Wednesday, July 06, 2011

Gee, Mister, I'm Skeered

Operation Housepaint has begun! Only a little bit of the old paint has been scraped off, but every bit counts. I even picked up a couple of gallons of what may be the actual color of the actual paint.

Second Try, and First Try, too, has not, well, not actually drying. It's been several days and the stuff's still tacky; so I went with the (different) brand Nephew had suggested to begin with. Harder to go get but if it works, it's worth it. I got the version with primer in it for this test; I'm thinking that for the first coat and then we'll see, 'cos that stuff is expensive. On the other hand, not having to repaint for a long, long time would be nice.

4 comments:

Sport Pilot said...

To save yourself a great deal of sweat and time I recommend renting a pressure washer for a weekend and then carefully pressure wash the exterior of the house. Done from an angle and with the correct sprayer attachment this work's like a champ. Note: You can damage wood sideing so be carefull.

Zendo Deb said...

OK you can destroy concrete with an incorrectly used pressure washer.

That said, they are really handy sometimes. (For that application, smaller is definitely better!)

Don't use cheap paint. While there are some options to get a good deal, mostly with paint, you get what you pay for.

The Freeholder said...

We used a "spray-on vinyl coating on the paintable surfaces of our house. Expensive and such, but it has a 25 year guarantee.

Roberta X said...

Pressure Washer: Absolutely Not. 1924 house, remember -- with a lot of 1924 siding. It's not airtight and a pressure washer would soak right through.

...At which point I'd see fun things happen at the receptacles along the outside walls.

They didn't even lap-cut the siding where one long piece strips and the next in that row begins, there are just butt joints that, we are learning, were at some point caulked with chewing gum. Or possibly paper-mache.

Using Behr paint. Started with Valspar, which didn't want to dry.