# Painting Diamond Plated Steps



## akrause (May 18, 2010)

Has anyone ever been sucessful with a field applied coatings system on new diamond plated steel steps & risers? I have not. Over the years we've tried just about everything we can (*that will fit into commercial budgets) ... (KemBond, Macropoxy, ...etc) and nothing stands up to foot traffic on metal steps. Within days, sometimes even within hours of opening the tower after full and proper coating cure times, moderate foot traffic begins showing the primer, then soon after - bare metal.
We've reached the point of excluding any and all warranty and advising clients to reconsider the design if they're open to it.


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## Vinyl 54X (Mar 12, 2019)

The raised area of the plate gets the worst damage. The top edge of the tread never holds to high foot traffic. always a no win.


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## CApainter (Jun 29, 2007)

akrause said:


> Has anyone ever been sucessful with a field applied coatings system on new diamond plated steel steps & risers? I have not. Over the years we've tried just about everything we can (*that will fit into commercial budgets) ... (KemBond, Macropoxy, ...etc) and nothing stands up to foot traffic on metal steps. Within days, sometimes even within hours of opening the tower after full and proper coating cure times, moderate foot traffic begins showing the primer, then soon after - bare metal.
> We've reached the point of excluding any and all warranty and advising clients to reconsider the design if they're open to it.


Amerlock 2 (formerly Amerlock 400) is a durable surface tolerant epoxy designed to be applied directly to bare steel substrates. However, creating an anchor via abrasive blasting is the only hope of ensuring best adhesion on high traffic areas. Unfortunately, this is often impractical and restricted. 

In terms of a coating system that will last, you're probably looking at a three coat system. Something like two coats of epoxy and one coat of polyurethane, or one coat of epoxy and two coats of urethane. I think the former is more often applied.


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