Repainting Rusted Steel Gutters

Sometimes rust corrosion can eat all the way through galvanized steel gutters.

Repainting rusted steel gutters.

Position a stepladder under the gutters. Move the stepladder as necessary and continue scraping the old loose paint from the entire gutter system. Fixing cracks are the easiest. First prepare the surface by rubbing the gutters down with denatured alcohol.

Although they probably won t rust aluminum can be punctured more easily than steel gutters. In either case rub the rust back until you see only clean bare metal. If grime or grease remains use mineral spirits and medium steel wool to remove it. Make sure you spray at a downward angle and rinse thoroughly.

Scrape off all loose flaking and peeling paint. Before you paint your steel gutters you want to repair any holes or cracks in them. If the surface has peeling or soft paint it scratches with a fingernail remove it with a putty knife or a. Tips for repainting gutters.

Gutters often used to be made of galvanized steel as it was a very strong and hardy material. When treating rusted gutters small patches of rust can be rubbed down with an emery cloth or some fine sandpaper whilst larger patches should be cleaned up with a stiff wire brush or a wire brush wheel fitted in a drill. Once the bulk of the rust and peeling paint have been removed clean up the surfaces with a dry scrubbing pad. 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.

Then paint with a good quality exterior latex paint. After your done washing you need to rinse the soap off with your water hose. For non flat surfaces that the metal scraper can t reach switch to a wire brush to remove the rest of the rust. You are now ready to inspect and repair your steel gutter.

Do not paint the interior of vinyl gutters. Scrape off any flaking paint with a plastic putty knife. Rusted gutters mean trouble and some gutters seem to rust more readily than others. The plastic putty knife does not scratch aluminum like a metal putty knife or steel wire brush.

The first step is to clean off loose rust and flaking paint and then apply a rust inhibitive primer. When you want to repaint your gutters you will need to do some extra preparatory work. Once the area is clean and dry coat the affected spot with a metal primer designed to inhibit rust. This primer will protect the bare metal almost as though you were replacing the zinc coating.

After the patch is situated cover it completely with another coat of roofing cement. Using the metal scraper scrape as much of the metal railings as possible to remove the rust and any peeling paint. However badly rusted metal areas need more prep work and possibly a special primer. Aluminum gutters can develop holes too.