Who's stripped the exterior paint off their house before?

c64 on 30/06/2014 - 17:49

I've got 20 year old flaking paint on the lower half of my house. What's the best way to strip it? I've seen videos of people using heat guns + scraper, people using disc sanders, belt sanders, etc.

I've tried a small patch using a wire brush + scrapper and it didn't do much. I've tried the paint scrapper attachment with a multitool and it took some off though it was very slow and I'm worried about gouge marks. I've tried a belt sander and it works but the weatherboard is slightly concave and doesn't get the stuff in the middle.

I'm aware of the dangers of lead paint and I've got a respirator + overalls + face mask. Most of the lead paint would have come off when it was last done although I still come across small sections (it is a different colour).

Home & Garden Stripping Paint

Comments

  • Lequ83 on 30/06/2014 - 18:18

    Do you need to strip it all off?

    Depending on what you want to do, have you considered just taking off the badly flaking stuff with a scraper or even just a coarse brush, giving it a wash and painting over it?

    • c64 on 30/06/2014 - 19:40

      it's pretty bad, lots of hairline cracks. i'm putting good paint on so i might as well do a proper job on the preparation

  • flash659 on 30/06/2014 - 18:28

    Use a disc grinder with a sanding/stripping attachment. Works really well.

  • Cheeper on 30/06/2014 - 18:34

    Neighbour tried getting his off with a circular sander and ended up with a rough job so just bit the bullet and reclad with that plastic stuff.

  • snappy1234 on 30/06/2014 - 19:58

    So pleased when i sold my timber house -so much upkeep, built it new too(owned for 20 years)

  • subywagon on 01/07/2014 - 02:29

    Be careful using a heatgun. My friends dad set his weatherboard house on fire. The heatgun heated up saw dust and crap INSIDE the wall. By about midnight the un-noticed smouldering crap in the wall turned into a full on fire.

    I've done a few weatherboard places before. I normally use a really good scraper like this

    And also a belt sander if need be. You don't need to get all the paint off, just the really shit bits.

    Also when you repaint it, it's almost guaranteed to bubble in some places because of reaction with the old paint that's been absorbed into the timber, and also the same with moisture. It kind of breathes, ebbs back and forth with the sun.

    Good luck! Weatherboard prep sucks!

  • ESEMCE on 01/07/2014 - 11:00

    Sand off the crap stuff, then re-prime with Oil base to start afresh.

  • c64 on 01/07/2014 - 12:03

    this morning i tried a heat gun in my left hand and a multitool with paint scraper attachment in my right hand and it sliced through all the thick paint. it wasn't so effective on the lower section of the each weatherboard plank where the paint is a lot thinner but that bit seems to come off without too much trouble with the belt sander. any paint that comes off before the belt sander will increase the amount of use i can get out each belt before it clogs up with paint.

    it's friggin freezing now. hopefully it won't catch fire. i've got some spare smoke alarms sitting around so i'll place those directly above the wall cavity in the ceiling. if you don't hear from me for several days then you'll know the house has burnt down :)

    • Wallyt99 on 05/07/2014 - 22:55
      +2

      Uh oh…

    • c64 on 09/07/2014 - 09:59
      +1

      all is going well so far. each time the smoke alarmas in the roof space went off i stopped stopped and waited until they turned off.

  • [Deactivated] on 15/07/2014 - 13:14

    Heat gun will take you forever. I bought a tub of dumond paint stripper and while it did an OK job it was too expensive and messy. Just use an angle grinder, I did that to my house a few months ago and unless you are silly with it the marks left behind are hardly noticeable. Using extra coats always helps with that too and will have the added bonus of the paint lasting longer. Get a range of sanding discs, basically quickly go over the boards with a course disc then switch down to something a bit finer. I wouldn't worry about taking all paint off, what you mostly need to do is remove any loose or cracking paint and then use the finer discs to blend the layers and bare timber. Also, I would be weary of doing lead paint if you have bad neighbours or whatever, if they complain who knows what would happen. Make sure you clean up too, lead paint can do nasty things especially to kids.

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