Metalized paint

[Don Y]

I've debated painting the interior walls of the house with metalized paint (RF shield). The downside, of course, is that it makes wireless transmissions into/outof the house impractical (that's the whole point!).

We don't use cell phones so there's no real cost/loss to us. And, if it inconveniences guests... [My house, My rules! :> ]

The big bummer, though, is dealing with resale; who would want to buy a house in which they couldn't use a cell phone? [I suspect this would be the sort of thing you would HAVE to disclose at time of sale -- or leave yourself ripe for litigation!]

Scraping the paint *off* would be tedious/difficult -- at best.

But, the "primer for repainting old plaster" thread inspired a possible solution: what if I put up wall paper and then painted OVER that? (assuming it doesn't look like sh*t) I'll have the interior that I want, cosmetically (pick a color that I like!), the electrical shielding that I want *and*, when I want to "undo" it, just strip the wallpaper and repaint/paper the wall beneath! (?)

Of course, stripping wallpaper typically takes advantage of the fact that you can soak the wallpaper and the water will permeate the paper and loosen the glue. I don't think that would work if the paper had been painted -- esp if a metalized paint!

(I would have to investigate in more detail)

Does this reasoning make sense? I.e., that stripping would be almost as hard as trying to remove the metalized paint from the walls, directly?? I've not hung paper in 30+ years so...

[Stormin Mormon]

Would it make sense to staple up aluminum foil, and ground the foil?

[Ed Pawlowski]

I just wear the tin foil hat. Can hardly hear the voices now.

[gregz]

Complete shield is very hard to implement. May reduce to an extent. Any breaks in doors and windows will let rf in, as well as wiring. Signal strength of towers varies from poor to good.

Greg

[CRNG]

On Tue, 29 Dec 2015 19:29:13 -0700, Don Y wrote in

Good idea. Go for it.

[Don Wiss]

People too cheap to strip first paint wallpaper all the time. And people manage to get the wallpaper off. I believe you have to go over it with coarse sandpaper.

Don.

(e-mail link at home page bottom).

[Don Y]

But paint with metallic particles (alumina grit?) is less permeable to water *and* "tougher" on sand paper.

Perhaps I should just paper a small drywall scrap, paint it and see what it's like, firsthand...

[Don Y]

My goal is primarily to reduce radiations from *within*; so *my* emissions aren't easily snooped from outside. As such, I can limit my radiated power to only what is needed for reliable coverage of the interior.

Someone standing *at* one of my windows trying to sniff signal is going to be pretty obvious! OTOH, someone sitting in a neighboring home can (without shielding) sniff without worry!

Likewise, I want to be able to minimize the attack surface for injection and DoS expoits; someone pushing "big signal" from outside the home would be relatively easy to note and in violation of FCC rules. While that's not a guarantee, it's a deterrent.

(I am technically capable of jamming cell phone communications; the threat of fines and/or imprisonment is a strong disincentive for doing so! :> )

Eventually, I'll have a solution that doesn't rely on RF but I don't want to address that, now.

[bob haller]

why does th OP want to block rf signals from their home?

cell providers have network extenders for use, in places like the op is trying to create.

antenna goes outside pointed at cell tower, indoors the signals are repeated....''the papers metallic particles will probably not be a good ground.

google faraday shields for more info to help do this shielding successfully

[bob haller]

dont just be concerned with rf, they can aim a tinly laser beam at your homes window and listen in to your converstions, attach transmitters to phone lines etc.

and do realize if they want your info bd enough you cant stop them.

are you radicliazed//////.

[bob haller]

[Don Y]

Because I use a wireless communication system for "occupants" to interact with the automation system controlling the home. "Snooping" on those communications reveals what we are saying, what we are asking the house to do *for* us, how the house is responding, what it is telling us, what we are doing, where we are physically located, etc.

Yes, and as we don't have/use cell phones, we have no interest in bringing RF *into* the house.

I can get the house *shielded* easily enough. What I can't do is to accomplish this in a way that is (affordably) REVERSIBLE. The idea of paint over wallpaper seemed like a way that I could "peel" the metallic layer (paint) off the walls -- instead of having to try to SCRAPE metallized paint off plaster!

[Don Y]

Yeah, as the Russians did with US (and other) embassy...

Sure. And how many of your neighbors will CASUALLY do those things? OTOH, how many would eavesdrop (or steal) on your WiFi, given the COTS technology to do so?

Of course! Ditto with possessions. OTOH, most folks are easily discouraged *if* you raise the bar high enough.

One of my neighbors came knocking on the door one Sunday a few days after he moved in. He'd locked himself out of the house (he, wife, and infant son) and wanted to borrow to break in. Locksmiths wouldn't come until the (college) ball game was over, despite the double charges for Sunday house call! And, he wasn't keen on standing outside in the hot Sun waiting for them to mosey on over (infant son)!

I'd never been on his property before. Never "examined" the house. After a few minutes, I returned home, fetched a screwdriver, removed *one* screw from one of the windows in his kitchen, took the window *out* (notice I've not broken anything!) and asked him if he wanted to climb through or if *I* should? The look he gave me was one of, "OhMiGosh! This guy lives NEXT TO ME! Will he be a THREAT or an ASSET??"

[We turned out to be great friends]

My point being that a single screw is what kept people out of that home before -- and since. OTOH, leave the front door unlocked or the garage door open and you can almost

*bet* someone will take advantage!

[Dean Hoffman]

I wonder if there is something that comes in rolls that's pre-glued. Think electrical tape but a couple feet wide or so. It would be sticky but not too sticky. I'm thinking of Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

[Don Y]

Think: aluminum foil. Now, think about what it would look like, applied (i.e., forget the shiny surface but, instead, think about how you could get it on without introducing myriad wrinkles and other imperfections).

If you're making an industrial enclosure, no big deal. If you have to LIVE in it (and look at it!), then cosmetics starts to become a driving force.

Some of the metalized paints *look* like you've lined the walls with "smooth" foil. You could then paint over them (or even wallpaper?).

But, you're still stuck with sorting out how to rid yourself of the metal/foil later on! :-/

I think this is one of those things that I'm just going to have to evaluate first-hand. I suspect even the vendors of such products haven't considered how to get *rid* of them afterwards!

[clare]

Use "pealable" or better yet "dry strippable" paper - or "dry strippable foil" and kill 2 birds with one stone.

[Don Y]

Ooooh, excellent! In the past, I've always had to be soak the paper to remove it. I'll start with that. Thanks!

[Vic Smith]

Good "wallpaper" is called canvas. I've stripped canvas and it is totally different from wallpaper. About 4-8 times thicker. Comes off very easily.

[>>>Ashton Crusher]

This stuff...

Looks to be about $300+ a gallon!!! Needs to be grounded.

Will you also paint the ceiling and put something over all the windows?

[DerbyDad03]

Interesting stuff.

I noticed that the instruction sheet doesn't mention anything about cleanup of the tools. They says that the dried up product can be disposed of with household waste. They also say not to dispose of the product in the "sink, water or ground".

Are you expected to throw away all brushes, rollers and rags after use? Since they also say to use the "best" rollers, etc. this project keeps getting more and more expensive.