Paint Shaver vs Infrared Paint Removers - Contractor Talk - Professional Construction and Remodeling Forum

Goochie · 06-25-2009, 04:02 AM

HI--new here; my 1st post & need some help. Not too experienced at exterior painting; I usually do interiors.

I've been thinking of getting a Paint Shaver or an IR paint remover, & researching both. I know both methods have their fans. Both the Speedheater IR & Silent Paint Remover IR sound good; Heat-N-Strip (IR made by Paint Shaver company) has built-in retaining pins to hold it to vertical surfaces, which seems like an advantage. The way I understand it, the IR methods don't get hot enough to release fumes of lead paint.

My customer wants to use opaque stain instead of paint so I'm getting ready to strip a cedar shingle house, 1/4" shingles w/several thin coats of blistering paint to prep. Never primed. She doesn't want it powerwashed.

Any suggestions? Thanks

Mike(VA) · 06-25-2009, 04:38 AM

This smells strangely like an HO or spam. Wording is too precise to be an HO, so I vote for spam. Could be wrong, but then again, I have been wrong before. Especially when the thread he edited about shavers had almost all the info he was looking for.

Goochie · 06-28-2009, 10:13 PM

I'm sorry, Mike.

I'm not a spammer or HO; I just try to express myself clearly. It's my nature. I used to have an office job where I did technical writing/work/troubleshooting.

I've always been handy around the house and fixed my own stuff so family and friends asked me to help them out, mostly stuff inside, so when I lost my job, I decided to try to expand a part-time endeavor into a regular job. I'm still learning and was just trying to pick some brains because I was confused by the confilicting opinions.

P.S. I'm female so maybe that's why I sounded different than most. I'll leave the forum if you all want me to.

Goochie · 06-28-2009, 10:25 PM

And I still could use some help with my original problem--

My customer wants stain instead of paint so I'm getting ready to strip a cedar shingle house, 1/4" shingles w/several thin coats of blistering paint to prep. Never primed. She doesn't want it powerwashed.

So which device would work best? (Actually, she wanted to use transparent stain, but I was afraid there'd be too much paint left in the shingles so I suggested opaque.)

I'm afraid the shingles are too thin for the Paint Shaver.

Mike(VA) · 06-29-2009, 06:03 AM

Hmmm. Goochie sounds like a name some of the guys on here would use. Also, I would hope, as a female, that you do sound different. I would worry if you sounded like me.

Anyway, a shaver would not work well on cedar shingles with cracks, checks, warps, and the lower edge. IR would work better but it is time consuming. I would consider scraping the flakes and using a paste stripper. Honestly, she could probably reshingle the house for less that what it would cost to strip several layers good enough to accept a stain of any type.

waynec · 06-29-2009, 11:23 AM

We own the shaver and found it to be easy to use and the results were great. However, we only use it on clapboards. You could have a problem with shingles.

willworkforbeer · 06-29-2009, 12:36 PM

Just flip all the shingles over, problem solved.

Frankawitz · 06-30-2009, 07:09 AM

With shingels and the paste strippers a lot of work on cedar, I would price it to remove shingels and replace with new then stain, I had a job a few years back where the customer wanted the shingels stripped, I showed her that it would be less labor to replace then to strip them. good luck

www.frankawitz.net

painterman · 06-30-2009, 07:39 PM

You might consider media blasting. Corn cob works good on log homes. Maybe sub it to a blasting company.

Goochie · 07-01-2009, 05:26 PM

Thanks, guys. I've heard of taking off shingles and turning them over but, truthfully, don't have a clue how to do it. Maybe I'll convince her that repainting is the best choice. I have great color sense so my job will be to sell her on a new color palette. I think I'd be better off painting.