Bill D
Senior Member
Are the replacement screws you used made of zinc or are they zinc plated?
My apologies, I should have specified. They are zinc plated.Bill D said:Are the replacement screws you used made of zinc or are they zinc plated?
Very correct. After my post last year I re-evaluted what I said. The galvanized screws had a zinc coating. Stainless steel screws wouldn't be a good idea. Rust paint the heads. jdiowahiker said:I agree with a lot of the posts here. My understanding:
If the screw is rusty it is NOT galvanic corrosion. Galvanic corrosion would occur on the aluminum.
Stainless steel screws would cause more galvanic aluminum corrosion than zinc plated screws.
ALL the galvanized screws I have installed in places that get wet eventually rust.
To prevent screw rust: use higher quality galvanized screws but no one knows which are the higher quality zinc screws.
Paint and sealants help reduce/delay rusting of galvanized screws.
Salt should be avoided as much as possible while paint, sealants, and galvanizing just delay corrosion unless maintained routinely.