On Sun, 18 Oct 2009 20:30:35 -0500, Red Green
wrote:

Oren wrote in
:

On Sun, 18 Oct 2009 20:35:37 +0000 (UTC), HerHusband
wrote:

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


Thanks! I bought the tool this morning. So far, it means I have some
work to do.

I'm about to do a corner on the fascia at 8 ft. ladder height and see
how it works.


Pros & cons, keep us posted. That comment about pads @20 bucks a pop is
spooky. Resembles an inkjet printer. Buy two cartridges and the cost of
the printer is exceeded.

I will keep you posted .

Pads do NOT cost $20.00. Almost, but around 15 dollars.

If this thing doesn't throw me off the ladder I expect to be okay.
Then I can report :-/