#7 of the 101 best House Painting and Building Maintenance tips - Steel Fastners

The lesson to be learned today is that quality is not too expensive, especially in my game of Building Maintenance, House painting and roof repairs.

All too often we see cheap and inferior building practices and materials with a planned obsolescence designed into them.
This is, of course, so more products and services can be sold to you when replacement time comes up.
Often we find good quality products will only cost 30 % more but last 200-300% longer.

Using Quality Steel materials such as nails, screws, hinges, flashings etc is as important as the quality of the house painting and roof repairs

However  deciding on "the correct materials" is not so easy, for instance stainless steel is not necessarily stain-less and comes in various grades depending on the recipe of the product.

In many instances hot dipped galvanised bolts, nuts and screws will last just as long as lower grade stainless steel when kept dry and painted, also the galvanised steel is 'softer', more flexible so performs better in areas of large temperature differences.

I have made a list below of a few facts to help you with your decision making when tackling building maintenance and roof repairs.

Make sure you use the same type of metal fasteners as the metal in the product you are using, otherwise the different metals create a very weak electric charge which will corrode the less noble metal

Zinc-chromate (This is a yellow/gold plating often seen with a pink and green rainbow effect visible on the plating surface. Items with this coating are first plated with zinc, then treated with a dichromate coating which gives it the yellow/gold appearance. )

Low cost fastenings, good for mainly dry areas where it may get wet or damp only occasionally, ie windows,framing, skirting, architraves where filling and painting.

Best suited for interior/sheltered exterior, screws, nuts, bolts, hinges

Zinc (electroplated) shiny silver in colour

Low cost fastenings, good for mainly dry areas where it may get wet or damp only occasionally, ie windows,framing, skirting, architraves where filled and painted

Best suited for interior/sheltered exterior, screws, nuts, bolts, hinges

Zinc (Galvanised Hot Dipped) dull silver colour with a crystal pattern on larger sheets

Medium cost fastenings and should be a minimun standard of rust protection for all exterior fittings and fastenings.
Best suited for exterior fences, roofs, structural beams and gate hardware

Note- when you are painting make sure you use a special primer if the product is new. Some corrosion takes place naturally and the product needs weathering or priming before house painting.

Stainless Steel(316 and 304 grade)

It is also called corrosion-resistant steel or CRES
For building and maintenance if you are going to use this product you may as well pay for the marine grade 316 steel,
Best suited for window hinges, exterior fastenings and hardware.
Stainless steel fixings are required by your local council if you live within the sea spray zone as laid out in the building code of New Zealand.