Wire brushing is only required to remove rust or loose paint. If the eisting paint is tight, get the surface completely clean (hot water and TSP) and then prime and paint.

Hi brickeyee, Thank You. Would you recommend a flat or a semi-gloss paint for an inside railing?

Thanks, brickeyee, I will get the semi-gloss, easy clean up is a must, *lol*.

brickeyee, I have about 2/3 rds of my 28 ft. railing primed. I tried painting the primed part twice already, and I keep getting the same results. The black semi-gloss comes out streaky. You can see through to the primer. I tried a regular brush, and a cheapie spongie brush, and I can not get good coverage. I can't be painting this monster a 3rd time! Besides, it will look too clumpy. I want to save myself from having to remove it and powder coat it or something, but it looks like that's where I am headed. Help! Any ideas? I am using Rustoleum Painter's Choice gray primer and black semi-gloss.

You can try some penetrol in th epaint to improve handling. The solvent content of aint has been going down, making them more difficult to handle and decreasing hte leveling effect. Penetrol improves th ehandling without plain dilution like adding straight solvent.

I have a wrought iron staircase railing that was originally painted white. I want to paint it Black. Can I just paint over it with Black, or do I have to strip the white paint, primer it, then paint it Black? What kind of paint do I use?

I want to do the most time-saving and cleanest job possible since we have new carpet and wood flooring. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Just use primer paint and then paint the color you want. But you'd better the sand the surface and clean it first before you do and painting work.
Here a profession wrought iron company in New England Area, especially closed to Boston. If you want to get some Wrought iron products, the company definitely you need to go is Evan's Home Luxuries. Their wrought iron railing and forged products are really gorgeous. They also make marble mantels, marble statues, marble fountains, marble gazebos, marble tile only for $3/sft.
They also sell Copper doors, Brass Doors and Bronze doors. You will not find these products in other company here.
Hoping this information is helpful for you guys.
Their websites is http://www.evanshomeluxuries.com.

Painted Iron railings for stairway inside house (rustoleum) vertical post are dry, but handrail is still sticky after 4 days. HELP ???

I understand Wrought Iron Railings should be painted with a primer then a semi-gloss paint applied. Now that oil based paint are not available what type of primer and top coat do you sugest.

I am no expert, but I would like to suggest buying your paint at an auto paint shop. I would also suggest spraying the paint on. A lot of prep work acct of overspreay, but the results are better. Tell the auto paint shop guy what you are doing and he will direct you to the correct paint and expain the procedure. Other than that, if you can have the railing removed and then pressure stripped with walnut shells, then powder coated, that would be good.

We had ours repainted and we used an oil based satin paint. There are no streaks or visible brush marks. I can't remember if we did 1 or 2 coats but it was black previously. Even though it was a satin sheen it's more shiny that I prefer. I'm toying with painting it again with a flat oil based paint. You can purchase oil based paints in all sheens at both large home improvement stores.

Believe me, you won't leave marks in wrought iron with a wire brush. I just stripped two railings that had multiple coats of paint and a fair amount of rust using a hard wire cup brush on an angle grinder. I wore two of the brushes to the nub and half of a new one. The iron is fine.

Part of this stems from the fact that most of what gets called wrought iron these days isn't. It's just steel. As to whether you need to strip off the blue depends on what it is and what shape it's in. Frankly, I'd be tending to give a small section a shot of black rustoleum and see how that looks.