JULY JLC 1998
Galvanized Hardware
To the Editor:
The item on galvanized fasteners (On
the House, 2/98) was informative to a
point. After comparing three galvanizing
processes with zinc coatings ranging
from 0.14 mils to 6.0 mils thick,
with two of the three processes producing
coatings less than 0.3 mils thick,
the graph shows service life expectancy
starting at 0.4 mils. Since some common
fasteners (electroplated and
mechanically galvanized) have less than
a 0.4-mil coating, should we expect
those fasteners to have no service life?
And why would a suburban exposure
be more severe than a tropical marine
exposure? I'd have thought the tropical
marine area to be one of the worst.
John P. Callen, P.E.
Hilo, Hawaii
Suk Lee, of the