Powder coating and electrostatic painting aren't the same thing, and the item decides which one you are asking about.
Powder needs a workshop and an oven, so the item has to come off and travel. Electrostatic liquid application can suit selected fixed metalwork in place. Which route your grills, railings, panels or cabinets belong on depends on their size, the substrate, and whether they can be removed at all.
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- Written, itemised quote
- 1-year workmanship warranty
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At a glance
What's the difference between powder coating and electrostatic painting?
Powder coating applies a dry, electrostatically charged powder that then gets baked in an oven, which is what fuses it into a hard film. That oven is why it's workshop work, and why the item has to be dismantled and transported. Electrostatic liquid painting also uses charge to wrap coating around a surface, but it air-dries, so selected fixed metalwork can be done in place.
When this is the answer, and when it is not.
Sending you to the wrong service wastes your money and our time. This is how to tell.
This is likely right if
- Grills, railings, gates, panels, cabinets, lockers or metal furniture that can be removed, transported and refitted without damaging the surrounding structure
- You want a harder, more uniform factory finish on metal items than brush or ordinary spray application will give
- The metalwork is fixed and can't come out, but the shape is intricate enough that charged liquid application would reach faces a brush can't, assessed item by item
- The item is dimensionally stable metal that will take oven heat without distorting, warping or losing an attached component
Something else comes first if
- The item can't be removed and powder coating is what you actually want. There's no on-site powder coating, without the oven there's no cure, and any offer of it in place should be questioned
- Anything that won't survive the oven: assemblies with plastic, rubber, glass, timber or electrical parts, sealed hollow sections that can trap moisture, and light gauge sections liable to distort
- The metal is heavily corroded, pitted or previously filled, powder is thin and glass-smooth, and it reports every flaw underneath it rather than hiding them
- One or two touch-ups are needed on an existing coated item. Powder can't be spot-repaired to match; a damaged panel is stripped and recoated in full, or repaired in a liquid system instead
What the service includes.
Item assessment and routing
We look at what you've, size, substrate, gauge, existing coating, rust, grease, fabrication quality and attached components, and tell you which method it belongs to, or that neither is the sensible answer.
Dismantling and handling plan
What comes off, how it is protected in transit, what stays behind, and what the opening looks like while the item is away. Security and weather exposure at the gap are settled before anything is removed.
Preparation appropriate to the route
Degreasing, removal of the existing coating, rust treatment and a chemical or mechanical pre-treatment for adhesion. Powder demands a cleaner substrate than most liquid systems, because there's no solvent to help it wet a contaminated surface.
Masking and earthing
Threads, bearing faces, hinges, locks, glass seats and mating surfaces masked, and the item earthed so the charge behaves, poor earthing is what causes thin coverage on the far side of a section.
Application and cure
Powder applied and oven cured to the schedule for that material, or electrostatic liquid applied in controlled passes and left to dry with the working zone contained. Film thickness is checked on completion.
Inspection, refitting and handover
The finish checked for coverage, thickness and appearance, then the item refitted, moving parts eased and adjusted, and care notes issued with the written warranty and its conditions.
Not included, or quoted separately
- Fabrication, welding, straightening and repair of damaged or corroded sections, and replacement of parts that are past coating
- Civil work at fixings, cutting out, grouting and making good the wall, floor or frame where an item is removed and refitted
- New locks, hinges, handles, closers, glass and gaskets, and any part not fit to be refitted after removal
- Temporary security, barricading or weather covering at an opening while an item is away for workshop coating
- Colour matching to an existing coated item as a warranted outcome, batch, gloss level and weathering all shift the appearance, and the closest available match is agreed from a sample first
The sequence.
Assessment and honest routing
We identify the item, the substrate and the constraints, and route it: powder in a workshop, electrostatic liquid in place, or an ordinary enamel or protective system where that genuinely serves you better for the money.
Sample and specification
Colour, gloss level and texture agreed against a physical sample rather than a printed chart, and the specification written down, pre-treatment, coating, film thickness and, for workshop work, the turnaround while the item is off.
Removal, tagging and transport
Items labelled against their openings so they return where they came from, hardware bagged and recorded, and everything protected in transit. Fixed items instead have their surroundings sheeted and masked in place.
Strip and pre-treat
Old coating removed, rust and scale dealt with, degreasing and pre-treatment carried out, then the surface kept clean and handled with gloves. Fingerprints before coating show up as adhesion failures afterwards.
Coat and cure
Powder applied and oven cured to the specified schedule, or electrostatic liquid applied in overlapping passes with the wet edge held. Coverage on back faces and inside corners is checked before the item is moved.
Refit and check
Items refitted to their tagged openings, hardware returned, alignment and operation checked, and the finish walked with you before the site is cleared.
What moves the price on this job.
We do not publish a rate, because it would change once someone measured your property. These are the variables that decide it.
- Which route the item takes, since workshop powder coating carries dismantling, transport and refitting that in-place application doesn't
- Developed surface area rather than the outline, a grill, railing or louvre has several times the surface its dimensions suggest
- How much stripping and rust treatment the existing condition needs before pre-treatment can begin
- Item size against oven capacity, because anything oversized has to be coated in sections or routed differently
- Colour, gloss and finish type, along with the changeover cost when a small quantity needs a colour of its own
- Dismantling difficulty, working height, and how much making good the fixings will need on refitting
Powder Coating and Electrostatic Painting — your questions.
Can you powder coat our window grills without removing them?
No. Powder is cured in an oven, and without that heat it never fuses into a film. Anything offered as on-site powder coating is a liquid coating being described loosely, and it won't behave like powder. If the grills can't come out, the honest options are electrostatic liquid application or a good enamel system applied in place, and we'll tell you which suits the item.
How long will our gate be away?
That depends on the queue at the workshop, the condition of the item and whether stripping is needed, so the turnaround is confirmed in writing before anything is removed rather than estimated on the phone. What matters more is planning the gap: security at the opening, and how the entrance is managed while the gate is off, are agreed before we take it away.
Is powder coating more durable than painting?
On a suitable, well-prepared item it is generally harder and more uniform than a brush or roller finish, because the film is fused rather than air-dried. Durability still depends on the pre-treatment underneath and the exposure it faces, coastal air, industrial atmosphere and constant sun all shorten any coating. It is also less forgiving: it can't be touched up invisibly, so damage means recoating the panel.
Can you match the colour of our existing coated railings?
We can get close, and we agree the match from a physical sample before starting. An exact match is not something to promise. Powder batches vary slightly, gloss level changes how a colour reads, and an existing coating has already weathered away from its original shade. Where appearance matters, coating the whole run at once gives a far better result than matching one section to another.
Do you do this work yourselves or send it out?
Powder coating needs a workshop, a pre-treatment line and an oven, so this category of work is routed accordingly. The quotation states who carries out each stage before you commit, and we don't describe another facility's capability as our own. If your item is better served by a method we can deliver in place, we'll say that instead.
Related services
- Gate, Grill and Railing PaintingThe in-place answer for gates, grills and railings that can't be taken off.
- Metal Almirah PaintingFor metal furniture and cabinets, where the same routing question comes up.
- Spray PaintingConventional spray application, and where it earns its place over charged systems.
Let us look at your walls first.
Tell us about the property and we will set up a free colour and wall inspection. You get a written, itemised quotation afterwards, with no obligation to go ahead.
- We call you back the same day to get a picture of the property and the surfaces.
- We agree a time and come out for the free inspection.
- You get the written scope and itemised quotation.
- Nothing starts until you approve it.