A buddy of mine wants to power wash the loose paint from his stucco home. I’ve never done it before and wondering how to manage the paint chips & debris. He has a nice lawn right up to the foundation, so easy access. Do I just lay down cloth drops and let the water sift through? That’s the only way I can think of.
~ Ted W ~
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Replies
see if you can scare up some shade cloth like used for greenhouses - being a screen material, it'll drain - I think your drop cloths would just run off -
http://www.gemplers.com/shop/shade-cloth
Thanks David, he ordered 2 of the 20' x 10', 50% shade. That aughta do the trick.
On a side note, now his wife wants a shade garden. =)~ Ted W ~
Cheap Tools! - MyToolbox.netSee my work at TedsCarpentry.com
I think you are asking for water penetration problems by power washing it.
Or worse.
He could blow off patches of the stuff.
Funny timing... Not three hours ago I was pressure washing the front walkway. I kicked up some of the dirt onto the house stucco, and went to knock it back off with the washer. I was surprised to see it took some of the black mildew stain on the stucco came right off as well. Because I'm planning on tearing it off next year (tore off the three other walls of the house two months back for our addition) I figured, what the heck, let's clean it up. The stucco took a pretty intense power washing, no sweat. Looks a lot nicer now. This was the most beat up part of the stucco too - if you thought the stucco was going to peel off anywhere on the house, this was the part that would have peeled. No paint on mine, however. The shade cloth idea sounds pretty good - should be just about the right weave.
Silt screen might work for you too.
I think it was in the Fine Homebuilding tips - Use landscape cloth
Yeah, landscape fabric. I think it was Mike Guertin.AitchKay
Ted
I was just reading about Lead abatement in the lastest JLC.
After 2010 they are going to require us to use 6 mil plastic when we disturb lead paint on the exterior of a house.
Sounds like a slip and slide to me.
Rich
Thanks for the tip, Rich. I won't be doing the job myself but I'll pass this on to him. He ordered the shade screen material today (2 - 20' x 10' pieces) so I'm sure he plans on doing it this season.
But on that note, I'm thinking there has to be some work-arounds for such things as power washing, since a plastic drop would pretty much guarantee the paint chips get washed into the ground. ~ Ted W ~
Cheap Tools! - MyToolbox.netSee my work at TedsCarpentry.com
Ted
I think the new lead requirements are going to be a PITA.
Rich
Use a wet/dry shop vac on the yard afterwards.
I tried that about 20 years ago and it got about half the chips, not to mention it took like forever.~ Ted W ~
Cheap Tools! - MyToolbox.netSee my work at TedsCarpentry.com
Roll of weed guard, does a great job and relatively speaking, cheap.