Paint Removal

[hpwasher 14]

Everyone,

I have taken paint off buildings in preparation for paint using a rotary nozzle on my power washer, but this customer would like all the paint removed from his brick building. I was thinking about getting some paint remover and applying it to the building first to get most of the paint off then get the rest left behind with a sandblaster.

1. Would I be wasting time and money with the paint stripper? This customer knows he has a lot of mortar filling to do after I'm done.

The best idea I have is renting a sandblaster. I can rent a sandblaster from our local construction equiptment supplier for about $500 a week. that includes blaster, air compressor equipment, hoses and the clean air suit.

2. Is sandblasting the right thing to do? would soda blasting or wet abrasive blasting work better?

Thanks

[hpwasher 14]

So I guess I will answer my own questions then........

1. paint stripper waste of time....

2. sand media costs a ton of $$$$$$

3. Use rotating nozzle before sandblasting. This will take off a lot of excess paint and less work sandblasting! The cost was about $10 gas out of my pressure washer. That would have cost over $200 in sand alone.

4. The sandblaster works great except a **** ton of water got into the pot, twice, and I had to return it to the rental place to get a new one becuase wet sand does not move in hoses!! oops

5. Overall, Sandblasting is a very expensive and work intensive job. attached are some mid job pictures

[dollarspa 14]

Christopher great information I have a couple of houses painted brick 2-2500 square foot I'm going to try soda blasting... I've sandblasted a quite a few swimmining pools (over 30 years) mainly removing rubber based paint (some epoxy). preparation before replasting..

Charging about a 1.00 a sQuare foot to remove paint from brick,

[Rick2 42]

Soda Blasting. In fact this month's Cleaner Times did a large article about soda blasting.

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

Sorry I missed your post, good job though.

Curious how you got water in to the pot though.

We have had moisture separation issues where it clogs up the media at the entry point from the pot to the hose line ... or is this what you are talking about?!?

Rod!~

Edited June 14, 2010 by Beth n Rod

[Rick2 42]

Careful on the paint removed from the building, might fall into the hazmat area. You might responsible to get rid of it.

[Ronw 15]

Good job.

[hpwasher 14]

[hpwasher 14]

Sorry I missed your post, good job though.

Curious how you got water in to the pot though.

We have had moisture separation issues where it clogs up the media at the entry point from the pot to the hose line ... or is this what you are talking about?!?

Rod!~

Rod,

Both!!! We had some crazy rain here the weekend before the job and water got in with the sand. I opened up the bags. They seemed a little moist but I threw it in the pot! I have never sandblasted before only power washed. In the power washing world water is great. In the media blasting world water is the worst thing ever!

The Air Compressor we rented was just spraying moisture in the air. We opened the air/water seperator valve like they wanted us to but moisture was everywhere at the entry point. I think I had to take the blaster apart about 3-4 times to get all the wet sand out

[hpwasher 14]

Careful on the paint removed from the building, might fall into the hazmat area. You might responsible to get rid of it.

Rick,

The price included cleaning up the site and we took the blast media/paint mix and dumped it as fill at our shop. all 3 tons of sand. what a bear!!!