Alpine Painting and Sandblasting www.alpinepainting.com

Put that in your pipe
Extensive safety training for difficult access

An extensive system of scaffolding was put in place for worker safety.

Alpine Painting and Sandblasting is always ready to provide its crew with a memorable experience, and with this project came the need for extensive safety training and sourcing products that could be used at or below 20 degrees Fahrenheit. There would be a lot to do; Alpine had signed on with Suez New York for an interior/exterior rehabilitation of a two-million-gallon potable water carbon steel standpipe that had not seen a maintenance coat in 20 years and was showing signs of wear and rust. It would take a crew of up to 12 about five months to paint approximately 30,000 square feet on the outside and another 26,000 on the in.

After sandblasting, the crew got down – and up – to the significant amount of work. First order was finding the right product for the weather, which was solved by consulting the paint suppler. “Sherwin-Williams provided an interior and exterior coating system that could be applied to 20-degrees Fahrenheit and below,” said Dave Scaturro, Alpine VP. “On the interior, we used dehumidification to maintain the blasted steel so that the interior lining could be applied at the end of the surface preparation and when the temperatures were more favorable,” he said. The interior coating was applied by a plural component spray while the exterior coatings would be applied by airless.

This unique project required some class time. For example, since the interior work was performed on suspended scaffolding, special training was needed to use this type of equipment properly. The exterior setup was extensive as well. “The system scaffold was fully decked at all levels and had a full guardrail system,” said Scaturro. “All workers wore proper respiratory protection equipment while sandblasting and applying the protective coatings.” The crew members on this project took 10- or 30-hour OSHA training courses and also trained with Suez, so they would be familiar with company protocols.

After all this training, we can only hope another standpipe job will come their way soon!

The standpipe coating showed significant wear, tear, and rust.   Braving 20 degrees and below, the crew installed a seamless coating inside and out. A crew member works on the standpipe interior.

Key Products

• Sherwin Williams Corothane, Dura-Plate, Hi-Solids polyurethane. polycote