As a homeowner who likes to repair things yourself, you will be pleased to learn that you can easily rejuvenate your home's vintage wrought iron fence. Whether the paint is chipping or the surface looks rusty, bringing the beautiful look of the ornamental wrought iron back to your fence is a do-it-yourself task that any homeowner can easily complete in a weekend.
Here are some tips to ensure that your vintage fence rejuvenation project is successful:
Properly Prepare the Surface for New Paint
Just like the key to success when painting your home's walls lies in the preparation, the same is true for repainting your wrought iron fence. If you do not properly prepare the surface to accept a new layer of paint, then you will soon find that the new paint will flake off and damaging rust will return. By properly preparing the fence, you make the surface the absolute best it can be to accept paint, and your reward for this work is a fence that looks as beautiful as the day it was made.
To prepare your vintage wrought iron fence for painting, sand it very well using either an Emery cloth or sandpaper. Emery cloth is a flexible sanding cloth that works well with wrought iron because it is flexible and can get into areas that are more complicated for traditional paper-backed sandpaper. Make sure that you sand off any area where there is rust or peeling paint. There is no need to remove all of the paint from the fence, just the damaged areas to leave a nice smooth surface for painting.
Clean the Fence of All Residual Contaminants
Once the surface of your ornamental iron fence has been well sanded, then you need to wash it with a solution of mild dish detergent and water. Scrub the fence with a stiff brush to remove any residual flaking paint, rust, dirt, and other grime. Hose off the fence with clean water and then allow it to completely air dry in the sun before you apply paint.
Mask Landscaping to Paint the Fence
Finally, when you are ready to paint your vintage ornamental wrought iron fence, you need to place a tarp or large piece of cardboard behind the areas you are going to spray paint. If you skip this step, then you will have a lot of overspray damage to your surrounding landscaping and plants.
