URBAN BENCHES

Great question—I get this a lot from landscape architects and facility managers. On our metal urban benches, we don’t use a conventional wet paint that hardens into a thin, brittle shell. Instead, we finish the metal with a two-part anti-chip paint finish: a zinc-rich primer followed by a UV-stable polyester powder coating. The metal is first cleaned, degreased, and pretreated so the primer can bond tightly. Then the polyester powder is applied electrostatically and baked in a high-temperature oven. During curing, the powder melts and cross-links into a tough, slightly flexible film. That flexibility is key—it lets the coating absorb dings from bike locks, skateboards, keys, and weather without cracking or flaking. We also rely on the zinc-rich primer underneath to stop rust if the topcoat is ever deeply scratched. For high-traffic or coastal projects, we can upgrade to a marine-grade powder coat with extra UV inhibitors and salt-spray resistance to reduce fading and micro-scratching. In daily use, this means the color stays cleaner and the edges don’t chip away like they would with ordinary paint. If damage does occur, the spot can usually be touched up without repainting the whole bench. So the short answer is: it’s a baked-on polyester powder coating over a zinc-rich primer, not standard paint, and as an outdoor bench coating that combination is what prevents chipping.