On Dec 6, 6:43*am, (Graven Water) wrote:
I need to remove some paint from a concrete block wall, before waterproofing
it.
I have a drill that uses bits with 1/4? hex shank.
So far I've tried a 4" brass wire wheel and a small brass wire cup. *The
wire cup doesn't work at all. The wire wheel gets off a lot of the paint,
but not all of it. *The problem is the roughness of the concrete block
surface. *The wire wheel does fine at removing the paint from the mortar
between blocks.
I can get the paint off fine by hand with a tiny wire brush I have, if I
really bear down. *But I have about 100 sq feet of wall to do, and that would
be way too much work.
I'm sure sandblasting would get the paint off, but I've never sandblasted
anything and I don't know anything about it. *I don't know if you can rent a
small sandblaster. There's a ceramic tile floor, a wood staircase and a
painted closet near that area that would have to be protected. *Sandblasting
would make a big mess.
Is there some kind of wire brush that would work better than the ones I've
tried?

thanks
Laura

I do NOT recommend sandblasting.

From experience at removing years, and years, of paint on an older
home.
Rented a BIG sandblaster, got 10 bags of small grain sand blasting
sand.
Power up, loud noise, and sand goes EVERYWHERE! luckily didn't care
about the floor.
The paint was so hard even the blasting did almost nothing, took a
great deal of time to develop the skill to remove the paint, but not
much of the wood underneath, nor much of the plaster/lathe at the side
of the wood.
Sandblasting was so brutal and the paint so hard that sitting on one
spot, nothing would happen and then suddenly the sand would chew right
down through the wood! After NEVER getting what I wanted, I gave up
and simply 'textured' the wood as the sand blasting ate down into the
soft bits, leaving ridges of harder growth riings. Stained the bare,
textured boards. The final result was an exceptionally interesting
pattern of texture, 1/8 to 1/4 inch deep into the wood. But, work was
dusty, irritating, hard work to do taking several days, and hurt the
ears even with ear plugs.
Grit showed up for years, and years, and years.
Fifteen years later, when repairing a door latch, dumped around 1/4
cup of sand out of the door before could continue.

No, I don't recommend sandblasting.

On 12/7/2011 8:41 AM, Robert Macy wrote:
On Dec 6, 6:43 am, (Graven Water) wrote:
I need to remove some paint from a concrete block wall, before waterproofing
it.
I have a drill that uses bits with 1/4? hex shank.
So far I've tried a 4" brass wire wheel and a small brass wire cup. The
wire cup doesn't work at all. The wire wheel gets off a lot of the paint,
but not all of it. The problem is the roughness of the concrete block
surface. The wire wheel does fine at removing the paint from the mortar
between blocks.
I can get the paint off fine by hand with a tiny wire brush I have, if I
really bear down. But I have about 100 sq feet of wall to do, and that would
be way too much work.
I'm sure sandblasting would get the paint off, but I've never sandblasted
anything and I don't know anything about it. I don't know if you can rent a
small sandblaster. There's a ceramic tile floor, a wood staircase and a
painted closet near that area that would have to be protected. Sandblasting
would make a big mess.
Is there some kind of wire brush that would work better than the ones I've
tried?

thanks
Laura

I do NOT recommend sandblasting.

From experience at removing years, and years, of paint on an older
home.
Rented a BIG sandblaster, got 10 bags of small grain sand blasting
sand.
Power up, loud noise, and sand goes EVERYWHERE! luckily didn't care
about the floor.
The paint was so hard even the blasting did almost nothing, took a
great deal of time to develop the skill to remove the paint, but not
much of the wood underneath, nor much of the plaster/lathe at the side
of the wood.
Sandblasting was so brutal and the paint so hard that sitting on one
spot, nothing would happen and then suddenly the sand would chew right
down through the wood! After NEVER getting what I wanted, I gave up
and simply 'textured' the wood as the sand blasting ate down into the
soft bits, leaving ridges of harder growth riings. Stained the bare,
textured boards. The final result was an exceptionally interesting
pattern of texture, 1/8 to 1/4 inch deep into the wood. But, work was
dusty, irritating, hard work to do taking several days, and hurt the
ears even with ear plugs.
Grit showed up for years, and years, and years.
Fifteen years later, when repairing a door latch, dumped around 1/4
cup of sand out of the door before could continue.

No, I don't recommend sandblasting.

what about a citrus based chemical paint stripper?