Exterior Prep Question

mjay

Pictures are worth a thousand words.

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There's some top class people on this forum,........and then there's me...Touching cloth.

PlainPainter

What does this prove - that you have more customers than me willing to pay for a total strip of their exterior paint? That's great if you can get customers like that - but now the average job for home that size has to be around 25-30k for that much labor. What if they want you to stay to a budget of 8-13k?

My posts were done to demonstrate that a pressure washer is an effective tool for proper renovation of a home - that work I did included 2 scrapings along with a orbital sanding with 40 grit to all areas where paint came off. the pressure washer removed more paint than the first scraping alone - and got even more paint loose for the second go around why my carbide scrapers.
The end result a home that is flawless 3 years after I completed the work.

My competitors do a gentle wash and then scrape with putty knives and prime with latex primers and call it a day. The only time I have seen complete paint removals - was this russian guy that completely removed all the paint from a 120 yr. old victorian home with 15 plus layers of paint - then primed and painted and did this on a 2800 sq. ft Victorian that is 36 feet tall - and did it for less than 8 grand. He was there for 3 months - I expected 400 man hours plus materials and only asked for 17.5k - and was turned down.

So good luck for you with total paint removals - how do you sell them? Those homes don't look all that bad?

mjay

Close up of before pic.

Quality sells itself.

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There's some top class people on this forum,........and then there's me...Touching cloth.

mjay

Ooops! forgot the pic.

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There's some top class people on this forum,........and then there's me...Touching cloth.

PlainPainter

I have a friend in New Palz - anyways, north of Boston we have homes with the exact same buildup of lead paint like that in your photo. Actually the vast majority of homes are like that - and not once could I ever sell a project like that. One project - the lead paint was a full 1/8" thick, and my porter-cable grinder with those 24 grit tungsten carbide discs took 10 minutes to fully strip 6 foot length of clapboard. After I projected cost of going over with a orbital to smooth out - drench with oil -prime, caulk and two finish coats one side of a home 20 feet tall by 26 feet long came out to be like 4 grand - and that was lowballing - and their jaws dropped to the ground.

Like I said power to you if you can get folks to do that much prep, I take care of an estate home, all brick with oak trim with exterior oil trim paint - and that is the only customer in my life that pays me for work like that.

BCPNJ

Heres what I call sharp as marbles:
mjay stated:
"The original poster was interested in removing paint from cedar siding in a safe and economical fashion."

"Homeowners are exempt from the certification requirements."

Are they or anyone else exempt from lead poisoning?

My first sentence was to test for lead. If that's not even a consideration by you in the O.P's particular job,than anything you have to say after that has to be questioned.

If the guy is doing it himself and lead is present, telling someone to get any kind of abrasive equipment and directing them to a safety link is not being a responsible professional.

mjay asked:

How much cedar siding have you chemically stripped and collected all the waste from?
And how many homes have you seen after 5years that have gone through this process and not suffered paint adhesion problems?


Stripped three chem. Two cedar clap, one cedar T&G. Collected all waste, no lead present. The T&G was three years and looks great. The one clap was 1999 and it only has normal wear and tear. That one needs to be powerwashed and stained again, but in no way resembles the state it was in prior to stripping.Second clap was '98 and I restained in '04. This job was a real cake walk second time around. Wash, spot, and one coat solid stain. No blisters or large peeling areas that are associated with paint.

Reason for chemical strip was that they were painted by another sharp guy and peeled horribly after a short time. I corrected the problem with a solid
stain over previously discussed primer.

I'm not counting cedar shake either. I really hope you don't paint that if it's previously not painted.

I also strip a ton of decks every year. Chemically. Mahogany and cedar mostly and combos. Mahog deck/cedar rail and spindle. I have no problems at all and maintain these decks on a needed basis. Most of them had been worked incorrectly before I got to them with painted spindles, wrong deck products, not stripped in between ...on and on.

As far as stripping with sanders, I've done too many to count. Most of these were in the 80's though before we knew as much about safety. Recently, in say the past nine years I can count on one hand the number of abrasive strips due to the cost. If lead is present, I'm not interested in this kind of work at all.

mjay stated:

"Anybody that continues to argue or recommend that a pressure washer is a useful tool to remove paint safely without damage to the substrate [cedar siding in this case], is ill-informed".

I never recommended powerwashing for this purpose. I recommended it for future refinishing of house of O.P.. For rinsing stripper I would recommend a hose as to not drive the stripper into the wood and break down fiber.

mjay stated:
I'm confident you have the skills not to mar the wood when pressure washing, and experienced enough to know the maximum moisture content prior to applying primer/paint/stain.

Thanks for your confidence, but taking a page from your book (an easy reader) I have to ask: How would you know this? LOL Too easy.


But tell me how often have you measured the moisture content in the wall cavity prior to power washing, and then 2 days/1week/ 1 month after power washing?

Yes. As long as your moisture is below 15% your good. I have tested myself against a meter just for kicks and I knew by experience when it was OK to paint.

I hope you meant the substrate moisture content and not the actual cavity. If your putting water in the wall cavity well...your just not doing it right.

If your waiting a month after washing, refer to last six words in last paragraph.

mjay, use a little common sense and learn by experience,don't simply quote information from web sites, cedar councils, paint cans, and such. as it makes you look...well, I don't know,not credible.