Painting Outside Walls

John Mason

As the bright evenings have started, i have decided it is time to tackle my garden, after 2.5 years, the house is almost up to scratch. The person i bought the house from was a complete loon and has done loads of mental stuff to the house. The wall at the back of the house has been painted orange but i think he used interal paint because is is peeling off in sections. What i want to know is if there is any easy way of getting this loose paint off or do i have to just take a paint scraper to it? i started doing this last friday but it will take forever doing it this way. any help would be gratefully appreciated

IB

magicbastarder

powerhose it. much quicker and more thorough than a paint scraper.

and most importantly, much more fun.

John Mason

magicbastarder wrote:

powerhose it. much quicker and more thorough than a paint scraper.

and most importantly, much more fun.

thanks, will that work?

GreeBo

It will work fine, if you want to soak your walls and possibly cause dampness issues.
If you go this route you will need to leave the walls to dry for a week or so. They will soak up an awful lot of water especially when sprayed with a powerhose.

Use the scraper, it wont take as long as you think it will.

Avns1s

GreeBo wrote:

It will work fine, if you want to soak your walls and possibly cause dampness issues.

What about all the houses that have no paint on? Those with just a grey or white plaster finish.

They get soaked every time it rains and there's no dampness problems. You wouldn't go painting over a wet wall in any case, would you.

OP, powerwash your walls. You might need some assistance from a scraper on some of the orange paint depending on the grip it has on the wall. If there are some remnants left after this, don't worry. It obviously has good ahesion and will be covered and sealed by the masonry paint that you will apply when the walls and weather is dry.

GreeBo

Avns1s wrote:

What about all the houses that have no paint on? Those with just a grey or white plaster finish.

They get soaked every time it rains and there's no dampness problems. You wouldn't go painting over a wet wall in any case, would you.

OP, powerwash your walls. You might need some assistance from a scraper on some of the orange paint depending on the grip it has on the wall. If there are some remnants left after this, don't worry. It obviously has good ahesion and will be covered and sealed by the masonry paint that you will apply when the walls and weather is dry.

Rain falling onto a wall and a powerhose are very different things.
If they werent then the rain would be taking off the paint, right?

Unless you are going to get a moisture meter you wont know if the render on your walls is fully dry or not. The wall may look dry but be wet underneath.

OP go ahead and powerhose if you want, makes no odds to me.

Avns1s

GreeBo wrote:

Rain falling onto a wall and a powerhose are very different things.
If they werent then the rain would be taking off the paint, right?

Unless you are going to get a moisture meter you wont know if the render on your walls is fully dry or not. The wall may look dry but be wet underneath.

OP go ahead and powerhose if you want, makes no odds to me.

Every painter in the country must be doing it wrong so.

I don't know many painters with moisture meters either!

GreeBo

Avns1s wrote:

Every painter in the country must be doing it wrong so.

Every painter? No.
Every painter who wants to do a quick job and doesnt worry about problems 6 months down the line? Possibly.

Either way, as I said, makes no odds to me, but I know what way I do mine and what way I will continue to do it.

Lex Luthor

make sure you move your car up wind of the house when you are painting and tell your neighbours down wind.
Paint particles can travel a bit when airborne...last thing you want is you or neighbours car covered in paint dots

magicbastarder

i've never once heard of an issue of dampness caused by powerhosing - i've powerhosed a wall in my house on several occasions, with nary a problem - yet several days after heavy rain, i get dampness on the inside (mainly due to a gutter i have to fix).