Corrosion Protection via the Preparation and Painting of 5No Silos – Marley Eternit, Meldreth

During summer 2019, Churchill Specialist Contracting Ltd were awarded a silo painting contract at Marley Eternit Limited, base in Meldreth.

Marley Eternit Ltd is a company which manufacture and operate in the roofing industry; supplying buyers all over the UK, with nearly 100 years of experience.

Defects

5No Silos, ranging from Sand Silos to Water Silos, were identified on site as suffering from both surface rust, contamination and corrosion, as a cause of the break down in the existing paint coating.

The Solution

In order to conform with BS ISO 8501-1 (The British Standard for Corrosion Protection of Steel Structures by Painting), the 5No silos and their supporting steelwork, ladders and gantries were all fully prepared on the surface using a pressure washer, power and hand tools, in order to ensure the underlying steel was free from any form of rust or surface contaminates such as dust, grease and salts.

With the surface appropriately prepared; the performance and the durability of both the chosen Zinc Phosphate Primer and the Metal Shield paint coating was guaranteed to offer high performance protection against any further form of corrosion.

The primer and paint coating chosen for the works are both specially designed and mixed to offer “excellent rust inhibiting performance“; therefore, ensuring compliance with BS EN ISO 12944-7: 2017 (The British Standard for Paint and Varnishes used as Corrosion Protection for Steel Structures). This standard outlines the measures which should be taken when applying protective paint coating systems, whilst also stressing the importance of additional measures which can be taken to pro-long the service life of the structure. These include but are not limited to the following; the examination of steel, the preparation of steel, the application method of the coating and the supervision of such work.

A team of 4No Steeplejacks, also trained in Rope Access, were based on site over a period of 10 weeks to complete the works. Upon completion, the EHS Assistant Manager of the company wrote to Churchill’s to express “how impressed” site have been with the team on site painting the silos, also acknowledging Churchill’s “attention to the site and safety rules” detailing it as “superb“.