Our name is Thompson Repairs. That word is on the building for a reason.
A good share of what comes through our doors is equipment that worked fine for a while before something gave out. We cut it open, figure out what happened, and get it back in service. After doing that for nearly forty years in Jacksonville, you stop guessing about what salt air and humidity do to steel. You see it, on the bench, in the same handful of places, over and over.
Most of the time the problem is not bad workmanship. The equipment was built exactly as intended, just for a different environment. Here on the Florida coast, salt travels inland on the sea breeze, humidity keeps surfaces damp, and steel goes through a constant cycle of getting wet, drying out, and getting wet again. That cycle wears down areas that would hold up far longer in a drier climate.
That is the whole case for coastal metal fabrication in Jacksonville. Build for a dry climate and the coast will find the shortcuts for you. Usually in year two or three. Usually at a weld.
What we see on the bench
If you want to know where coastal equipment fails, ask the people who cut it apart. The same four problem areas show up again and again.
Welds
The metal around a weld has been through a different heat cycle than the rest of the plate, and it corrodes differently because of it. Leave spatter, slag, or scale behind and you have created small areas where coating cannot bond, and moisture sits.
With stainless, the problem is easy to miss. That straw or blue discoloration around a weld looks harmless. It is a chromium-depleted layer, and in salt service it pits unless it is cleaned and passivated. We have seen stainless assemblies come in with good-looking welds and corrosion running right along the heat tint. The welding was fine. The finishing did not go far enough.
Seams
Lap two plates together and skip weld them, and you leave a narrow gap where salt water works its way in. Once moisture is in that space, coatings cannot effectively reach it, and corrosion develops from the inside out.
This is the one that catches owners by surprise, because the outside still looks fine. By the time we open a failed lap joint, the corrosion inside is older and further along than anyone expected.
Fasteners
Two different metals in a wet, salty joint make a battery. Put a plain steel bolt into a stainless assembly, and the bolt goes first. Put stainless hardware through aluminum and the aluminum around the connection gives up instead.
Stainless hardware also galls, where the threads bind under load until the nut seizes in place. Anyone who has cut off stainless hardware after several years in service knows the real cost is rarely the bolt. It is the time and labor to get it apart.
Edges
Sharp edges are easy to overlook, but coating does not build the same thickness on a corner as it does across a flat surface. As it cures, it pulls back off the edge and leaves a thinner layer behind. That thin spot is where corrosion starts.
Rounding those edges before coating takes a few minutes in the shop. It makes a meaningful difference after the equipment has spent years outside in Jacksonville’s salt air and humidity.
What we will tell you not to spend money on
Our clients will tell you we usually look for the cheaper way to hit the goal, and sometimes that means telling them where not to spend more. Overbuilding the wrong parts costs as much as underbuilding the right ones, and it does not buy service life.
Stainless is the clearest example. It is not automatically the best answer for coastal equipment, and specifying it everywhere adds cost without much benefit. 304 stainless works well for plenty of general applications, but it still pits in chloride-heavy environments. When a part is regularly exposed to salt spray, washdown, or standing coastal moisture, 316 is worth the additional cost because it resists chloride pitting.
Where stainless pays for itself:
- Fasteners, pins, and hardware, where replacement means teardown labor
- Wear surfaces and anything scraped or washed, since coating will not survive there regardless
- Small machined parts where material cost is a rounding error next to downtime
- Anything you cannot easily reach for maintenance
For larger structural members, weldments that can be inspected and touched up, and equipment on a regular maintenance schedule, coated carbon steel is often the better value. Most coastal builds do not need to rely entirely on one or the other. The smarter approach is to use each material where it performs best and properly isolate them wherever they meet.
What a coastal build takes
Surface prep
Most coating failures we open up are prep failures, not product failures.
Steel arriving in Florida already carries soluble chloride from mill scale, storage, and hauling. Blast over that and you have sealed salt under the coating. It pulls moisture through the film, blisters, and lifts, often inside the first year. The paint gets blamed. The paint was fine.
A coastal spec means abrasive blast to a commercial or near white standard, the right anchor profile for the system going on, salt testing on the substrate when service warrants it, and coating applied before flash rust sets in. In our humidity, that window is short, which is one reason this work belongs in a controlled shop and not on a slab in August.
The coating system
More paint is not the answer. Layers doing different jobs is.
For aggressive coastal service, that means three coats: a zinc-rich primer that protects sacrificially even when the film gets scratched, an epoxy intermediate for barrier and build, and a polyurethane topcoat to take the UV so the epoxy underneath does not chalk apart in Florida sun.
Then stripe coat by brush on every weld, edge, and bolt hole before the full coats go on. It puts film where a spray gun cannot reliably reach. It is one of the least expensive steps you can take for the protection it adds.
For structural work you plan to keep ten years, price hot-dip galvanizing with paint over it. A duplex system typically outperforms either one alone, which is why it is worth pricing before you decide.
Drainage
If we can see water sitting on a design, we change the design.
Slope surfaces instead of leaving them flat. No upturned angle that becomes a trough. Drain holes at true low points, not wherever the drill fit. No sealed hollow section that breathes humid air and condenses inside it. Vent enclosures so moisture leaves instead of sitting against a bearing.
Drain holes added in the field are almost always in the wrong spot, and the drill leaves bare steel behind it. We know because we are usually the ones drilling them.
Fasteners
Match fastener metal to base metal, or isolate them with a nylon or fiber washer and sleeve where you cannot. Use 316 in washdown and spray zones. Anti-seize on stainless threads as a standing rule, or plan on cutting them off. Sealing washers where a bolt passes through a coated surface, because that hole is bare steel until something covers it.
And design so a person can reach it. A bolt you can get to is a bolt you maintain.
The part that actually costs you: being down
Corrosion is not a cosmetic problem. It is a downtime problem, and it collects in October.
Late August through October is the peak of the Atlantic season. Storm loading finds weak joints. Days of driving rain get into every gap. Then water sits, because power is out and nobody is walking the yard. A joint that was a two-hour repair in August becomes a replacement in October, in line behind everybody else who waited.
Worth walking now:
- Rust bleed at weld toes and seams. The stain is the symptom. The joint under it is the problem.
- Bolted connections nobody has touched in two years. If they will not break loose today, they will not break loose during a repair.
- Blistering or lifting at edges and corners. Coating failure that has started only accelerates under storm exposure.
- Standing water. Look for the stain ring, not the puddle. The ring shows you where it always sits.
- Anchor points and mounting brackets. These carry the load when wind gets hold of the equipment.
This is a visual walk-down, not a structural inspection. Anything load-bearing or life-safety should be evaluated by a qualified engineer.
If you find something, call before the season peaks, not during it.
Where this gets decided
Everything above gets settled at the drawing, not on the floor.
Joint design, drainage, where two metals meet, whether a fastener can be reached in three years. Every one of those is a decision somebody makes before a single cut. Change it in AutoCAD, and it costs nothing. Change it after fabrication, and it costs a repair. Miss it entirely and the coast bills you for it in year three.
That is why we draw everything before it hits the shop floor. Not as an extra process. On the coast, that is the build.
We have been in Jacksonville since 1988, working in carbon steel, stainless, and aluminum, running MIG, TIG, and stick to suit the joint. Roll-off dumpsters that live outside year-round. Silo aggregate gates cycling wet material and heat. Service truck mounts. One-off parts for machines nobody will source from the original manufacturer again. Different jobs, same thread: they stay outdoors, in this climate, and they have to keep working.
Repair enough equipment that failed early, and you learn exactly where it fails. Then you stop building it that way.
FAQ
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Is stainless always the right choice for coastal equipment?
No. Stainless costs more, and 304 still pits in chloride service. Use 316 where parts see salt spray, washdown, or standing moisture, and where replacement labor is expensive. Properly prepped and coated carbon steel is often the better value on large structural work you can inspect and maintain.
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Why do coatings fail faster on coastal equipment?
Usually because of what was underneath. Soluble salt left on the steel before coating draws moisture through the film and lifts it. Sharp edges hold less film than flat surfaces. Constant wet-dry cycling works a coating harder than steady conditions.
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Can existing equipment be upgraded, or does it need replacing?
Most of the time it can be repaired and upgraded. Cutting out corroded sections, seal-welding open seams, adding proper drainage, replacing hardware with isolated or 316 fasteners, and recoating to a coastal system can often extend service life at a fraction of replacement cost.
Reach out to Thompson Repairs to build equipment that holds up in Florida conditions.
Call (904) 384-5175 or request a quote. We are on Dignan Street in Jacksonville, and we have been building for this environment since 1988.
General guidance based on our experience fabricating and repairing equipment in Northeast Florida. Confirm specifications for your application, service conditions, and any governing code.