Thread: Ipswich Rust, pic, not mud.!

promised to show what that dam flood water did. here is a pic of two Stainless steel rods. (not chromed)

The rusted one shows the top side, of where the 'sediments settled on the bar as the waters receded. the other bar shows the under side of a similar bar.
the band in the middle of the rusted bar was where a a piece of sticky tape was.

I know it looks like mud, but believe me, this is the only metal I have that a brass wire brush will bring back to a good shine... every thing else steel can be de rusted for a week or so, but just comes back, and aluminium is just going off to white powder.

The question is , if it does that to metals, what are the health implications over the years for the residents that coped this.

I know My house had to be torn apart, and EVERY inch of it scrubbed down, with anti fungicide, but what will happen to all the nails, wiring etc..

the government is keeping 'stumpf' on that.

regards, Sandy

i was told years ago that stainless does rust (sort of), apparently its whats in the water that contains elements that are suseptable to oxodation not the stainless it's self rusting but the crap in the water that has stuck to the stainless and started rusting, i could be wrong, wouldn't be a first.

Hi,
Not all stainless still is "rustless". Do you have any idea what grade it is? Is it magnetic?

Stuart

Hi, good question. used a high powered neodiym magnet, with attracted to it, click, but did not grip it. so "slightly Magnetic".

from a Photographic processor. should have been 316 stainless...? but now dont known.

that have that lovely 'bighty' smell of sanded Stainless, and that smell sticks to my hands for some time after...

if it is just the particles that were in the water rusting, then I should have bottled and sold that muck, as it takes a wire brush to remove, and sticks to anything else like the proverbial !@#$%^...

better than Super glue...

one wooden handle on a old G clamp has already dry rotted off.. so there are active microbes there as well..

regards, Sandy

For your house, if it's possible I would wait a few years until the value goes back up and move. As you say it has gotten into everything like nails etc.
If it has rotted a clamp handle, I wonder what it's doing to the studs in the house.

Dave

Stainless steel will rust in the right circumstances; it's really only a rust resistant steel - the only true corrosion (oxidation) proof metals are gold and platinum.

Stainless is made stainless by the thin layer of chromic oxide that forms where the steel is in contact with air, much like the layer of anodise on aluminium; when this layer is removed or or bypassed (by halogens such as chlorine, flurine and bromine) corrosion can still occur.

You'll also get galvanic attack, and - in the case of stainless in water - the chromic oxide layer gets damaged (by mechanical or galvanic action or a low PH salty environment) and does not get a chance to reform, leaving the iron susceptible to rusting. So it's nothing nasty in the water - just the standard contents of normal soil.

Your aluminium is looking white from anodic attack - basically everything has been part of a big electrochemical circuit and loosing/gaining electrons like mad while in the water. The normal steel is rusting rapidly for the same reason - it's been heavily electro-cleaned and the surface area (on a microscopic level) is now much greater than it was before and there's less stuff-thats-not-iron on the surface to interfere with oxidisation.