I tried searching but….
I need advice on painting my house. It’s MY house, LOL, and the budget and return on investment in my neighborhood won’t allow a “proper” job. Sadly.
So, it’s cedar claps and misc trim. It’s almost 100 yrs old, and has a lot of paint, except on the claps which are peeling to the wood in most spots.
So, my questions are,
If I sand the high spots, and remove the loose paint on the trim, what can I use to smooth the depressions where there is no paint?
What is the best primer? (I will use Sherwin Williams “Duration” for the top coat.)
I have a 6″ Bosch dual action sander, but what paper is the best for long lasting effectiveness? Grits?
(I know to sand the wood to non grey fresh wood for best adhesion)
But what other advice for a newbie exterior painter? (I can paint cars fine, LOL, but the house thing has me wondering). Pointing me to a thread or a book would be fine too!
Thanks!!
Replies
Oh, and since everyone loves pictures....this is what i am up against.
Jake Gulick
[email protected]
CarriageHouse Design
Black Rock, CT
Primer and Paint -http://www.californiapaints.com/The best. Great materials to work with and great customer service. Good range of temp during application.I would use a floor scraper to remove the bulk of the peeling paint. You know, the tool with the red rubber handle/ grip and the square blade that has opposite sides/edges bent in the same direction and adjacent sides bent in the opposite direction. It makes quick work of it all.http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0009VNR1O/103-3426868-8726221?n=228013From your pic - it looks like you have a lot of cutting and staging to do.FThere he goes—one of God's own prototypes—a high powered mutant of some kind never even considered for mass production. Too weird to live and too rare to die.—Hunter S. Thompson
from Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas
Edited 3/29/2006 4:01 pm ET by Frankie
Thanks Frankie. Yup. lots of that...and sanding too!
Any advice on a good filler/putty?
(One that is easy to apply, dries in seconds, sands easily, takes paint well, and lasts forever? LOL)Jake Gulick
[email protected]
CarriageHouse Design
Black Rock, CT
Jake -
I ran into a problem with painting exterior clapboards last year when the power washer went too deep. A couple guys here turned me on to an exterior spackle. I think it was MK brand, but don't quote me on that. It came in quarts and gallons - maybe $25-30 gallon. It was worth it, and may suit your needs on the paint ridges down to bare wood.
Good luck, and I love the house.
Don K.
EJG Homes Renovations - New Construction - Rentals
Sorry,I forgot this question in my earlier post, anywho, I like minwax epoxy filler. lasts forever and bonds tenaciously. expensive, but outlasts wood.
WOW! nice house. Well I agree with the Duration, great stuff, self priming, great adhesion, and expensive, what more could you ask for - I love the stuff, it has saved my century home which had lead paint and I've gone from Tru-value latex, thru glidden gel and included SW super paint. Now, lead paint on a century home is a real concern, especially if you have kids. Sanding may not be a good idea. Scraping is okay and if you are methodical and take your time you may not need to sand paint but only the grey wood - by the way good research on the sanding to new wood, most newbies - and I'm not sure you really are a newbie considering the research you've done,don't prep enough. 90% of the job is prep,prep,prep, the rest is easy. You didn't say if the paint on the house is oil or latex. But, latex goes over oil well, especially Duration, I know other paint manufacturers have similar paint, I just don't know their names. As a Remodeler and glutton for punishment, I stripped the front of my house with a chemical stripper. I had a 7 year old daughter and knew the house had lead paint, so sanding was not an option. Other sides of my house were sanded, before my daughter was born, others were replaced and some were just scraped. The stripped side looks the best today, but the scraped is holding its own.
I didn't mean to write an article about this, but your options are endless. Bottom line, scrape, sand if you can, strip if you must but be meticulous! The better the prep the better the finish. Do one side a year if you must, I did. Your local extension service can test for lead based paints. Hey keep us informed about your progress, would love to see the staging on this project.
Good Luck and keep threading.
Get a good scaffolding system.
From your picture, I would suggest the pipe staging system of
http://www.biljax.com
Piece of cake to set up and take down. Very flexible.
I'm led to believe the monthly rental costs are about 10% of of the purchase price.
I bought about $4K worth to paint my windows and such. Equal to about 30+ ft in height, or up to 4 stacks of various height, from 3' to 10'. Got the safety bars and ladders too. Now that I'm all done, it neatly stacks up in the basement corner, giving me another workbench.
Great advice! I can only get so high with my ladders. THe turret on the driveway side is tough!
And I will get some minwax epoxy filler and give that a shot. Just need to find a Biljax renter.
Thanks!Jake Gulick
[email protected]
CarriageHouse Design
Black Rock, CT
I strip and repaint homes for a living and for 25 years it has been somewhat fun and 1 hell of a learning experience, here goes. 1. start at the top its the hardest and the place where the small mistakes go unnoticed.2. scallfold the individual sides 1 at a time and finish that side very rewarding to see 1 side done and know that your 25% there.3. The mk that you refer to is meant for small spots like nailheads etc. and doesn't hold paint well on large apps. use light weight bondo (easy sanding) for feathering the claps and trim( rough edges)4. use carbide blades ( orange handled)to pull paint off.orbital sanders for smothing edges with 80 grit the bondo can be used after that for really thick edges.Remove storms prior to starting a side to get at the windows easily (time to clean them too) If there is lead paint involved collect the debris every day or it gets out of hand I hose the whole job down every day.This seems like a lot but the lead will come back to haunt you if you dont.Good luck and have fun.By the way we did a house that was 4 times this size( by its look) and eventually we did finish....... 29 months later!
Another vote for bondo, and carbide scrapers- I used to sharpen scraper blades every 45 seconds or so, carbide can go for weeks.
Also, see if any local rental places have a paint shaver. Or it might be worth it to buy one (around $500 I think) and sell it when you're done. I haven't used one, but they look like a quick way to scrape down to wood, and they have a pretty good dust collection device.zak
"paint shaver. Or it might be worth it to buy one (around $500 I think) and sell it when you're done. I haven't used one, but they look like a quick way to scrape down to wood, and they have a pretty good dust collection device."
More info! A tool to make it go faster?? Sin me UP! LOL. What? where?, who make it.? Best model? etc. Thanks!Jake Gulick
[email protected]
CarriageHouse Design
Black Rock, CT
Here's the paint shaver:http://www.paintshaver.com/Metabo makes a paint scraper too:http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000224QB/ref=pd_sim_hi_1/104-6698328-7090326?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance&n=228013I learned about these tools from an article FHB had a few years ago about exterior paint removal. With shingles/shakes, I prefer to take all the paint off of a shingle with bad paint, so I don't have to feather the edges of the paint. Well, I do that where it's visible, below 8 feet or so. up higher I worry less.zak
Edited 4/1/2006 4:10 pm by zak
I bought the Metabo one a couple years ago. It's great.
The negatives: dust collection isn't that great. It has a small port on back that wants a proprietary metabo hose. I made an adaptor to use a hose that I already own. If you have one of the side covers open on the head, it will fling most of the paint bits out through it. These side holes allow the unit to chip two edges at once. Unfortunately you can't adjust the cut depth at the sides, only the bottom. Unfortunately you can't adjust the main cutter depth on the fly. It needs to be stopped, using an allen tool for it. You can cut into the wood too if you aren't careful. It can rip nails right out, or just bend them up leaving a huge gauge.
The positives: A lot easier than hand scraping, and it will remove almost all of the paint. It's small enough to get into pretty tight places, including corners up to the last 1" or so. Carbide blades seem to last a long time. Each blade has 4 useable sides, I'm on my 2nd or 3rd side with 1/3 of my house done. The tool is made in Germany and seems to be of high quality.
I bought mine for $430 (I think) on Amazon. I checked for a few months on Ebay and found that used ones were going for close to $400. I decided that it was a better value to get a new one. If I didn't like or was done with it I could get most of money back on it.
Although it is a great tool, I do feel that for 400+ dollars it should be closer to perfect. I'm keeping it though, because anything that is able to do what it does is worth at least $400 to me.
Great info guys. I have to say i am a big fan of power tools!
If you could do it again, would you spend the extra 200 for the paintshaver pro?
I looked at both, and the shaver pro looks impressive. The metabo has universal complaints about that cover, LOL
IF you can see either for a good return on ebay, I think the extra money would be the choice. I couldn't find anything but new on ebay and no closed auctons either.
A sellers market?
Hmmm,,,,,,,
That paintshaver video is VERY enticing compared to my manual experiences...yeccch. It looks easier to do that than to scrape off most of it and fill the depressions.Jake Gulick
[email protected]
CarriageHouse Design
Black Rock, CT
I may still buy the paint shaver pro also. I decided on the metabo because of the size, and in many cases the smaller is better. I think that the paint shaver pro may catch more of the chips with the brush ring. I really would like to try the infrared heater type though.
Not sure where you looked but there have been at least 3 Metabos sold on ebay in the last few weeks--2 in the last 2 days. They went for a few dollars more than I want to pay. <G> IIRC, you can buy brand new ones on line for $300.
HTHThon
Sorry, I wrote that poorly. I haven't seen any of the other on closed auctions.Jake Gulick
[email protected]
CarriageHouse Design
Black Rock, CT
We have used this Porter Cable unit with 30 grit carborundum discs. It is not fast, but way better than scraping by hand. No dust control for lead so you need a breather.
http://www.coastaltool.com/cgi-bin/SoftCart.exe/a/port/pr7403.htm?E+coastestThose who can make you believe in absurdities can make you commit atrocities- Voltaire
either get a hold of goldhiller or sub it out... in fact ... sub it to goldhiller...
no worries...
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming
WOW!!! What a Ride!
Forget the primal scream, just ROAR!!!
could ya stop in fer a bit???????
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming
WOW!!! What a Ride!
Forget the primal scream, just ROAR!!!
jake.. we'd scrape, prime and bondo it .. also in the past year or so, we've tried the minwax filler with excellent results
once it's reasonably level, prime & paintMike Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
Thanks Mike, thats the plan. I will look into that stuff as well.Jake Gulick
[email protected]
CarriageHouse Design
Black Rock, CT