Tips for paint removal

Snookums · 30 Mar 2019 at 20:02

I need to remove some paint from some decking and and part of the fence. The fence should be straight forward just some paint stripper then sand it off but the decking may be trickier as sanding won't get in between the grooves unless I spend hours hand sanding in between. So any tips for sorting the decking out?

Also what paint stripper do you guys recommend? And what am I best to use to coat the fence and decking once cleaned down? Some ronseal in whatever finish the other half likes?

UnworthyBean · 30 Mar 2019 at 20:05

If you've got a pressure washer, use that. If not, borrow one or buy one. Should sort the lot out nice and quick.

jpaul · 30 Mar 2019 at 20:50

carbide paint scraper like this, thats what I've used for hardwood/teak shutters .. don't think my 180bar karcher would touch it. ..

JBuk · 30 Mar 2019 at 22:59

Either use a heat gun and lots of scraping or paint stripper, slap on, leave until paint bubbles, scrape (or rub with wire wool, or wire brush) repeat until all paint traces have gone, I find paint panther quite good

Snookums · 31 Mar 2019 at 15:14

So today I tried everything I could, slapped on some paint stipper and tried using a wire brush, paint scraper, pressure washer and sandpaper. The fence panel has come out okay but there's still some flecks in between the grains. The decking it got some off but it's still not budging from between the grooves. I went at it so agressively with the pressure washer and wire brush it started flaking up the wood on some pieces so I stopped. This was also all with multiple seeings too with some paint stripper.

Anyone got some ideas?

jpaul · 31 Mar 2019 at 15:36

... fence is presumably softer wood than decking, so less resilient to mechanical scraping ...

.. carbide scrapers are night and day versus, spatula style scrapers, they're like running a plane across the surface. .. but a relatively large investment.

Snookums · 31 Mar 2019 at 16:17

jpaul said:
... fence is presumably softer wood than decking, so less resilient to mechanical scraping ...

.. carbide scrapers are night and day versus, spatula style scrapers, they're like running a plane across the surface. .. but a relatively large investment.

But would a carbide scraper not struggle to get into the decking grooves

bremen1874 · 31 Mar 2019 at 16:26

Have you priced up the cost of replacing the decking boards?
Have you checked if the boards could be flipped?

Snookums · 31 Mar 2019 at 16:42

bremen1874 said:
Have you priced up the cost of replacing the decking boards?
Have you checked if the boards could be flipped?

Havent bothered to look into replacement yet as I wanted to try and save what was already there tbh.

The cant be flipped sadly as they are flat bottom planks.

bremen1874 · 31 Mar 2019 at 16:46

Is this a small amount of spilt paint you're trying to remove, or have they been fully painted in the past?

Snookums · 31 Mar 2019 at 16:57

bremen1874 said:
Is this a small amount of spilt paint you're trying to remove, or have they been fully painted in the past?

In the past they were fully painted on the vertical planks but the decking has fake grass ontop so the horizontal slats only have bits spilled on them from where they shoddily painted the exposed ones before we had the place.

jpaul · 31 Mar 2019 at 18:25

Snookums said:
But would a carbide scraper not struggle to get into the decking grooves

you can bolt the blade into the handle so it hangs out by 10mm or so, to get into right angle corners ...
if the boards are rounded too, would need to be careful not to gouge them

wnb · 2 Apr 2019 at 08:19

I would burn it and replace, I have done the old strip paint on a house over 100 years old. Never again.

Abyss · 2 Apr 2019 at 10:03

Snookums said:
Havent bothered to look into replacement yet as I wanted to try and save what was already there tbh.

The cant be flipped sadly as they are flat bottom planks.

It's a common misconception that you have to put the grooves up. There is no benefit to having the grooves up and it just results in extra work to keep it clean and makes it harder to stain.

Source:
https://www.tdca.org.uk/blog/grooved-vs-smooth/
http://www.olearyandsons.com/blog/2016/10/17/why-decking-grooves-facing-up-is-wrong/

If you want to reuse the existing decking I'd just turn the boards over, give it a good sand / clean then stain. Failing that I'd replace the boards.

Current decking I have (garden is work in progress!)

Sin_Chase · 2 Apr 2019 at 21:55

Groves in timber?

Sandblast it or replace it. Can't be messing around trying to sand it down.

_tucker_ · 2 Apr 2019 at 22:04

I always use a good pressure washer to get old stains and pain off decking that works a charm!