Repainting Rusted Steel Gutters

The first step is to clean off loose rust and flaking paint and then apply a rust inhibitive primer.

Repainting rusted steel gutters.

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. Gutters often used to be made of galvanized steel as it was a very strong and hardy material. Using the metal scraper scrape as much of the metal railings as possible to remove the rust and any peeling paint. Sometimes rust corrosion can eat all the way through galvanized steel gutters.

Position a stepladder under the gutters. This primer will protect the bare metal almost as though you were replacing the zinc coating. After your done washing you need to rinse the soap off with your water hose. Move the stepladder as necessary and continue scraping the old loose paint from the entire gutter system.

For non flat surfaces that the metal scraper can t reach switch to a wire brush to remove the rest of the rust. When you want to repaint your gutters you will need to do some extra preparatory work. Scrape off all loose flaking and peeling paint. Once the hole is clean and dry spread roofing cement 1 around the edges of the hole and apply a patch of appropriately sized metal flashing.

Then paint with a good quality exterior latex paint. However badly rusted metal areas need more prep work and possibly a special primer. You are now ready to inspect and repair your steel gutter. Make sure you spray at a downward angle and rinse thoroughly.

The plastic putty knife does not scratch aluminum like a metal putty knife or steel wire brush. This became less commonplace however as steel gutters are far more likely to develop problems with rust. Tips for repainting gutters. Fixing cracks are the easiest.

Aluminum gutters can develop holes too. You can use the same process for repairing holes in both steel and aluminum gutters. First prepare the surface by rubbing the gutters down with denatured alcohol. Scrape off any flaking paint with a plastic putty knife.

Rusted gutters mean trouble and some gutters seem to rust more readily than others. Although they probably won t rust aluminum can be punctured more easily than steel gutters. 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. After the patch is situated cover it completely with another coat of roofing cement.

If grime or grease remains use mineral spirits and medium steel wool to remove it. Before you paint your steel gutters you want to repair any holes or cracks in them. Do not paint the interior of vinyl gutters. In either case rub the rust back until you see only clean bare metal.