Stripping painted siding mechanically
Biff_Loman
| Posted in Construction Techniques on
Out of curiosity: how well do power paint shavers work for stripping paint off wooden clapboards?
My wife and I are batting around the idea of buying a 150 year old house. Most everything has been updated and is in good condition, but I’d say all the siding needs to be taken back to bare wood.
My heart screams yes, but the balls say “maybe.” I’ve never tried one of those carbide-bladed rotor gizmos. At the end of the day, I’d only be willing to dedicate so many hundreds of hours to it.
Replies
Use one that hooks to a HEPA vac, like PaintShaver. They work pretty well, but you do have to followup with sanding.
That is, they work well with flat siding, not so good with that rounded stuff.
I watched a guy use one on an old house nearby. DIYer. Took him most of the summer to do the front wall of a 2-story colonial. In the end, it looked pretty good, at least from the street. The next summer, I noticed that he hired someone to strip and replace the siding on the remaining walls, also took advantage of that opportunity to add insulation, house wrap, replace flashing,, generally tighen up the walls and clean things up. They spent a few weeks, maybe a month on that phase of work. In the end, the three newly re-sided walls looked terrific and the paint on the original wall (just a year old) was starting to peel in places.
No idea what his costs were, but I think one's got to have a real good reason to go to the effort of stripping lead-based paint from a 150 yr old building. Regular sanding and prep is one thing, but there's a lot of labor to strip down to the wood, patching, sanding, priming and painting. Of course, new siding isn't cheap either.
Right: the labor savings over re-siding probably wouldn't be great. I would only be saving on the cost of buying siding, which would be significant.This is all hypothetical. We haven't even made an offer yet - but the house has been on the market for a year.I think everyone's scared of the siding. I can't blame them.
Don't even think of it if you (or your next-door neighbors) have kids under 8.
And if no kids, think twice, hook up to a HEPA vac, tarp off the area (disposable tarps), launder your work clothes separately from all other laundry, and wipe down the washer with TSP when the clothes are done.
Likewise, wipe down the shower with TSP after you step out.
The environmental scientist who got me up to speed on lead (he does abatement work for the Big Three) completely re-sided his 100-year-old home with Period clear cedar bevel siding rather than spread all of that lead into his flowerbeds and throughout the neighborhood.
This approach might seem extreme at first, but either way it's going to be lots of labor. And if you're doing it for yourself, on evenings/weekends/vacation days, the detox time can easily double your labor investment.
You can do it one wall at a time, and with the old siding off you can find hidden problems, plan ahead for future projects, and blow in insulation.
Thinking about a screened-in porch off of the dining room a few years down the line? -- Attack it now from the outside, frame for those new French doors (squish your new framing into a bed of construction adhesive to bond it to the old plaster lath), then re-sheath and side right over it.
If you never end up doing that project, all you'll be out is a bit of labor, and a few 2x4s.
AitchKay
Hmm. I figured this would take me four or five years of free time in the mild months. Just a wild guess. Hundreds of hours, big dedication, definitely very boring and not really fun at all.But once it's over, just a memory, like any other massive project.At work, we're actually residing a 200-year old house. Tearing off the clapboards gives the opportunity to run new wiring, do framing repairs, and insulate.But that's just an excuse to spend even *more* time and money. :PIt may very well come to pass that we decide not to buy this house - but the siding is a significant factor in whether we do. It's a big house, and the surface area is significant.
Yeah, good luck, whatever you do. At least you're going in with your eyes wide open!AitchKay
Bill,Having been in the lead abatement industry I can tell you it is allot of work. If you decided to tackle the project I might suggest a chemical stripper first as it will minimize the amount of flying paint chips and dust. Then use mechanical equipment. Much cleaner and faster. On the realistic side of things your time would be better spent residing.Jeb
I've come around to the idea that this house needs to be re-sided, preferably in Hardie.We're putting in an offer tonight, btw.
Bill,
I tore the cedar siding off my home this last summer. I too was at the crossroads of trying to strip it and fix the cracked boards, reside with vinyl over the top (which I didn't really like), or tear it off and put up CF. I'm kind a newbie DIYer. I had stripped the front lower half a few years back using a paint heat gun. Yeah, it was long and probably bad for my body. So there was no way I was going to do that again.
The tear off gave a chance to put up vapor barrier and some insulation as well. The other great advantage is that you won't have to paint as often either! Good luck
How long did the entire project take you?
Biff,
It took about 4 months of work roughly. That time included working in the evenings, after my normal job, and then both Saturdays and Sundays of the weekend. I had my dad helping as well. The worst was the removal of the siding. After that the wall prep, insulating, and siding went fairly fast. You become pretty efficient with cutting and hanging the cement board. I just did one side at a time. We got lucky with weather and only a few rain out days. It was a pretty big job for someone who has never really did siding before and still works a normal job.
I have two Paint Shavers. I just bought the second after using the first and liking the results. We were stripping a semi-clear coat Bear product off cedar because it was separating.
There is no reason old wood, be it cedar or whatever, shouldn't be able to produce a quality paint job. Preparation plays a huge roll. A paint job is only as good as the base it's applied to. As such, a lot of effort needs to go into priming. Attention must also be paid to the temperature at which the paint is applied. For example, if it's too hot, the paint is going to dry quickly, compromising adhesion, resulting in peeling and bubbling.
Even if the paint preparation and paint job was done right, if moisture is infiltrating behind the wood, it can cause premature failure of the finish.
Running a Paint Shaver can be a lot of work, as elsewhere suggested. They work especially well on shingles, since they are usually blind nailed, so you don't have to set the nails further. Setting nails slows you down significantly.
Once all the paint is gone, you have no grain left and you usually have to touch up with something like a Porter Cable Siding Sander, but that goes quick, since you're just touching up wood.
The suggestion to use a HVLP is sound. Based on experience, I would add that you should consider buying a DustDeputy cyclone and run through it before you attach to the vacuum. You'll run hours longer before the filter has be be cleaned, or replaced and you'll put less dust in the air, since the filter efficiency drops slower, since it takes far longer to clog the filters. You'll use this tool over and over.
All the foregoing aside, there is, as has been mentioned, the issue of lead. You aren't going to capture everything. Look up, for example, information on sailors who were poisoned chipping lead off Naval and other ships (never mind the innocent by standers who never had their issues addressed). You'll learn about things like EDTA and how they would have lost their lives without it. But little is said about the permanent damaged suffered in spite of their being saved.
Why not hire a soda blaster?
Another thing to consider is whether the original siding is back primed. If not, you might do everything right on the outside and still find your new paint job failing due to lack of back priming.
I imagine it would be heartbreaking after all that work!
-Rich
A what?
Someone that uses baking soda instead of sand for paint removal.
Won't damage surrounding materials.
A few yrs. back I stripped and repainted a small house with a Metabo paint shaver which is a smaller and really made for trim. I hooked it to a HEPA vac.
The vac caught the dust, bigger chips sprayed out which need to be caught in a tarp. (a PITA in the wind)
If I tipped the Metabo just a little, it would leave a circular divit which would need to be sanded out and sometimes shows up after paint.
The siding I did wasn't blind nailed.I'd set the nails first, but still ended up lunching a lot of carbide tips.
I think the Paint Shaver is supposed to do the job faster.
I did this job on a bid with what I thought was a big pad in it and still lost my keister.
I could have stripped and sided for the same labor. No lead worries.
When stripped, the old cedar held paint well, but a little more for Hardi siding would have been a good investment.
>>>My heart screams yes, but the balls say "maybe." >>> Don't do that, I about choked on my coffee.
biff......it's all lead paint.... read about lead paint abatement before you get into this
Biff, Don't even think about trying to rehab that siding. 150 years of service is fantastic for any building material, especially wood. Go through all the lead abatement proceedures required in your locality to remove the siding and do all of the above described improvements while the siding is off. If you have original plaster walls then spray foam onto the backside and stabilize the plaster. I like thermo-ply sheathing for both impermiability and strength, put adhehisive caulk all around. Upgrade your elecrical to all metal boxes, pull new wire if necessary. Pull in TV and ethernet cable and put in access plates. Don't be sucked into the wireless dream, hard-wire is the way to go. Tape all the openings in all the boxes and foam the walls. It took me twenty years to understand how to correctly rehab an older house. My 120 YO house in New Orleans is quiet comfortable and energy efficient.