Corten steel: metal planters & containers
Natural weathered rust finish, 2 mm
New to corten? How it ages and how to protect your paving
How corten changes with time
Drag: from grey steel on day one, through the orange of the first months, to the brown-red patina that stays. No paint, no upkeep.
Day 1An illustration on a real photo of our containers. How fast it happens depends on rain, sun and humidity.
39 models: each with a size table and price incl. VAT
Containers only 33
Pre-planted, delivered ready 6
The price includes the container, the tree, the soil and the planting.
Corten containers
Containers in 2 mm corten steel
Corten is a weathering steel: its alloy includes a range of other metals, copper among them,
so that the rust itself protects the metal from wearing away quickly and from the corrosion that would weaken the container.
Corten steel was developed to remove the need to paint metal to protect it from corrosion. The alloy's name is made up of Cor (corrosion) and Ten (tensile strength).
The colour of corten changes over the years and with the weather, from an orange tone to a deep brown.
New corten looks silvery, like ordinary sheet steel; with time it takes on a layer of rust in reddish-brown tones
on its outer surface only. This stops corrosion from working further into the material, and the metal stays sound.
A representative composition of a corten alloy:
C: carbon
Si: silicon
Mn: manganese
P: phosphorus
S: sulphur
Cu: copper
Cr: chromium
Ni: nickel
Nb: niobium
V: vanadium
Ti: titanium
Mo: molybdenum
A04: binding agent
Does corten steel stain the paving?
Corten steel may shed a little rust onto the paving, but after a few days of rain, and usually within one season, the rust stabilises. It is in fact the residue of an acid sprayed onto the container before dispatch so that it rusts evenly.
To prevent staining of the paving we added raising feet, so that as long as the paving has a proper fall, the rust is washed away and does not stay on it.
In any case, on absorbent paving that stains easily (such as concrete or slate) bear in mind that the rust may mark the floor.
Is it real corten steel?
Because corten steel is an alloy (a blend) of materials, we take a random sample from every shipment and send it to the Standards Institution, to make sure the alloy contains the required percentages.
How can the containers be protected from rust?
The good news: there is no need to protect them from rust, because we are not afraid of rust. We do recommend coating the inside of the containers with bituminous paste, or at least bitumen spray, to ensure sound planters for many years.
