How to make corten steel rust?

How to make Corten steel rust? How to speed up Corten corrosion? You have just purchased a Corten steel planter or another type of Corten product for your garden.

This Corten steel has been widely used in Europe in recent years. It has a natural resistance to corrosion. At Foudebassin, we usually deliver it unrusted. However, some of our products may be delivered rusted to save you from waiting several months.

Corten steel has become popular for its distinctive appearance and its ability to withstand the elements without requiring paint or treatment. But how can you quickly achieve this rusted patina without compromising the long-term integrity of the steel? The answer may lie in an innovative biological solution: theAquigarden rust accelerator.

✨ Discover now: Browse our exceptional collection of Corten steel products and transform your outdoor space into a true corner of paradise. Discover our Corten products.

How to make Corten steel rust?

First, it is useful to recall what Corten steel is, and the set of properties that characterize it. It is not just a trendy material found in many gardens, Corten steel is a carbon-based steel.

Originally, it was mainly used and known in the construction, civil engineering (the building and public works economic sector), and architecture industries. Gradually, it appeared in our gardens.

Subsequently, its use became widespread in the worlds of gardening and outdoor decoration, as this material was no longer exclusively for professionals, but also for any individual wishing to style their outdoor living space.

Highly recommended and promoted by many architects and professional landscapers, Corten steel is a material that has become essential for outdoor furniture and gardening. We offer a multitude of Corten steel garden items such as Corten fountains, Corten planters, water features, ...

Its advantages are numerous and unique compared to other materials on the market. Did you know that Corten steel has twice the structural strength of traditional steels

Advantages of Corten steel in your garden

It is mainly recognized for its natural oxidation, allowing it to have a very high resistance to all categories of weather conditions and also to corrosion, its lack of maintenance for its owner, and finally a unique and timeless rusted-effect design.

However, it is essential to emphasize that in order to fully benefit from its oxidation and resistance properties, it will be useful to know how to make Corten steel rust.

✨ Discover now: Browse our exceptional collection of Corten steel products and transform your outdoor space into a true corner of paradise. Discover our Corten products.

Be sure to follow the rules

Corten steel oxidation can be accelerated in many ways, more or less quickly and more or less gentle or aggressive to the environment. Our present guide was designed to provide you with assistance on this subject, to guide you, and to give you advice on the things to do as well as the things to avoid.It is about accelerating a process that is already natural to Corten steel: its corrosion.

Naturally, Corten steel can take up to several long months before reaching its optimal state of corrosion, and therefore its most beautiful appearance.
Accelerating this process therefore has first an aesthetic advantage for you and for the use you plan to make of it.

It is therefore the patina of Corten steel that we will help you improve, its coloration, its appearance. In completely natural conditions, the patina of Corten steel will evolve over the days of rain and dry periods, which explains why its natural corrosion takes a certain amount of time.

In order to simulate and optimize these conditions, we therefore recommend you spray salt water very regularly on your elements made of Corten steel, and then let them dry. Repeat the operation again and again, until you get the desired result.

And again here, rinse abundantly with clean water, let dry, then repeat the operation as often as necessary. To go further, you will also find on the market chemical products that considerably accelerate this process. These are industrial chemical products, of the rust accelerator type. Be careful not to degrade the Corten steel, always seek the advice of a specialist.

____________________________________________________

Their single application at once allows you to make your Corten steel rust towards its optimal appearance in the space of a few hours or even just one hour, which is a record of time and energy savings for you.

However, we would like to emphasize that these purely chemical methods are not without risks. They constitute a certain danger of degradation for the material itself in the long term, and are extremely harmful from an environmental point of view.

It is therefore essential that when using them, you apply a set of safety measures, both for your own health and to preserve your environment and the solidity of your Corten steel support.

However, several solutions sold on the market claim to accelerate this process. Caution is advised, because some of these solutions can cause long-term damage to the steel. Here are some solutions:

Although Corten steel is designed to rust naturally, this process can take time, often between 4 to 5 months, depending on the weather conditions. For many designers, architects, and owners, this wait can be frustrating, especially since the rusted patina is often desired for the final design.

Aquigarden: The biological solution to speed up rust

A biological rust accelerator that respects the integrity of Corten steel, it is entirely possible and we work in partnership with the factory that produces our Corten furniture. Unlike other solutions that may contain aggressive chemicals, the Aquigarden accelerator is specifically designed for accelerated and controlled oxidation.

Regardless of the method you wish to choose, we recommend various safety measures, such as wearing protective gloves of suitable quality, and a secure spraying area, outdoors and properly ventilated.

To remember before using products to make Corten rust

It will also be useful to pay attention to the natural rust water that can come from either the chemical corrosion accelerators used, or from other more natural methods but also based on a liquid solution. These runoffs could almost irreversibly damage your stones, tiles, adjacent structures.

To summarize the various tips we give you with the goal of making your elements made of Corten steel rust faster, you will need to:

• expose Corten steel to natural rain as much as possible, especially during the wet season of the year, ideally with an alternation between a wet period and a dry period,

• regularly spray salt water, let dry, and repeat as often as necessary,

• otherwise regularly spray white vinegar or lemon, rinse abundantly with clean water, let dry, and again here repeat the operation as often as necessary,

• select and apply an industrial chemical solution from the category of rust accelerators, or corrosion,

• in all cases, make sure to wear protective gloves,
• do not inhale the sprayed chemicals,

• protect your surfaces such as tiles, natural stones and others from any stain or runoff.

Thanks to the application of our tips, you will thus be able to obtain ideal corrosion in the space of one or two weeks maximum, or even just a few hours through the most elaborate chemical methods on this subject, compared to long months with a purely natural process.

Our company is particularly committed to providing you with the best possible advice, both on the methods to apply to achieve making your structures made of Corten steel rust faster, and on the precautions to take.

In the category of Corten steel elements, we offer you notably a wide range of Corten steel troughs, in all dimensions and all shapes.

So do not hesitate to consult our other sections regarding Corten steel troughs, notably on the different models we offer you, not forgetting our detailed guide on how to properly and durably install Corten steel edging.