My scary summer: painting our small house in my “spare” time. What I need is advice on paint removal, as I haven’t done any of this since high school when I spent hours with a putty knife–but back then I was getting paid by the hour! Now, time is precious, and I’d like advice on a quicker/more effective way to go. What about the Porter Cable paint removal tool? Or a heat gun removal tool?
Thanks,
Scott
PS: House has overlapping wood siding with just a few coats of paint, but the paint is flaking in some sections to the bare wood. The house is small–1500 square foot, but it has lots of outside surface area with nooks, etc. Also, the two-car detatched garage also ought to be done.
Replies
Have you had the paint lead tested? It there's lead it will drastically affect the removal process.
"A completed home is a listed home."
I have not had the underlying layers tested, and I will need to. However, I have some of the touchup/leftover cans from the top layer, and it is not lead-based. It's a pretty humid area, and I think the most recent paint was a cheap one.
But, if I don't find lead (pray, pray), then what's the best method?
Scott
Don't start until you see issue 148, the one after Houses! We've got a great article on this topic in that issue. There's a tool called the Paint Shaver, that, although it's pricey, takes so much of the pain out of scraping a house that I'd buy one in a heartbeat were I scraping my house.Andy Engel, Forum moderator
Purds - A lot of pros use this tool - vacuum accessories available too.
T. Jeffery Clarke
Jeff, we cover that one in the article, too. It's not as fast as the Paint Shaver, but it gets into corners better. The Paint Shaver also hooks to a vac. Between the two of them, scraping old paint almost looks like fun. I'm sure it's not, but at least your life is awful for a shorter time.Andy Engel, Forum moderator