Removing Paint

[RJH]

This is the sort of job I really don't enjoy, but hey.

It's paint on an external brick wall, a skin of emulsion like paint on top of rock hard masonry paint. It scratches off with a finger nail, but is annoyingly hard to remove from this large area (about 60m2). It's just this skin of paint I want to remove - I'll take my chances on what's underneath when I come to repaint the walls.

I've tried most abrasive sander type options - they all work, but it's going to be slow and dusty. Might chemicals be a better idea? Any/all ideas welcome . .

[Cursitor Doom]

Tried brick cleaner from your local builder's merchants? You can get

5L of the stuff quite cheaply.

[Dave Liquorice]

Pressure washer. Will remove anything remotely loose. Messy though, put a tarpualin on the ground under where you are working and a couple yards each side. Also one behind you to contain (most of) the flying bits.

[Chris Bacon]

Good excuse to buy one!

[TimW]

Good thinking!

I used one on an old boat some years ago to dislodge barnacles and everything but had to stop when it started to delaminate some of the fibreglass.

Not all pressure washers are the same. A £50 lidle tool is unlikely to help. You might hire a petrol powered one.

TW

[Brian Gaff (Sofa)]

Yes you need to be all togged up too. I've seen folk at a/e eye unit after using a pressure washer with no more than a pair of specs on. Brian

[Dave Liquorice]

B-) Even a small pressure washer can be pretty vicious, especially if there are any nooks and crannies for the jet to get into.

I used a "medium" sized domestic Karcher with the rotating needle jet at about two inch range. 1.4 kW, max 100 bar, 5.5 l/min it says on the label. To save hoiking it, mains and hose up the scaffolding I got a 5 m high pressure extension hose.

[RJH]

Thanks - I've borrowed a mate's Makita HW101, and that seems to do what I need it to do. And insofar as such a thing is possible, it's almost enjoyable :-)

Points taken about covering and safety kit - it's certainly creating a mess. There's not too much at eaves height (about 6m) - I'll cross that bridge at some point.