Repainting Rusted Steel Gutters

Painting over powder coated steel.

Repainting rusted steel gutters.

Scrape off peeling paint and powdery flaking rust until the surface is mostly smooth. Although they probably won t rust aluminum can be punctured more easily than steel gutters. When you want to repaint your gutters you will need to do some extra preparatory work. Aluminum gutters can develop holes too.

Then paint with a good quality exterior latex paint. Make sure you spray at a downward angle and rinse thoroughly. A paint scraper or metal putty knife may also do the trick. You are now ready to inspect and repair your steel gutter.

You don t need to get down to bare shiny metal just clean off the flakes and powdery surface rust that prevent paint from adhering. However badly rusted metal areas need more prep work and possibly a special primer. Scrape off any flaking paint with a plastic putty knife. The plastic putty knife does not scratch aluminum like a metal putty knife or steel wire brush.

Before you paint your steel gutters you want to repair any holes or cracks in them. For the best possible paint job it s wise to apply a corrosion resistant metal primer to galvanized gutters and downspouts but if no rust was found a primer isn t absolutely necessary if you are applying 100 acrylic latex paint. You don t need to get down to bare metal. Most steel or aluminium gutters have a lifetime of between twenty and thirty years provided they are cared for appropriately.

Move the stepladder as necessary and continue scraping the old loose paint from the entire gutter system. Fixing cracks are the easiest. Once the bulk of the rust and peeling paint have been removed clean up the surfaces with a dry scrubbing pad. Among home paint projects painting over powder coated steel may seem the most daunting for the do it yourselfer.

Once the area is clean and dry coat the affected spot with a metal primer designed to inhibit rust. After your done washing you need to rinse the soap off with your water hose. Part of your responsibility as a home owner is to make sure that checking gutters for rust and damage is part of your annual routine. First prepare the surface by rubbing the gutters down with denatured alcohol.

Tips for repainting gutters. Do not paint the interior of vinyl gutters. Scrape off all loose flaking and peeling paint. This primer will protect the bare metal almost as though you were replacing the zinc coating.

Position a stepladder under the gutters. Sometimes rust corrosion can eat all the way through galvanized steel gutters. Using the metal scraper scrape as much of the metal railings as possible to remove the rust and any peeling paint. If you re dealing with a lightly rusted surface you may just need to give it a quick scrub with a brush.