A property manager asked me to quote “touching up a few balcony dividers” — on 40 of them, the paint was peeling off the galvanized steel in sheets
A property manager at a high-rise called me in after owners kept sending her photos of paint flakes on their balcony floors. She thought a few of the privacy dividers between balconies needed a touch-up. When we went up and looked from a dozen units, the paint on about 40 dividers was lifting off the steel frames in sheets, with bare, dull grey metal underneath and rust starting at the bottom brackets. The steel was galvanized, and the last coat had gone straight onto it with no proper prep. This post covers why divider paint fails first, how galvanized steel has to be painted, and how to plan the work. It’s for condo boards and property managers, not homeowners.
1. Dividers take more weather than the railings
The privacy divider sits at the outside edge of the balcony, often sticking out past the slab, so it gets rain, snow and sun on both faces. Water runs down the frame and sits in the bottom bracket where it’s bolted to the concrete. Owners lean planters, bikes and snow shovels against it. On most buildings I walk, the dividers look worse than the railings beside them, even though they were painted at the same time.
They also get missed. Nobody owns the divider, so it doesn’t get reported until the paint is falling on someone’s floor.
What to look at: When you inspect balconies, look at the dividers separately from the railings, especially the bottom 30 cm and the brackets at the slab.
2. Paint peeling in sheets usually means galvanized steel
When paint comes off in big sheets and the metal underneath is clean and grey rather than rusty, I’m almost always looking at galvanized steel. Galvanizing is a zinc coating that protects the steel very well on its own, but paint doesn’t stick to it easily. New galvanizing is smooth and often has a residue on it, and older galvanizing builds up a layer of zinc salts. Paint put over either one has nothing to grip.
Some oil-based paints also react with the zinc over time and turn soft and brittle at the bond, which is why a coat can look fine for a year or two and then let go all at once.
What to look at: Peel back a loose flake. Clean grey metal under it points to a bonding problem on galvanized steel. Orange rust under it is a rust problem, and that’s a different repair.
3. Prep is the whole job on galvanized steel
To paint galvanized dividers so it lasts, I scrape off everything that’s loose, clean the steel to get rid of dirt, chalk and zinc salts, and lightly abrade the surface so the primer has something to hold. Then it gets a primer made for galvanized metal, and two finish coats of an exterior metal enamel that’s compatible with it. Where the zinc has worn through and the steel is rusting, those spots get cleaned back to sound metal and spot primed first.
Skipping any of those steps is how a building ends up where this one was. The paint itself was fine. It just had nothing to stick to. I go through the same idea for aluminum in repainting aluminum balcony railings.
What to look at: Ask the contractor what primer they’re using on the dividers and whether the quote includes cleaning and abrading the galvanizing. “Scrape and paint” won’t hold.
4. Plan dividers with the railings, not as touch-ups
Dividers are reached from the balconies, so the work needs unit access, owner notices and dry weather, the same as railings. Doing them one at a time as complaints come in costs much more per divider than doing a whole elevation in one visit. In Ottawa, exterior metal coatings need the temperature on the product label, so this is spring-to-early-fall work. A walk now, before winter, gives you a list and photos to put out to price over the winter.
I cover how often railings and balcony metal should come up for repaint in the balcony railing repaint cycle.
What to look at: Add dividers as their own line in the balcony repaint scope, with a count and the type of metal, so every bidder is pricing the same thing.
5. Tell owners what not to lean on them
A good coating on a divider still won’t survive a steel snow shovel scraped down it every week, or a metal planter sitting in the bracket all winter. A short note to owners before the work, and again after, about keeping planters and shovels off the dividers makes the paint last noticeably longer.
What to look at: Include a line about dividers in the building’s balcony rules or the next owner newsletter.
What to do if you’re seeing any of this
If owners are finding paint flakes on their balconies or your dividers are peeling down to grey metal, I’ll walk the building with you, check which dividers are galvanized and which are rusting, and give you a scope and a number the board can approve for the next painting season. I work with condominium corporations and property managers across Ottawa — Kanata, Nepean, Barrhaven, Orleans, Westboro and Stittsville — on balconies, railings and exterior metal. Call 613.325.3011 or email yasir@heims.ca.
— Yasir, HEIMS Construction
HEIMS Construction is an Ottawa-based commercial painting and drywall contractor serving condominium corporations, property managers and institutional clients across the Ottawa area. Fully licensed and insured, with $5M commercial general liability coverage.