×
INTELLIGENT WORK FORUMS
FOR ENGINEERING PROFESSIONALS

Log In

Come Join Us!

Are you an
Engineering professional?
Join Eng-Tips Forums!
  • Talk With Other Members
  • Be Notified Of Responses
    To Your Posts
  • Keyword Search
  • One-Click Access To Your
    Favorite Forums
  • Automated Signatures
    On Your Posts
  • Best Of All, It's Free!
  • Students Click Here

*Eng-Tips's functionality depends on members receiving e-mail. By joining you are opting in to receive e-mail.

Posting Guidelines

Promoting, selling, recruiting, coursework and thesis posting is forbidden.

Students Click Here

Jobs

antenna tower surface prep: cost vs benefit

antenna tower surface prep: cost vs benefit

antenna tower surface prep: cost vs benefit

(OP)
hello folks,

I have a ~90' galvanized/painted antenna tower that is quite old and is in need of repainting. The existing paint is chipping and there are some rust spots that need to be taken care of. My question is, what is the cost vs benefit of sandblasting or similar vs hand tools/manual labor to prep the surface for repainting? Environmental issues are a concern so I imagine the tower would need to be covered completely prior to any blasting which would create even more expense. I am assuming that blasting the tower would be the most effective but most expensive option for prep and hand tools/labor would be less effective but less expensive. Can anyone chime in on this or help guide me a little to a next step? I suppose I could/should call and obtain rough estimates for each alternative from several reputable businesses.

RE: antenna tower surface prep: cost vs benefit

What is the environment? Dry land or on the sea coast? How long is the paint job required to last? If the answer is "20 years", then you need to take the whole thing down to bare metal by blasting. If the goal is 5 years, you probably can get by with wire brushing, priming and painting.

RE: antenna tower surface prep: cost vs benefit

(OP)
The environment is dry land and the paint job would hopefully last more along the 10 year range.

RE: antenna tower surface prep: cost vs benefit

Sandblasting will of course make the coating last longer, but if you only need 10 years, manual preparation along with a coating specifically designed for less than optimal surface preparation should do the job.  Here is one coating which I have specified for a long time, and it has always performed for me.
http://www.corrosioncoatings.com/catalog/pdf/Carboline/Carbomastic-15-15FC.pdf

Red Flag This Post

Please let us know here why this post is inappropriate. Reasons such as off-topic, duplicates, flames, illegal, vulgar, or students posting their homework.

Red Flag Submitted

Thank you for helping keep Eng-Tips Forums free from inappropriate posts.
The Eng-Tips staff will check this out and take appropriate action.

Reply To This Thread

Posting in the Eng-Tips forums is a member-only feature.

Click Here to join Eng-Tips and talk with other members!


Resources