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VERY important on steel surfaces, useful on fiberglass, concrete,
etc. as well!
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Your Host and Tour Guide:
Paul Oman, MS, MBA - Progressive Epoxy Polymers, Inc.
Member: NACE (National Assoc. of Corrosion Engineers), SSPC (Soc. of Protective Coatings)
"Professionals helping Professionals"
"Not all 'water-soluble' salts may be removed by water
washing because various salts adsorb on the steel surface..... extra surface preparation - in addition to traditional
cleaning - is necessary to ensure good coating performance."
"...Water alone may remove only a portion of the salt ions from the surface. Water may not solubilzie and
wash all the 'water soluble' salts from the surface in the time allotted for washing. Remaining salts can effectively
catalyze future corrosive reactions."
"...The chloride attached to the iron now is considered a surface-reacted salt (SRS). though iron chloride
by itself is water soluble when it becomes an SRS it is very difficult for water solubilization to occur because
of the electrochemical forces attaching them to the steel surface. Note that boiling a steel coupon... contaminated
with SRS and using dionized water for 1 hour removes only 90-95% of the salts. In the field, tepid potable water
washed onto the metal surface may remove only a minor amount or none at all."
"Conventional methods of surface preparation such as abrasive blast cleaning, power or hand tool cleaning,
and water washing do not impart sufficient energy to break the salt absorption force bond."
"This extra effort is essential to ensure that the level of soluble salt contamination is low enough to mitigate
premature coating failure caused by relatively low levels of these catalyzed salts."
"Salts, such as chlorides, sulfates and nitrates, are the same whether on steel or concrete or fiberglass.
Our salt remover will solubilize and remove them from any surface."
"Salts are a great problem on concrete and are almost always there. Example, chlorides are present in the
tap water used in the mixture and often the aggregate has some chloride present from it's source, typically a riverbed
of some kind. The chlorides are spread throughout the concrete as it is mixed, then as it dries/cures the moisture
travels to the top, carrying chlorides with it, the H2O evaporates and leaves the chlorides behind right on the
very surface you want to coat. It could be chlorides, sulfates or nitrates or any combination depending on what
is present. Almost always, the top 1/8 to 1/4 inch of concrete is much higher in chlorides than the concrete 2
inches deep."
"The salts in concrete can be semi-bond (just like they are on steel surfaces) because they can react with
some of the iron minerals, contaminants, etc. in the concrete. Also note that while some salts can quickly be removed
with water and brush, other salts, albeit water soluble, do not dissolve as readily as others."
"Besides salts within the concrete itself, concrete surfaces are often acid etched. The acids can leave behind
their constituent salt ions within the etched surface. To bottom line is that there could well be areas of high
salt content on your concrete surface that will adversely affect your coating surface bond."
"If you do acid etch, flush the acid well with water, then neutralize any remaining acid with a 'base' detergent
(a handful of Tide ® in a bucket of water). Rinse well. Now, if you etched or not, wash down with our salt
remover and a stiff brush, then a final water rinse."
"These salts can often interfere with adhesion of a coating. Salts can also be introduced with admixtures
and curing agents or release agents. Consequently it is not unusual to have salt contamination of concrete surfaces.
It is very hard to identify through testing as results can vary from area to area since there are wide variations
in the concrete itself, how it is troweled and from load to load. Knowing salts are present it is
easiest and very economical to simply wet the surface to be coated with salt remover, then rinse with a pressure
washer or garden hose. A pressure washer is preferred."
"Regarding fiberglass, I know of no actual study regarding salts and coating failure, but typically I see
fiberglass boats recoated and a year or so later delamination begins of either small or large flakes or both. In
most cases the shop which applied the coating was sure they did a thorough cleaning and abrading of the surface,
yet disbondment occurred anyway. It is my belief that when they cleaned, typically with detergents or degreasers,
they did not get the salts removed, nor did abrading the surface remove them. Any salts remaining can readily suck
moisture through the paint film and cause disbondment. If the surface were steel it would corrode at the same time,
but since fiberglass does not corrode it simply disbonds the paint film. The same would be true of wood or any
other such surface. The salts are hydroscopic, meaning they draw moisture, and they draw that moisture right through
the paint film and cause it to disbond."
"Certainly fiberglass is porous (the reason for applying an epoxy barrier coating) and all kinds of mineral
salts, not just 'sea salt' can be found in both salt and fresh water and presumably at and below the surface of
a fiberglass hull. I have no fiberglass boat 'studies' but the salt wash formulating company reports that pool
painting contractors have virtually eliminated pool coating blistering (on fiberglass pools) by using a salt remover
washdown as the final step in pool surface preparation prior to painting."
Today's new salt remover washes address an invisible aspect and cause of coating problems and failures that experts
are only starting to understand. It is a real issue, but as to how much of a problem it could be for your boat
hull, garage, basement floor, pool, etc. recoating project is hard or impossible to say. Granted it does add to
the cost, but it is added insurance against a possible coating problem. On the other hand, people have coated these
surfaces more or less successfully for many years without the knowledge of this 'soluble salt' issue.
It's your call!
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.. CLICK HERE TO GOOGLE SEARCH OUR ENTIRE WEB SITE FOR KEY TERMS/WORDS .. |
Also visit our Primer on Priming page - Read about priming and surface treatments that can reduce the possibility of coating failure on concrete, steel or fiberglass - CLICK HERE
Please note that we do not sell a 'salt remover' product at this time. Search for Chlor*Rid on the internet.
Knowledge is Power - We like informed consumers!
Learn the basics of epoxy at our educational EPOXY 101 page - Click Here.
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