On Thu, 8 May 2008 04:16:24 -0700 (PDT), ransley
wrote:

On May 8, 3:35Â*am, PaPaPeng wrote:
I had to sparay paint the walnut stain on the wood trim of my mostly
white stucco house. Â*Brush painting would have been very long and
difficult to do by myself. Â*There is some overspray of dark brown on
the stucco. Â*What is the best paint or material to use to cover up
this overspray. Â*I am thinking of quicklime whitewash. Â*But where do I
buy quicklime from?

Is it real stucco or the synthetic or painted stucco, real stucco use
stucco, but it wont match in color so it will have to be tinted, a
tough job even for a pro. If painted or synthetic, paint it, but again
color matching is going to be tough. If real stuco you might wire
brush off the overspray. If its painted you might try thinner if its
oil stain, or if water stain alcohol , soapy water to loosen and
remove overspray, and it depends on how much overspray, if real bad
refinishing the whole side might be best. But why anybody would spray
their trim because using a brush is to much work and didnt Mask the
trim is beyond me. You probably could have doubled the jobs cost by
not using a brush in the first place. Advise from a pro or a real
paint store is best show them photos and get real help of a pro.


Its real stucco and I had daubed fresh stucco over the overspray. It
looks good close up but the color (new=bright white, original=
slightly beige) difference is visible from afar. But this seems the
best touch up option so far. I was hoping someone would confirm my
idea of using quicklime. Quicklime is the basis of the original stucco
mix and is a strong alkali which will likely chemically leach out the
oil based stain while providing a temporary white mask overcoat. My
expectation is that the quicklime will eventually weather out to
expose the original stucco or at least weather over a few seasons to
blend in with the original stucco color. Who sells 25 lb bags of
quicklime?

The overspray and oil based paint spatters get absorbed into the
stucco fast. Using solvents only makes a small paint problem spread
into a blob.

I had tried brush painting and the problems are, by the time I have
the ladder resting against on the second floor roof gutter (24 feet?)
I dare not lean over the side to reach the further parts of the Tudor
Style wood trim. The house is too big and its construction does not
lend itself to my fixing a safety rope harness over the roof. I am
retired, live alone and cannot get help even if it is to hold the
ladder stable. Paying someone is out of the question (big bucks for a
cosmetic item.) I leaned to the side, not once but twice over a 10
year interval, on a 6 foot step ladder and it flipped. Just a 3 foot
fall. Nothing broken but I was practically crippled (hips) for a
couple of weeks on both occasions.

The biggest problem with brush painting is that when chrging the brush
with stain from the can drops of paint inevitably get flickered onto
the stucco. Having to move the ladder frequently and carrying a
gallon can of oil based stain up and down the tall
ladder.....problematical including tipping over two almost full cans
of stain, fortunately on the grass. Spraying gives me a reach of an
extra foot or two on either side and I have a contractor air
compressor and paint spraying equipment. I did use a straight edge to
mask but the stucco has a kind of slump texture that prevents a good
masking. The straight edge cannot be more than 2 feet as a longer mask
leaves too many gaps against the stucco and allows highly visible
overspray.

My latest idea is to go back to brush painting. But instead of
hanging a clumsy heavy gallon can of stain from the rung I will load
up a hand misting spray bottle (Dollar Store item) with stain and
squirt that onto the paint brush to charge up the brush with stain.
That way I have enough paint to cover as much as I can reach, I won't
get overspray and I won't get paint flickers on the stucco. And I can
climb up and down the ladder safely and quickly as often as i need to.