How to Strip Years of Paint Off a House

By: Jefferson Kolle, This Old House magazine (Page 1 of 5)

Photo: Keller & Keller

To penetrate and remove the 10 layers of paint on the siding and trim at the Winchester project, painting contractor Jim Clark (shown here) and his crew used a newly developed, non-caustic stripper that breaks the bond between paint and wood. Before choosing their approach, they considered several methods, detailed in the following slides.

Photo: Keller and Keller

Grinding
(power sanding disk or clapboard sander)
Pros: Fast, efficient, leaves no residue on surface; relatively inexpensive (no chemicals to buy).
Cons: Only works on non patterned siding like clapboards. In inexperienced hands, can scar wood. Noisy; creates airborne dust that's a lead concern and requires a HEPA-filter mask. Some states require vacuum connection.

Photo: Keller & Keller

Burning
(heat plate or heat gun)
Pros: Relatively fast, thorough, and inexpensive (no chemicals to buy).
Cons: Can release some lead along with smoke, so a respirator is recommended. Biggest danger, though, is fire (often delayed when an ember under a clapboard ignites).

Photo: Keller & Keller

Infrared heat
Pros: Very fast (about 20-30 seconds exposure); low operating temperature won't ignite wood; removes all paint with one pass. Requires no mask, gloves, or goggles; inexpensive to operate (no chemicals to buy).
Cons: Not yet widely available; $395 initial cost.

Photo: Keller & Keller

Peel-Away
(available in different formulas, depending on paint type)
Pros: Generally quick to apply and nonflammable. Can be sprayed or brushed on. Most dissolved paint adheres to proprietary paper, which is peeled off.
Cons: Mixed results, often requiring second application; paper is extra hassle.

Photo: Keller & Keller

Methylene chloride-based chemical strippers
Pros: Very powerful and effective chemical. Sprayable or available as nonsagging gel that adheres to vertical surfaces.
Cons: Toxic—must be used with chemical-resistant gloves, respirator, and goggles. Requires ventilation indoors, and some formulations are flammable. Has also been classified by the EPA as a potential cause of cancer in humans.

Photo: Keller & Keller

RemovAll
Pros: Nontoxic-requires no gloves, mask, or goggles. Can be sprayed or brushed on and adheres well.
Cons: Slow-acting (one-hour minimum; best left on overnight); twice as expensive as methylene chloride.

Photo: Keller & Keller

RemovAll, developed in Canada to strip the finishes from jet planes, is sprayed onto the clapboards by crew foreman Volmar Oleivera. Painting contractor Jim Clark says, "If you're stripping your own house, buy an inexpensive airless sprayer from a home center. After you've sprayed all the stripper and removed all the paint, just clean the machine with water and you can use it again to paint the house."

Photo: Keller & Keller

Following the EPA's new guidelines, Massachusetts has reclassified residential lead-paint residue as household trash, which can be discarded with the rest of the rubbish. In the past, a licensed abatement contractor had to be called in. Check with your state's Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to see if similar laws apply in your area.

Photo: Keller & Keller

Homeowner Kim Whittemore shows the color candidates to TOH general contractor Tom Silva. Rather than relying on small paint color chips, buy small cans of colors being considered and paint swatches on the siding.

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From a distance, the house in Winchester, Mass., site of the 2002 This Old House TV project, was a picture of yellow siding and white trim. Closer inspection revealed a craggy clapboard landscape of cracks, chips, and flakes where 10 coats of paint, applied during the 80-year life of the house, were failing by degrees.

"The clapboards are cypress, I think—a full 10 inches wide and 7/8 inches thick at the butt," said TOH general contractor Tom Silva. "Beautiful wood in great condition, except that it won't hold any more paint."

Painting contractor Jim Clark concurred: "We could feather out the failed areas with scrapers and sandpaper before priming and top coating, but a year after we finish, the flaking and chipping could start again. So all the paint has to go. That means a lot of work, but when we're finished, we'll have a baby-smooth surface that will hold nice, even coats of paint for a long time to come."

Dealing With Lead
Stripping paint from any house built before 1978 raises the question of lead. Given the number of coats on the Winchester house, Clark had no doubt about the presence of the heavy metal. In the past, getting rid of lead required hiring a licensed—and costly—abatement contractor to remove and dispose of the lead-laced paint. But changed in Massachusetts in 2001, according to Jim Roberts, an environmental analyst with the state's Department of Environmental Protection: "Massachusetts adopted federal Environmental Protection Agency guidelines that reclassify lead paint residue from a residence as household waste. The idea is that if it is easier for homeowners to dispose of lead, they will be more likely to remove it from their homes." For Clark and crew, it meant that they could do the work—if they took the mandated safety precautions—and that all the paint they removed from the house could simply be bagged up and chucked into the trash.