add to your home environment. Just make sure that you wash down the bird poo from time to time.