It can look identical from the street, but you know what? At the end of the day, you’re going to look out that street and say, ‘Wow, it looks great!’ You’ll stop right there at the hour it looks black, and the old ironwork is camouflaged. And that’s good for now.
The paint job and the proper restoration are not the same in action, but the difference will show itself over time, and the paint job will even exacerbate any underlying problems.
The paint job is basically a brush-over on top of existing corrosion. It will cover and hide damage like corrosion, rust, and moisture under an appearance of fresh paint, and it doesn’t stop the corrosion or rust from eating away at the rail. Hiding it with paint doesn’t make it go away, and it may even speed it up by trapping the moisture against the iron. For Wrought Iron Railings, visit //donkeywellforge.co.uk/what-we-make/wrought-iron-railings/
Restoration, on the other hand, removes all existing coatings, leaving the iron bare. From there, the bare metal that is exposed dictates the next steps – it might need to be repaired, cleaned, or blasted, and only specific primers for exterior ironwork will do, not some generic stuff you pick up at the pound store.
Finally, the topcoat is applied to the surface that has been prepared and is now ready to accept and hold it in place.
On day one, the paint job and the restoration might look the same. However, at day 1,000, the one that was restored will look worlds better in quality.