Our Sand Springs, Oklahoma project required a serious powder coating (preceded by some serious prep work, as pictured above), so we’ve spent a lot of time with our powder coating guys over the past few weeks.
Why powder coat? Glad you asked. Powder coating is a process we highly prefer on our large-scale projects. It’s an industrial-grade coating that’s applied as a dry powder and then cured under heat to form a “skin” that, once dry, is much tougher and more durable than conventional paint.
Since powder coating doesn't require a solvent, it has several advantages, both environmental and aesthetically over good old paint:
- It produces practically no waste, since overspray can be recycled
- It emits practically no volatile organic compounds
- It produces much less hazardous waste
- It creates a thicker coating without running or sagging
- It creates a uniform finish, especially between horizontally and vertically coated surfaces
The downsides? Well, it costs more than paint. And it's not necessarily convenient to schlep stuff across town to our powder coaters. But all that is relatively inconsequential considering the high-quality finish it adds to our projects. And that makes the perfectionists around here happy.
