Our bronze-colored powder-coated porch railing was looking REALLY bad. The dust, grime, and calcium stains looked awful! Washing helped very little. Everbrite™ coatings to the rescue!
Powder coating is actually a specialized type of paint, applied thicker, more durable than typical paint - but it’s still paint. A coating. That means that it can become damaged, degraded, stained, or discolored over time.
That certainly was the case with our front porch railing. Constructed as both a functional and artistic element of our house, it’s made of steel square and rectangular tubes, rebar, and metal leaves to resemble flowing vines. It gets compliments all the time - we love it!
Here’s what we don’t love. How it became discolored, along with areas that are severely chalky-looking, due to extreme calcium deposits. Add wind-blown dust (we get a lot of “breezes” where we live), and we can use all the help we can get to keep the railing looking fresh, clean, and glossy.
Our railing was challenged because lots of dust gets deposited on the railing and when we wiped it down, there were still lots of discoloration.
This is mainly because sprinkler water lands on portions of the railing. Our water has a VERY high calcium content. We’ve been able to manage it INSIDE by using water softening and calcium cleaners when needed on glass and restroom surfaces. OUTSIDE is another story. Even a few weeks of water landing on the powder-coated railing and then evaporating off leaves ugly calcium deposits.
Fortunately, we found a product kit that allows us to both clean the railing as well as coat it to give it protection, long-term washability, and a very nice sheen (almost like when it was new!).
The product is EverBrite™. The company offers several products for metal and paint protection, as well as home products that keep stainless steel products (think sinks, appliances) from getting stained or “fingerprinted up”, as well as antimicrobial coatings.
We used their flagship product, Everbrite™ on our railing. It is a clear, protective coating that restores the color and luster of chalky, dull, or faded siding as well as painted (remember, powder coating is a type of paint) or anodized metals (think of many types of aluminum shapes and extrusions). Everbrite is also a metal protectant and will stop copper, brass, or bronze from tarnishing or oxidizing. For those that live by the ocean or salt-water inlets, this is fantastic news!
First, you need to remove the calcium and other impurities using either provided product (“EZ Prep™ in the Everbrite™ kit we purchased, or the cleaning product CLR (which stands for calcium, lime, and rust). Its main active ingredients are lactic and gluconic acids. Using rubber gloves, we applied the CLR first, working a manageable area at a time. We used it on all rail portions, doing all processes in a workable section at a time. After the CLR had done its work, we rinsed it off with lots of water. This removed most of the CLR while diluting the mixture to a point that it didn’t harm any plants in our flower bed that borders our front porch.
Next, the surface needs to be absolutely neutralized. A WATER RINSE WILL NOT SUFFICE. We brushed down the section with baking soda water (about a 1/4 cup in a 1-gallon pail of water). The fizzing told us that there was indeed acid still on the surface. Once the reaction subsided, we rinsed it all again with clear water.
While the surface is still wet, you can see what it will look like when you put on the Everbrite™ sealant. If it looks good, you’re ready to go. If not, do the cleaning steps again to see if you can improve the results. In our case, it looked great.
Once the railing section was dry, we applied the Everbrite™ product with the supplied application pad, let it dry, and lightly buffed it with a dry cloth. It looks fabulous.
We still get dust and calcium on the railings (it’s outside after all!), but it is easy to wipe off with a bit of moisture and touch-up. This has been a near miracle after so many attempts to get this to look good.
The EverBrite Company offers Everbrite™ kits to make the job easy and so you have all the supplies on hand to get to work. The kit contains Everbrite™ protective coating, EZ Prep cleaning concentrate and neutralizer, 2 prep pads, 2 microfiber towels, 2 applicators, and nitrile gloves.
Based on our positive experience, we’ll obtain and report on other Everbrite™ products.
Hi, Dirt Farmer Jay here from DirtFarmerJay.com. Dirt Farmer Maggie and I love having a front porch
in this great steel powder coated railing around it. We get lots of compliments, but let me tell
you one thing we really don't like. That's oxidation and calcium buildup. Let me show you
how we take care of that little problem. Hi, Dirt Farmer Jay here from DirtFarmerJay.com. We love
this porch railing. It's steel and it's been powder coated with a bronze finish. Powder coating is
actually paint, so it's susceptible to some of the damages and ravages of being outside.
Now, this porch railing obviously is out in the environment, so whatever I do to treat it to take
care of it is not a one and done, kind of. As far as washing off dust, fly specks, bird droppings,
other things that happen, that's an ongoing event just like your lawn furniture or even your car.
So wiping things down is something that needs to be done on an ongoing basis,
but there are certain kinds of damages or deposits on this paint finish that won't wipe off. Namely,
take a look at this over here. These are calcium deposits from the sprinkler water, and if this
was in the sun on an ongoing basis, it would eventually start to oxidize from the sun's UV
rays, and hence you need something more than just soap and water or auto-waxing. You need
something specifically formulated and made to protect these kind of surfaces. To show you how
effective the approach we're going to take and the product that we're going to apply, take a look at
the two different sections. This whole different section right here was cleaned and treated
approximately three months ago, and if you don't think the difference is remarkable, you can see
where we stopped on both of those. All right, let me show you a few of the supplies that we're going
to be using to get this project done. We were able to find a kit that had everything we needed on the
product application side. We added a few things as far as removing calcium, and let me walk you
through that very briefly. What it comes with is some abrasive pads like this, some microfiber
cloths like this, two applicators which you've seen before in applying car wax, that sort of
thing. I have one in foil here because it actually has product on it, and I'm keeping it so it can be
used again. We have this Easy Prep which can be used either as a concentrated
cleaner for removing some of the items on the object, but it's also an acid neutralizer
after you apply acid of some kind to take off the calcium. And then this is the magical product
right here, Everbright's Crystal Clear Coating. They actually carry this for several other products
as well, but today we're going to talk about painted coatings. And again, remember powder coating is a
type of paint, so it is susceptible to everything else that normal paint is, even though it'll last
longer and it's thicker. Here's some additional things you're going to need. Since you're going to
be applying an acid for removal of the calcium, get yourself some good thick rubber gloves,
some safety glasses. I am using CLR. Now CLR is calcium lime and rust remover, and how it works,
it has both an lactic and gluconic acid in milder forms, but it does a great job of going against
the alkaline nature of the calcium because it is an acid to neutralize it and make it so you
can wash it off. Now something you should be aware of, right on this it says don't use on
painted products. So why are we using it for painted products? Because we're only going to
have it on there for just a few moments till it does its job, and then we're going to rinse it off
and then neutralize it with a baking soda bath. Now you'll need some way to apply the CLR or
any of the acid solution you may be using. So I just use a little throwaway tub like this.
These chip brushes you can get at your favorite home improvement store for less than a buck a
piece. I'm using a plastic bowl so it's not affected by the acid, and just one of this an
older kitchen sponge type of thing here. And I keep these covered so I can come back and work on
again. You're also going to need baking soda. Now where you're going to use this is after you apply
the acid, let it do its work and start to remove or make it so that you can remove all the calcium
or oxidation. Then what you're going to do is rinse down everything with clear water first,
and then you're going to take about a cup of this and put it into a gallon or so of water,
mix it all up, and then rinse down the whole area again. Now you may think that you removed all the
acid just by clear washing it. That's not true. You'll need a chemical neutralizer, and that's
what the baking soda does. You'll see some foaming occur indicating it's working correctly, and then
rinse it down one more time. And at this point you're ready to apply the product. All right, we
have all of our supplies laid out here ready to neutralize this and get this off of here. First
thing I'm going to do is go ahead and put on my safety glasses because we are working with an
acidic compound here. We now have some gloves which I'll put on right now because we're going
to start pouring the acid. I always keep the lid on my products when I'm out working so if I bump
one over, and I'm just going to put a reasonable amount in this little plastic container right here
to be able to work with. Go ahead and cap that back up in case you kick it over. You don't want
it spilling all over the place. And now I'm just going to go ahead and use this brush, soak that in,
and we're just going to start applying on top of this. And as we put it on, it's actually starting
to foam as we flood it. Now I'm not just trying to get as much coverage as far as I can go with
a brush. I want to make sure that there's product on each one, each area, enough to really do the job
of getting that calcium cut. So we're letting that go, and I'm going to go ahead and make sure I'm
Here we go. And while we're at it, let's just go ahead and do the base of the post. You can
see the foaming occur right there where it's hitting that calcium deposit. Now you may be
wondering also, we're using acid right here and you're looking, we're right along a flower bed
here. Are we going to end up damaging the plants? No, because what we're going to do is really dilute
this acid. Actually where we live in the mountain west of the United States, our water is very
alkaline, and so that makes everything alkaline when it's watered. So we're going to go ahead and
put a little acid in there and dilute it down. It'll be fine for the plants. We've let it set
for a couple minutes here. We're going to go ahead and just rinse this all down with its first bath
and just to get the first cut done. So we'll just go ahead and do that. Rinse through here. I'm going
to rinse all the areas that I put coating on. All right, that's our first neutralization. Now we need
to use our baking soda water to finish the job. Let's let it set for a moment. If you have areas
like this that still need a little bit of work, you can see just still a little bit of cloudiness
there, take an abrasive pad or one of these and scrub it just a little bit. You don't need to do much
and get that mechanically removed off of there. So we'll go ahead and just scrub that. I'm not
having to do a lot of work here. This is just light, almost buffing. Okay, let's go ahead and rinse
that again. See what we get. Look at the difference there. Very clean, ready to go. Okay, now it's time
to neutralize it further. Remember, just that first wash doesn't quite do it. So I've got here about a
gallon of water. I'm going to take about a quarter cup of baking soda and put it in there. This
doesn't need to be precise. Just mix it up and then what we're going to do is put this on to
the areas where we did the acid rinse before and that'll further absolutely neutralize
all of the acid there. So kind of flood the area. Don't be stingy. Matter of fact, I'm going to go
and just dump some on that area right there and we can dump some up on this area also on the top.
Here we go. All right, and now let's just rinse off that neutralizer. Let's just do one last coat
with regular water. We'll go ahead and take care of all of this here. Get all the neutralization
off of there and now we are ready almost after we dry it to apply the coating. Notice that as we let
this start to dry that you see some calcium deposits start to show back up again. Here's the
to know whether or not you're ready to put on the coating. Simply wet the area with regular water
and look at the appearance. If it looks beautiful and you don't see anything showing through when
it's wet like this, then it's time to go ahead and apply the coating. Don't worry about that final
amount that dries. Now we need to let this dry or wipe it down and then we're ready to apply the
coating. Okay, we're now ready to apply the coating and all we're going to do here is I
actually keep the lid on everything especially the most premium product here and I just use tin foil
around the applicator pad. So we're going to go ahead and squeeze the top undo this and apply
right in here onto the pad. Once it's in the pad we'll work it on a little bit and we're going to
start right here at the cut line where we did the last application. Here we go. See that haze
disappear? If it wasn't there when the water was on it and it wasn't when we put the glaze on it's
all going to disappear. Isn't that beautiful? All right let's go ahead and move down to this area
here and you can see this discoloration right along here but when we had water on it all that
was invisible and so it'll be invisible when you apply this glaze. So let's go ahead and hit it.
Here we go. Wow what a difference. Now this will be easy to maintain with simple wipe downs and
this product allows touch-ups from time to time if there's an area that's starting to have problems
a bit you can put on a second coating and a little bit as you saw goes a long way. They also have
other products like it antimicrobial coatings as well as a product that's used for copper sinks
stainless steel sinks and for those stainless steel fronts on your kitchen appliances. We'll be trying
those out and letting you know our thoughts on that as well. Meanwhile you can check out their
website at RenewMetal.com for their whole product line FAQs and all that if you're interested in it.
You know another problem you likely have in your home is stains and baked on or cooked on grease
in your cookware or other kitchen areas. Well check out this video where Dirt Farmer Maggie
tells her secret barkeeper's friend and she'll show you how well it really does work and then
check out this other video we produced for you that we think will interest you and so does YouTube
because they put it there for your viewing enjoyment. Until the next time
this is Dirt Farmer Jay from DirtFarmerJay.com enjoying the front porch.
