Hi Oren,

This cool season we will fix/prep/prime/paint our fascia boards. I
found this tool*. Dang, I won't stand on a ladder for a long time.
For me this may be a perfect tool on top-a-ladder. Reports pending..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqXARDjhxaU

My wife and I just finished prepping and painting my in-laws house that
had been neglected for many years (due to their poor health). There were
numerous layers of peeling paint, and it was in much much worse condition
than the one in the video above.

I looked at one of those stripper tools at Home Depot, but couldn't
justify the price tag for a one time job. Then I found the same mesh disc
on a wheel that fit my 4" grinder for about one fourth the price (with
the other grinder wheels and sanding disks).

Good News: Yes, it works great for removing the paint and leaving the
wood underneath untouched. I TRIED to sand into the wood on a scrap piece
of siding and it had very little effect. It doesn't clog with paint like
my random orbit sander did, and it even worked well for getting up under
the bottom edge of each row of siding.

Bad News: It wears out quickly. We finished "maybe" a 10'x12' area and
the disk was too worn to continue using it. At something close to $20
for the disk, that would get pricy quickly.

I tried my random orbit sander with 60 and 80 grit papers, but it clogged
quickly and was just too slow.

In the end, the best tool we found was an 80 grit "flap-disk" sanding
wheel that fit my 4" angle grinder. It didn't clog like my RO sander and
was much faster. However, you CAN sand right through the wood if you get
too agressive with it. This actually worked well in our case where we
were trying to blend some old siding with new siding. But it's pretty
easy to get the hang of it without damaging anything. They cost about $5-
$8 depending on where you buy them. We used three on the entire house.

Of course, removing any loose paint you can with a good scraper really
helps reduce the work needed with the flap-disk (making it last longer).

DO NOT use a pressure washer on the house. It's easy to damage the siding
itself, but more importantly will force water into the wood, and
potentially into the walls (a problem for us, since there is no sheathing
under the siding of my in-laws 100 year old house).

If you have the time, I recommend going all the way down to bare wood.
We "thought" we had done a thorough job of prepping the walls, but the
rough layers of paint were still quite visible in many areas. Considering
the condition the house was in it's not a big deal, but it sucks to put
that much work in and not have it perfect.

Good luck. It's dirty work with no reward until you actually prime and
repaint. Even with safety glasses and dust masks you end up covered in
paint dust from head to toe.

Have Fun,

Anthony