walnut shells on house paint

[craigibc]

Anyone tried to use a sandblaster with walnut shells to remove peeling paint on a house?

Success?

Failure?

Craig

 

[joe_padavano]

I did this to strip layers of interior paint on woodwork in our very old house. It works great. Hint: the walnut shell media from Harbor Freight worked better than the expensive walnut shell media I got from TP Tools. Also, I used a vacuum blaster to contain the mess. This is basically the illigitiate child of a shop vac and a media blaster. It wasn't perfect, but it was a lot better than not using it.

 

[CraigStu]

I haven't but we need to know what the paint is on. Wood, plastic, metal? You would need to be careful if it is wood. Even though walnut shells are one of the least abrasive media they could accentuate the grain by taking away some of the softer grains.

 

[240sxguy]

I used a paintshaver pro to strip a cedar house. I still have it and would be interested in selling if you were inclined to go that route. It can leave rings in the siding if you aren't careful but I had severely failing paint and there was no good option short of stripping the entire thing to wood.

 

[marak]

This reminds me of a distant cousin who once used a pressure washer to clean his car. Boy was it clean afterwards! No more mud. Nice paint-free shiny metal!

I think you have a pretty good idea there. Definitely take care and test in an inconspicuous location.

 

[Paco Pena]

I would not want to media blast a whole house. A pressure washer set fairly low will blast off most of the loose paint and a scraper or wire brush for anything left that is failing. Its a lot of elbow great to do a good prep on a failing painted surface.

Paco

 

[05snopro440]

This reminds me of a distant cousin who once used a pressure washer to clean his car. Boy was it clean afterwards! No more mud. Nice paint-free shiny metal!

I think you have a pretty good idea there. Definitely take care and test in an inconspicuous location.

How many psi was the pressure washer? That sounds ridiculous.

 

[marak]

How many psi was the pressure washer? That sounds ridiculous.

Hence why I said distant cousin. Not the brightest crayon in the box. It was 30 years ago and it was not a typical pressure washer and he may have added chemicals or whatnot. After he effed up his car, he just kept going and ended up painting it. The OP's question reminded me of my ******* cousin and gave me a good laugh - thanks for that!

My point was, take care when using any type of blasting on siding. That's all.

 

[craigibc]

I was considering a soda blaster but when I looked up the ratings the walnut shells were almost the same as a soda blaster. I only have some small areas on the house that need to be done. Sorry yes it is wooden clapboard and all in good shape but if I can bring some of the smaller areas carefully back to wood it will look much better than painting over some of the neglect of the previous owner.

 

[craigibc]

Joe,

What is the machine called? I looked on their web site but it did not come up under soda blasting over sand blasting.

 

[58Yeoman]

Hence why I said distant cousin. Not the brightest crayon in the box. It was 30 years ago and it was not a typical pressure washer and he may have added chemicals or whatnot. After he effed up his car, he just kept going and ended up painting it. The OP's question reminded me of my ******* cousin and gave me a good laugh - thanks for that!

My point was, take care when using any type of blasting on siding. That's all.

When I was a little kid delivering papers in my town of ~150 population, there was a guy who had a middle 50's Ford PU, don't the exact year. One summer, he power sanded the whole truck to bare metal, then drove it. You couldn't look at it in the sunshine...well, until the first rainfall. He left it that way. Maybe an early rat rod??

 

[GaryM909]

Make sure none of your neighbours are allergic to walnuts.

 

[Bert_]

I used a paintshaver pro to strip a cedar house. I still have it and would be interested in selling if you were inclined to go that route. It can leave rings in the siding if you aren't careful but I had severely failing paint and there was no good option short of stripping the entire thing to wood.

I've heard that that works well. Little to rich for my blood though. I've used a couple heat guns strapped together, have to be a little careful that you aren't blowing hot air into any cracks/gaps.

A carbide scraper is a wonderful thing too. You can scrape a pretty good area before it needs sharpening. Unlike steel scrapers that get dull after less than 5 minutes. A sharp scraper doesn't take that much effort.

 

[Buckaroo5]

I used a paintshaver pro to strip a cedar house. I still have it and would be interested in selling if you were inclined to go that route. It can leave rings in the siding if you aren't careful but I had severely failing paint and there was no good option short of stripping the entire thing to wood.

Can you give me some feedback on how this works? I have a 90 year old house with cedar shingles where I have been replacing broken shingles, scraping by hand, sanding and then painting. Doing one side a summer and have two more sides to do. Do you need their orbital sander? Already have several I have been using.

Thanks

 

[240sxguy]

I've heard that that works well. Little to rich for my blood though. I've used a couple heat guns strapped together, have to be a little careful that you aren't blowing hot air into any cracks/gaps.

A carbide scraper is a wonderful thing too. You can scrape a pretty good area before it needs sharpening. Unlike steel scrapers that get dull after less than 5 minutes. A sharp scraper doesn't take that much effort.

I tried that, and the rest of the paint continued to lift. Stripping was the only option at that point and I didn't want to do it ever again. Bear in mind, I bought this unit for about 900 bucks which was a lot less than they cost now. As for the amount of time it "shaved" (see what I did there?) it's not even comparable. I'd absolutely buy it again if faced with the same scenario.

Can you give me some feedback on how this works? I have a 90 year old house with cedar shingles where I have been replacing broken shingles, scraping by hand, sanding and then painting. Doing one side a summer and have two more sides to do. Do you need their orbital sander? Already have several I have been using.

Thanks

I used the paintshaver then a conventional orbital makita sander. If you are not careful you can end up with "rings" in the wood that can be sanded out with the orbital. Making several light passes worked much better than one "deep pass" on multiple paint layers.

Ultimately it was the right tool for the job and while it pained me to drop the cash, I didn't regret the purchase. We don't live there anymore but the prep job I was able to accomplish with that tool and use of Sherwin Williams Duration says that paint job will last a long time barring some sort of unforseen circumstances.

I wish I still had photos of it stripped. It looked pretty awesome in raw cedar and smelled great too.

As I alluded to before, mine is available. I will never need it again, hopefully. I just never got around to listing it up. Shoot me a message if anyone wants it and we can talk price and details.

 

[My Old Tools]

I hired 4 high school kids and their coach to strip mine the old fashioned way, 4 sided hand scrapers.

 

[rburke65]

I have scraped a lot of paint off wooden houses…..not easy.

 

[ZRX61]

Joe,

What is the machine called? I looked on their web site but it did not come up under soda blasting over sand blasting.

ALC-41700 ALC VacBlast Sandblaster - tooldesk.com

 

[DGersic]

When I repainted my garage (12” cedar siding), I stripped it to bare wood by renting an electric planer. Set the depth, and it takes off paint Without removing much wood. It won’t get in to the edges, I did those with angle grinder and flap disks. Followed up with a belt sander to smooth what the planer didn’t get.

Face shield, goggles, and earplugs required. Job makes a hell of a mess.

 

[joe_padavano]

Sorry for the delayed response - we're on vacation right now. Yes, my blaster is an ALC machine. As with all media blasters, the more CFM out of the compressor, the better and faster it works. The wood I was stripping was old heart pine, and the walnut shells did not damage the wood at all. I also tried a PaintShaver. I would not recommend it.