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From: begeman@milano.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.rec.wood
Subject: Re: question: how to prepare house surface for painting
Message-ID: <1122@milano.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 7-Mar-86 08:36:45 EST
Article-I.D.: milano.1122
Posted: Fri Mar  7 08:36:45 1986
Date-Received: Mon, 10-Mar-86 00:11:50 EST
References: <243@magic.DEC.COM>
Sender: begeman@milano.UUCP
Organization: MCC, Austin, TX
Lines: 39
Summary: sanding, blasting, heating, scraping

(Note: This posted because mailer returned direct reply as undeliverable)

In article <243@magic.DEC.COM>, kolling@magic.DEC.COM (Karen Kolling) writes:
> 
> Last weekend I started painting my clapboard house....
> ... and I suspect that I could make my life easier if I knew 
>  more advanced surface preparation techniques.


I've recently repainted my old farmhouse which had the same problem.  I
rented a disc sander (*very* high RPM - *much* better than an
attachment for your drill) for about $15 which did the job.  The
drawback to this approach is that it leaves swirls on the wood.  This
doesn't bother me much (in fact, you won't notice it after a few
weeks), but some people are more particular.

Another option is a water blaster.  These are normally used for
cleaning driveways etc, but people around here use them for getting the
old paint off a house too.  These can be rented too - it is basically a
compressor/pump that you hook your garden hose up to.  Sort of turns it
into a super hose - like the kind at the do-it-yourself car wash.
This can knock off a *lot* of loose paint fast.  The disadvantage here
is 1) if any wood is rotted or soft the pressure can actually gouge the
surface, and 2) you get very wet.

Heat guns are the third choice, but they are slow and don't work very
well for large areas.

Lastly, there's scrape and sand: my least favorite (oh my aching arm).

Good luck!  
--
	Of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most.

Michael L. Begeman              Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corp 
Software Technology Program     Austin (where the sun always shines) Texas

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