Painting a Somerville switch box?

[pensivewombat.livejournal.com]

File this under the Random Question Department, but: has anyone here ever painted a Somerville switch box? I have been approved to paint the switchbox in front of Redbones as part of the Somerville Arts Council grant i received, but the SAC cannot provide me with the most important info of all: what to prime the box with, and what sort of paint to use!?!?! Can i just gesso the thing and use latex house paint? Anyone? Bueller?

Any first-hand experiences / info would be much appreciated!

Comments

[noire.livejournal.com]

I haven't done it myself and can't answer that question, but I saw someone painting the one on the corner of Highland and Conwell and he was using spray paints.

[secretlyironic.livejournal.com]

Check with City Paint on Mass Ave-- if you tell them you're doing an outdoor metal surface they'll be able to help you find the right primer and paint. My guess is that gesso isn't going to be the best product for a primer layer.

[pensivewombat.livejournal.com]

Oh good call - thanks! i asked at Tags and they didn't really have any suggestions beyond Rustoleum (which is not gonna work since i want to avoid spray paint for the actual painting part). i totally forgot about City Paint!

[rifmeister.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure Tova Septer [tovaspeter.com] painted one once. If she didn't, she certainly knows someone who has.

[pensivewombat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, actually Rachel at the SAC told me to contact her, and i did so last week. i'm probably being overly impatient, but i haven't heard back from her AND, for better or worse, i have to start this really soon (i got approved for a little vacation time from work for it already)... Hopefully, she'll get back to me soon!

[miss-chance.livejournal.com]

I haven't done a switchbox, but I did used to own a mural painting biz., so I have some opinions about paints that might be helpful. :-)

Your easiest bet would be to use exterior latex. The difference between interior housepaint and exterior paint is the rated temperature range that the paint can expand and contract through. (So you could use interior paint and it would be fine until winter when it would contract too much and flake off). So make *sure* you're using an Exterior Primer, too, since if the under-layer can't expand and contract with the outer-layer you get even more pronounced flaking off. (It has pretty much nothing to do with exposure to water, since good-quality interior paint is scrubbable, too).

Speaking of quality, don't buy any paint that Home Depot sells. Full Stop. Go with Benjamin Moore, Pratt & Lambert, or California as your main branding options (there are others that are good, but these are the ones you'll see most places).


I'm a big fan of Supreme Paint, the paint store in Ball Square, and they can advise you on a good primer; just be sure to really scrub the box well before you prime it (ask them for the right cleaner). Paint will stick to any dirt and then paint and dirt will come off together.

Supreme will also mix up Ben Moore colors in Pints (rather than quarts which is the smallest most places will do), so you can pick a decent pallet of colors you need, maybe augment with a few of those 3oz samplers for colors you just need a little of, and not blow your entire budget on paint.

[konradthornburg.livejournal.com]

For an outdoor industrial electrical enclosure like that, you can be confident the manufacturer used an oil based paint or a two-part epoxy paint. So stay away from latex; it won't bond well to either.

My overall suggestion is this: use a scraper and wire brush to remove any loose paint or rust. If there is rust brush it off, then you can treat it with a phosphoric acid based rust treatment/inhibitor (like Ospho). If the box is made of cast aluminum (no rust; magnet doesn't stick), ospho won't do much good. Brush or sand the painted surfaces lightly to roughen them up (especially important if they used an epoxy paint; this will greatly improve the paint bondage), then scrub down with thinner to remove dirt and oils on the surface before applying your primer coat. Try to use a good quality oil-based enamel for your primer and top coats (city paint may have a better suggestion, see below). I can't really suggest any brands or paint lines, though, since I'm not used to painting/surface treatment either on land or in non-industrial settings (Intergard 5600 is the shit, though).

Disclaimer: The actual surface prep. used by the manufacturer of the box will depend on the standards under which it was built (NEMA, CE, etc.) and the engineering decisions made by the manufacturer. This will dictate what you actually should do for prep and paint. So, your mileage may vary, of course (I'm much less familiar with standard design specs for things on land). Ask the folks at City Paint, et al for their advise.

[pensivewombat.livejournal.com]

Oh my god, you're awesome! Thank you SO much - this is incredibly helpful and EXACTLY the sort of advice i was looking for :) Also, thanks for the paint store recommendation: i was pretty concerned about the money i'd be spending on all of these quarts of paint i won't ever use at home (i only use the Mythic no-VOC paint at home since i have a parrot), but pints would be perfect.

Thanks again!

[clevernonsense.livejournal.com]

you can also buy samples at a lot of places, which I think are about 4-8 oz depending on the place. You pay more per oz, but if you need a lot of colors, but not a lot of paint of that color, it might be an option to try.

[bombardiette.livejournal.com]

Malden Arts (http://www.maldenarts.com/) just did all of the boxes around town. Perhaps you could contact them and ask who did it and how?

check out tags

[cthulhia]

another painter just gave me a heads-up about a sale.

apparently they are discontinuing carrying Pratt & Lambert house paint (not sure if this means interior or exterior) and selling off the 2 oz samples. Color selection is dwindling, but maybe there'll be something that'll work.

[serious-noir.livejournal.com]

Latex over steel/aluminum will not adhere for long, at least in my experience.

[bombardiette.livejournal.com]

No, it definitely won't. From what I've seen in Malden (and we actually saw one of the boxes being painted), they were using enamel and spraypaint.

But that's only what it looked like and I'm not experienced with this sort of thing (except to know that latex + metal = horrible looking/short-term).

[davelew.livejournal.com]

If it's bare steel, Ospho is FANTASTIC stuff to prepare the surface for painting. If it's bare aluminum, you can paint with latex paint using the proper pre-treatment (clean, degrease, immediately prime with an aluminum primer like the one made by Rust-o-leum).

If it's already painted, then someone else has already solved your problem. Paint doesn't last forever, especially with our winter-summer temperature swings. The city probably repaints that box every five years, and the DPW should know what kind of paint works best.

[pensivewombat.livejournal.com]

Oh great, thanks a lot! i'm going to see what sort of metal it is and work from there (i had my suspicions that not all of these boxes were painted with oil-based enamels anyway.) We shall see!