I'm going to tackle the painting of my eaves/overhang this spring, and have started the scraping. What I've discovered is that the paint is kind of "baked on", and is really hard to get off. And I'm no wimp, either! Rather than peeling, much of the paint is kind of splitting in little cracks. Very tough to scrape. I need some advice or help before my arm falls off!
Just check at Lowes. They have some paint remover sprays that loosen up the paint.
We had exactly the same type of removal problem last year. Please learn from our bad experience and do NOT consider using a heat gun to remove the paint! Yes there were fire trucks and water involved :-)
Michael Nickolas
Scrape all the loose stuff off and then primer and paint. If the majority is bonded to the wood then you will not have a problem.
My old house had stained wood under the eaves. I had hired a pro to do the job. They had one hell of a time scraping it. Then when they sprayed it, it took several coats before it looked right. I could still see the texture of the peeled spots underneath. But since is was under the eves I was not concerned. Still looks good now, going on 5 years, Phoenix area.
If you can't scrape the paint off, it's not going to fall off by itself, either. Paint over it.
Heat gun, paint remover, and sanding should all work.
how about pressure washer ,, being careful not to force water into joints? Chuck
Goedjn is right - if it doesn't scrape off there's no problem. The adhesion is good. Those little cracks are common - call it alligatoring. If they bother you, prime the entire surface before the finish coat(s). Otherwise, just scrape the loose stuff, prime the bare wood, and paint.
If your intention is to strip the wood bare to get a fresh clean look, I suggest you re-think that idea. My neighbor stripped his entire house and primed/painted with quality products. He ended up with the usual peeling anyway.
Pressure washers usually don't get all the loose stuff, so it's definitely not going to get the other stuff.
I rented a 4000 psi pressure washer (had an 18 HP Kohler engine on it). Let me tell you: That thing removed both loose and tight stuff!
For the sake of learning, what actually caused the fire? I have a heat gun and have used it successfully in the past. Is it just Russian roulette or did you do something specific that caused the fire?
but that kind of force is pretty indiscriminate and can damage the wood too...
But what he MIGHT be running into.. is the same problem I'm having.. I have an 18 y.o house, I bought 3 years ago so I don't know the paint history but I think it may be original. Where I've scraped, done repairs I can't see any evidence of color change..
Paint on porch railing is stuck solid in places, cracking, brittle, coming off in others (may be half inch away from "good" places, but the good places are few..) Same thing on windows. Where the paint comes off, I see no evidence of primer or previous coat of paint. IF these pieces haven't been primed, I THINK I want to remove as much as possible before I prime, caulk, paint. By the way, my paint cracking is very fine slivers, not big peels like someone put paint on too thick...
The siding (masonite) looks great. Where I've painted at a repair, painting over into "older" area using matched paint,, can't see where old and new come together. I'm just going to do trim, windows, and all caulking as it looks like they skimped on choices of caulk. Then I'll have to touch up where I caulk as the caulk is glossy...
link to difference in types of caulk I just ran across..
much as possible before I prime, caulk, paint.
Russian roulette. We were working on clearing the old paint off a frieze board on our Victorian era house. What actually ignited was debris stuck behind the board. Leaves and pine needles. Maybe from an old squirrels nest, or just stuff that had settled back there over the last 100 years. The wife noticed it first as a glow from behind the board. By the time I got up there small flames were licking out. I grabbed a pry bar and fire extinguisher. Pried the board away from the house and sprayed the extinguisher while the wife called the fire dept. They were very thorough in making sure the fire was out, which involved a bit of destruction, both inside and out. We were very lucky, it was contained just to the small corner we were working on.
We had successfully used the heat gun for the entire back of the house, but never again. I agree with the other posters, scrape off the loose stuff. Whatever remains firmly attached, paint over.
Michael Nickolas
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