Linkedin Youtube Facebook-f Twitter
1-800-245-6379

Coating Assessment

Maintenance Painting Practices for Offshore Oil and Gas Structures

Maintenance Painting Practices for Offshore Oil & Gas Structures: Part One

Coating Assessment, Inspection, Maintenance Painting, Offshore / By

Offshore oil and gas structures, typically floating production, storage and offloading vessels, or FPSO, and the more conventional fixed platforms, are usually very complex assemblies of fabricated steelwork, metalwork, pressure vessels, structural members, tanks, pressure equipment, valves, pumps, screens and pipework crammed into a very tight and congested deck footprint. The most widely used material …

Maintenance Painting Practices for Offshore Oil & Gas Structures: Part One Read More »

coating inspection of Saponification

Saponification: From Paint to the Grave

2 Comments / Coating Assessment, Coating Failure, Coatings, Lab Testing / By

At its very basic level, saponification is the term given to the process in which vegetable oils and animal fats are converted into soap. We recognize soaps as wax-like products, modified through the addition of fragrances and skin-care additives (emollients) to become consumer cleaning and bathing products. The essential step in the soap-making process is …

Saponification: From Paint to the Grave Read More »

Coating Failure

Clues to a Coating Failure

7 Comments / Buildings, Coating Assessment, Coating Failure, Coatings, Commercial, Inspection, Lab Testing, Roofs / By

A consultant follows the facts to discover why perfectly good, recently applied paint fell from a new steel ceiling and to find the source of the coating failure. It wasn’t like the sky was falling, but when large pieces of paint dropped from the roof deck onto machinery being installed in a newly built manufacturing …

Clues to a Coating Failure Read More »

Paint Consulting

The Case of Bubbles, and Pinholes, and Blisters, Oh My! -Coating Condition Assessment

Coating Assessment, Coating Failure, Coatings, Lab Testing / By

This month’s Case from the F-Files describes the problem of bubbles, pinholes, and blisters in a polyurethane finish coat applied to new structural steel members at a coal-fired power generation plant. Many of the pinholes and bubbles were so small that they were difficult to detect with the unaided eye. Many of the largest blisters …

The Case of Bubbles, and Pinholes, and Blisters, Oh My! -Coating Condition Assessment Read More »

Metal Roof Repair

Failure Analysis: When Metal Roof Coatings Fail

1 Comment / Buildings, Coating Assessment, Coating Failure, Coatings, Commercial, Roofs / By

A variety of coating system choices can be applied to metal roofing, including acrylic, epoxy/polyurethane, and fluoropolymer systems. Specifications frequently call for fluoropolymer coatings, which are considered to offer the best performance in long-term weathering resistance. Roof panels are fabricated from sheet-metal substrates such as steel, galvanized steel, aluminum, and other metals. Galvanized steel (a …

Failure Analysis: When Metal Roof Coatings Fail Read More »

Moisture Intrusion

Moisture Intrusion: The Achilles Heel of Single-Wythe CMU

Buildings, Coating Assessment, Commercial, Concrete Walls, Inspection, Instruments, Moisture / By

This is a continuation of the article published in the January/February 2013 issue of Durability + Design, “Repair The Building Before You Repair The Paint.” In that article, a number of building repairs associated with single-wythe concrete masonry units (CMU) were discussed – repairs that should be undertaken before additional coating is applied, including problems with …

Moisture Intrusion: The Achilles Heel of Single-Wythe CMU Read More »

The Contractor Who Almost Got Floored

Buildings, Coating Assessment, Coating Failure, Coatings, Commercial, Concrete Floors, Moisture / By

Most of the past Cases from the F-Files have focused primarily (although not exclusively) on coating failures on steel. However, coating failures can and do occur on other substrates such as aluminum, wood, and concrete, to name a few. In this case, a warehouse concrete floor coating was exhibiting blistering only a few months after …

The Contractor Who Almost Got Floored Read More »

When A Good Idea Goes Bad

Buildings, Coating Assessment, Coating Failure, Coatings, Commercial, Lab Testing / By

An American tobacco company owned a number of large buildings, essentially steel-framed warehouses covered with corrugated galvanized steel panels, at one of its facilities. The company used the warehouse buildings for the fumigation of the tobacco, during which the entire interior of the building is filled with a gaseous insecticide that kills tobacco-damaging insects. Unfortunately, …

When A Good Idea Goes Bad Read More »

Repair The Building Before You Repair The Paint

1 Comment / Buildings, Coating Assessment, Coatings, Commercial, Concrete Walls, Moisture, Roofs / By

When the paint on the exterior of a building exhibits heavy fading, chalking, or peeling, the typical solution is to clean and overcoat, but painting alone may not achieve the desired result, and in fact, it may be destined to fail. Because a number of building-related issues can affect the performance of the coating system, …

Repair The Building Before You Repair The Paint Read More »