Salt contamination is the most common — and most preventable — cause of premature coating failure in industrial, marine, and commercial painting. When chlorides, sulfates, or other soluble salts remain on a substrate before paint or coating application, they create osmotic cells beneath the film that draw moisture through the coating from the outside. The result is blistering, delamination, underfilm corrosion, and complete coating system failure — often within months of application.

The problem is that salt contamination is invisible. A surface can look perfectly clean after abrasive blasting or power washing and still carry chloride levels far above acceptable thresholds. That is why SSPC, NACE, and ISO standards require soluble salt testing before coating, and why professional coating applicators need a reliable method to remove salt — not just rinse it.

The True Cost of Coating Failure

When coatings fail due to salt contamination, the costs go far beyond materials. The structure must be re-blasted, re-prepared, and re-coated — often under emergency conditions with downtime penalties. For bridges, storage tanks, pipelines, and marine vessels, a single coating failure can cost ten times more than the original paint job. Salts Gone® eliminates this risk at the source by removing the contaminants that cause failure in the first place.

Why Water and Pressure Washing Are Not Enough

High-pressure water washing is a standard step in surface preparation, but it does not reliably remove soluble salts. Water dissolves surface salt temporarily, but as it evaporates, the dissolved ions recrystallize on the substrate — often deeper into the blast profile than before. Salts Gone® uses chelation chemistry to permanently break the ionic bonds of sodium chloride, calcium chloride, and magnesium chloride, so these salts cannot reform on the prepared surface after treatment.

Where Salt Contamination Causes the Most Damage

• Structural steel and bridges: Road salt spray and deicing chemicals deposit chlorides on steel members that persist through blasting and cause premature coating failure on recoating projects.
• Marine vessels and offshore structures: Airborne sea salt creates heavy chloride contamination that causes osmotic blistering under antifouling and marine paint systems.
• Storage tanks and pipelines: Residual salts from process chemicals, soil contact, and atmospheric exposure lead to underfilm corrosion and lining failures.
• Automotive refinishing: Road salt trapped in seams, joints, and panel edges causes paint blistering and rust-through on repaired and refinished vehicles.
• Concrete surfaces: Chloride-contaminated concrete causes coating delamination and accelerates rebar corrosion beneath protective floor and wall coatings.

How to Use Salts Gone® for Surface Preparation

• Pre-blast wash: Apply Salts Gone® at 1:100 dilution before abrasive blasting to reduce salt loading and minimize re-contamination during the blasting process.
• Post-blast treatment: Spray freshly blasted surfaces with Salts Gone® solution to extract residual chlorides from the blast profile before primer application.
• Hose-end sprayer: Attach the 32 oz hose-end sprayer to any water source for automatic 1:100 dilution — ideal for large surface areas on tanks, ships, and structural steel.
• Concentrate mixing: Use gallon concentrate mixed at 1:100 in a pump sprayer or pressure washer for controlled application on critical surfaces requiring chloride testing verification.

For best results, apply Salts Gone® as part of your standard surface preparation process and verify chloride levels with Bresle testing or conductivity measurement before proceeding to coating application. Consistent use of Salts Gone® ensures your coating system performs to its full service life — saving time, money, and costly rework.