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Everything I’ve read says to scape off peeling or flaky paint. How do you determine when to stop? I find I can scrape it all off with a little effort. But after a few days I haven’t finished one wall. So how do you determine what paint really needs to be scraped off and what will be safe to leave on? I will be sanding, priming and caulking before painting.
Thanks,
steve
Key proposals for the next edition of the International Residential Code tackle room sizes, stair specs, emergency egress, and deck guards, among other requirements.
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Replies
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"I find I can scrape it all off with a little effort."
IMO if it comes off with little effort then too little effort was used to put it on. Get off everything that wants to come off then clean, prime and paint correctly. Invest extra time now and you will save time in the long run.
*i'm at exterior paint 101,but no bites yet.if i may butt in with my paint problem:my painter pressure washed the house and now he is scraping...only looks like a couple of layers of paint,but the house has been covered in vinyl siding and there is alligatoring (my new paint term) and some peeling.he suggests after scraping that he apply a "skim coat"-this stuff is called "minit patch" and looks like joint compound.he says it will be smooth after he sands.seems to me it will just cause problems down the road,like next time i need to paint.
*I guess my real question is what is a little effort? I can get all of the paint off but it takes so long that I'd rather not have to. So how would you determine what you are scraping is indeed old paint that is going to interfere with new paint adhering well or once primed will be just fine?steve
*Steve, I was just quoting you. "Little effort" is what you make it. I just burned all the paint off the trim and in-laid wood on my 90 year old english tudor house. While the work was time consuming I thought that the effort was "little" compared to scraping and re painting every year due to constant peeling. IMO little effort (in general) would be removing the paint with a carbide edge scraper (the kind with a handle for one hand and a knob on the top of the blade for the other hand) with moderate pressure on the knob and having all the paint come off in a few scrapes. If you do this and there is still paint left on the wood I would move on to the next area. (I know you can lean on a good scraper and keep going until your gauging out chunks of wood but that is not "little effort".) After scraping crank up a RO sander and go over the whole thing. One pass at a 100 grit then one with 150. Clean, prime, paint then have a cold drink. Good luck.
*Steve, If your house is old enough, look out for lead in those layers. A "Little effort' could be pretty unpleasant atfer you breath that crap in for a while.
*Ditto Carl and Rein's comments. A Sandvik carbide scraper will make the job a lot easier. If you have many layers of paint, you should remove them. Prep work is 90% of a good paint job, imho. Mold, dirt, and mildew should be removed with a solution of TSP and bleach or a product such as Cabot's Problem Solver Cleaner. A little extra elbow grease now will save a lot more work in the future.
*Steve,i ? I can get all of the paint off but it takes so long that I'd rather not have to. This is the reason most people either do an unacceptable prep job, or hire it out. No offense, but if you aren't prepared to do as much as is necessary to prep the surface properly, then you will be wasting time and money on painting the exterior of your house. It IS time consuming, dirty, and unpleasant. But it needs to be done. The top coat of paint is only as good as the surface it is applied to. If the previous paint is loose, or "easy" to get off, it will come off later. Just remember that this loose, old paint is what the new paint is applied to. If it comes off now, it will come off later - but it will have your new paint applied to it. Scrape, sand, and remove as much paint as you can. When you can no longer get it off, then you are ready to feather sand the edges of the remaining old paint, and go from there.BE CAREFUL ABOUT LEAD PAINT! Use breathing protection, and keep the paint dust and chips out of the lawn.James DuHamel
*Much of the old paint that's hard to get off this time will be easy to get off next time - or will peel off before next time. The more of it you get off now, the longer that pleasant stretch of time between now and next time. ;-)-- J.S.
*Steve,In my limited experience at house painting, it takes me an hour to scrape the area I can comfortably reach without moving the ladder. I scrape until nothing seems to want to come off. It is exhausting, I usually only managed four of five hours of prep per day. Oh, and if you don't immediately prime the freshly scraped area, you can "easily" scrape more off tomorrow.Rich, can't charge too much for exterior painting, Beckman
*FWIW, I agree with all of the above advice, (especially with "can't charge too much for exterior painting") and would add that after scrapping, you should prime the cleaned area within 24 hours or so.Leave the wood bare and exposed for over 48 hours and the paint won't adhere well. (Of course, if you find that you enjoy scrapping and prep work, leave it all exposed to the end of the scrapping phase so you can do it again soon)
*I agree with James warning about lead paint. My wifes cousin almost died sanding old lead based paint, infact he was so bad off he couldn,t work for a year and was forced into early retirement. It's been 3 years and he is still a mess.
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Everything I've read says to scape off peeling or flaky paint. How do you determine when to stop? I find I can scrape it all off with a little effort. But after a few days I haven't finished one wall. So how do you determine what paint really needs to be scraped off and what will be safe to leave on? I will be sanding, priming and caulking before painting.
Thanks,
steve