Large Metal Silos Receive Protective Coating

Project Summary

In late 2016, Major Painting was contacted by the staff at Ply-Gem in regards to painting a couple of their large metal silos at their facility in Kearney, Missouri. The facility, which manufactures different types of siding and building products uses the silos for storage and production of their products. With the silos being original and never repainted since installation, they were starting to show their age with large rust streaks on the sides of them and many miscellaneous areas of surface rust covering them. In late Spring of 2017, Major painting was contracted to paint (1) 90’ and (1) 40’, starting the process of maintaining the (7) silos which are vital assets to the facilities operations.

Project Highlights

Project Scope

Surface Rust - With the silos being original to facilities construction, there was excessive rust around the bottoms of the silos as well as many miscellaneous areas of surface rust along the complete silo(s) surface. The bottom sections of the (2) silos being painted were replaced prior to painting to ensure they were structurally sound. All other surface rust present on the silos was grinded and spot primed. If the silos were to go many more years without a new protective coating, there was a possibility the rust would have caused larger problems to the facilities silos.

Location - The facilities silos are located on the Southwest corner of the building and are stacked similarly to a six pack of your favorite beverage. The (2) silos that were in the worst condition and were to be painted in the this phase were the Southwest, 90’ tall silo and the landlocked, Northwest 40’ silo.

The (2) silos were completed in late Fall of 2017 when temperatures were in the mid 70s and low 80s to get the best results from the coatings that were applied. The process for applying the coating was to pressure wash the (2) silos completely, removing all the chalking and as much loose paint and surface rust as possible. Second, the team went back and grinded all areas of surface rust and then spot primed those areas immediately with Sherwin Williams Macropoxy 646. The next step was to prime the silos complete using the Macropoxy 646. After the primer fully cured, our last step was to apply the finish coat. For the finish coat we used Sherwin Williams’ Hi-Solids Polyurethane and tinted it to SW7568 “Neutral Ground” to give the silos a light, clean new look! Although the process may seem simple, the real challenge of the project was the logistics to getting to the smaller 40’ land-locked silo. With the large silo we used a 120’ stick boom. For the smaller silo, we were able to reach the large stick boom in the cluster of silos and complete about half of the land-locked silo. For the other half of the silo that was more challenging to reach we used a combination of ladders and scaffolding. All in all, the project was completed in a two-week time frame with minimal disturbance to the facilities normal day to day operation, making this project a success!