Painted cedar fence needs stripping

[vanmo1 14]

My fence is board on board cedar and has two coats of paint and is peeling badly. I would loke to remove the paint and leave it as natural as possible. It is about 250' feet of board on board both side are painted. It is in good condition other than the peeling paint. How can I get the paint off or how much would it cost to pay someone to do it in Dallas Texas---Thanks--- Van

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

Van,

Are you asking as a homeowner or a contractor?

Beth

[KC Deck 14]

You'll never get the paint off and have a "natural" looking fence again. Unless of course you tear it down and build another one. Stripping paint from a fence is VERY difficult and is going to cost you alot of money and time. Plus, there is no guarantee you will get all the paint off. I would have to say, your best options would be paint it again, or build a new one.

[bigchaz 157]

Get off the loose paint, prime and paint it again

[vanmo1 14]

I am a landscape contractor in dallas texas, and a homeowner. We do all kinds of work on exteriors. Just wanted some idea of what approach to take with the fence at my home. Thanks for any input I can get.

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

Just need to verify that it is paint as there are a number of people who refer to coatings using the word "paint" as a term.

If it is indeed paint that is peeling then the process will be best suited to a professional that is experienced with paint strippers.

Not saying you are or aren't qualified, you know your capabilities.

Proceeding on the assumption it is paint instead of a solid stain;

250' x 6' (if I am correct) = 1500sqft x 2 = 3000 sqft for both sides.

The best stripper by eacochem will cover 125-250 sqft / gal and it comes in 5 gal pails. Lets go with the minimum coverage to figure it out.

3000/125=24 gal/5 = 5 pails.

Retail for this product was $185.00 + shipping / 5'er so you are looking at $925.00 relatively for product alone.

If you hire someone to do it, add their labor, etc. to the bottom line.

This of course only addresses the stripping part and not the application of a future coating or finish, the product cost and labor for it as well.

Hopefully in this post I have answered both questions to a degree of being able to make a decision one way or another.

Rod!~

[vanmo1 14]

Well, I know it is paint and not stain, and the city gave me a code compliance 30 day notice to do something-- so I appreciate your input. I may just try to remove the loose paint and prime and paint again or just call someone to do it and pay! Its a good fence--someone just made the mistake of painting it Thanks again. Where can I get the eacochem and do I rinse it at 40psi or higher after application?

[northwestern 14]

eacochem

I met the owner last weekend and I'll have say that if you call up the company they would be more than willing to help and guide you on a way you could strip your fence.

[Steve McMillen 14]

I have recently refurbished a fence in a similar situation. In my case 55' of fence with quite a bit of wood (for each 8' section four 8' 1x4, two 8' 2x4, one 8' 2x2 and 14 or so 3' 2x2 - all cedar (plus the two 4x4 posts. I ended up leaving the top 2x4 and one of the 1x4 and removing all other wood. This left me with a pile of 2x2s and 1x4s. I sanded these down individually and then dipped them in stain before reassembling. It turned out really nice but was very time consuming. Over the course of a month of Sundays it was done but lots of hours with an orbital sander.

My lessons learned were

• that it really pays off to just dissemble enough so you are not sanding into corners.
  
  • It goes w/o saying that you should dissassemble very carefully
    

  [*]Get a good orbital sander (the kind with vacuum holes) and build yourself a little station for sanding.

  [*]Use a vacuum attached to your sander and should be able to work best.

  [*]Use a 40 grit stand paper (no need to go higher before staining

  [*]Buy a good stain - This site is great: What is the Best Deck Stain? | Best Deck Stain Reviews Ratings

  [*]After sanding a wood brightener to get the rust stains and deep dark spots - I did not bother doing this on the 2x2s since the only nail holes were hidden behind 1x4s.

  [*]reassemble fence using slightly larger nail than the existing nail (the old nails were driven with a nail gun using very thin nails so it was easy in my case)

  [*]stain wood before reassembly using a 5 gal bucket of stain.

  • Dip all your 2x2s first while the bucket is full (dip one end, turn around, dip the other and brush off excess)
    
  • Stain your 1x4s by dipping one end in, using a brush to "pull" the stain up the board and let if flow back in. Turn the 1x4 around and do same on the other end and then brush off excess (a little tricky on long boards but saves a lot of time.
    
  • Then finally I use the remainder of the stain to do fence I left standing - and the deck after reassembling the fence
    

Note: you could of course just buy new wood. Cost for me would have been about $700 I think (still assuming you keep the 4x4 posts and sand them down). So its just a matter of preference. To estimate time, it takes about 2-3 min for each 2x2 post and 5 min for each 1x4x8 board - 2-3 full days (8hr) for all the sanding. Dissembly was about 1d and reassembly about 2d but that's a wash for either refurbishing existing wood or replacing.

I tried paint stripper at one point but that was a mistake IMO (I'd like to hear from others if you think it’s a do-able process since I have another 60' of fence to do). It made the wood look so greyed and aged that I had to sand back down below that and though I did not use the pricey stripper mentioned (I used standard brand from home depot) I am pretty skeptical of the ability of strippers after having tried this. I don't think there are any strippers that will "wash off" the paint with a Pressure washer and the process of scraping even on smooth accessible surfaces can sometimes mar the wood surface.

[AAPaint 14]

If it's painted, I'd just scrape, sand, prime, and repaint. You are talking a lot of labor to go to something else now. You'll have to do this every few years, but it will save you a ton in labor and supplies.

[seymore 90]

Steve can you please add a signature it's forum rules.

Thanks

[Doug Black 18]

I am sitting here wondering if one could, in his case, use a siliconized stain like Behr Premium after stripping the paint power washing style and pressure washing a good degree. That might sit okay over the paint? Has anyone tried this?

[seymore 90]

I am sitting here wondering if one could, in his case, use a siliconized stain like Behr Premium after stripping the paint power washing style and pressure washing a good degree. That might sit okay over the paint? Has anyone tried this?

I wouldn't touch a Behr stain if I was on fire and Behr came with a free fire extinguisher to put my fire out!

Edited August 14, 2012 by seymore