My parents have a house with an old deck with railing that was painted white. It is chipping really badly and I was wondering what was the best way to remove the chipping paint, without having to use a scraper and manually remove it. Not sure why it was originally painted because underneath is PT. Anyway, I am also a woodworker and yesterday I used my belt sander on it for a few minutes. It removes the paint but I stopped because I was sure it would gum up the belt sander which is pretty new. I blew the sander out and a lot of old paint came out of it from the short time I was using it. Anyway, is there some type of chemical stripper we could use or possibly some machine that I could rent to remove the paint? I think I will suggest to them to just use a deck stain instead of paint it afterwards. Just wondering what a painter would do. Just manual labor? A scraper, wire brush, etc? Any help would be appreciated.
Regards,
Buzzsaw
“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” Gil Bailie
Replies
Just manual labor? A scraper, wire brush, etc?
You got it.
Not a pro painter........but do as you say, finish with a random orbit sander to blend out the scratches.
To get max life out of the new "stain" I would try to remove all the old paint first, even if it takes a belt sander.
Some have had success, but I won't paint PT. Heavy or "solid" body stain max.....
Don't know if you'd be interested, but an infrared paint removal tool can be rented.
Might check around to see if a rental one is available locally
Considering the amount of labor required to strip everything, I'd seriously be tempted to replace the railing. It might be cheaper in the end.
You could upgrade to a nicer rail, like cedar or Ipe, or one of the composites.
I'm with shep on that one, easier to just replace it. Figure if it takes 3 days to a week to remove the paint compared to a day or so to replace the rail, and maybe $200 in lumber. I guess you have to weigh how much your time is worth.-----------------------------------------------------------
FT Job Wanted: Chicago, north side/North Shore burbs. http://forums.taunton.com/n/mb/message.asp?webtag=tp-breaktime&msg=70809.1
The ways I've seen and/or used to remove paint include manual labor, as in scaping, sanding, and generally being bored. Other products that help stubborn paint are a heat gun and Jasco or some other type of chemical paint stripper/remover. After that though, it's back to scraping, brushing, and sanding.
Young, poor, and eager to learn
Thanks for your post...Regards,
Buzzsaw
"Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive." Gil Bailie