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A36 Carbon Steel in a West Coast Environment

I am an architect in San Francisco working on a project under construction in northern California near the coast. We are evaluating a submittal of A36 carbon steel plate for use as an exterior stair tread and landing material. Is it appropriate to leave this material exposed to weather without a finish, or should it be hot dipped galvanized? Also, if field welding is performed, what is the appropriate procedure / finish for protection against weather and corrosion?

William Pearson
Architect - San Francisco, California
2005

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Galvanizing would be far superior. If you chose to just go with paint though, it should be shop applied after proper pretreatment. Steel with no coating or just a field applied paint will almost surely corrode badly.

The welded and cut areas of galvanized stairs and landings can be painted with a zinc rich paint which is called cold galvanizing compound Cold Galvanizing Compound / Zinc Rich Paint.

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
2005

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2005

Sir,
You apply two coats cold galvanising ready mix compound by brushing on the surface you apply any colour of your choice then forgot about corrsion up to minimum 25 years.
You can apply directly on corroded surface but the metal is new its require sand blasting.

R.Solaiappan
best enterprises - Chennai, Tamilnadu, India