Steam Paint Removal

Excerpt from the Steam Paint Removal booklet:
http://www.historichomeworks.com/hhw/reports/reports.htm#Steam

John Leeke demonstrates using steam to remove heavy paint build up from wood surfaces in this five minute video. Steam paint removal softens the paint film so it can be more easily scraped away. It works well with the heavy paint buildup commonly found on the exterior of older buildings during house restoration and historic preservation projects.

Advantages:

This method has significant advantages over mechanical scraping and shaving, chemical stripping and the dry-heat of torch, hot-air gun and infra-red lamp methods:

- Significantly reduces the risk of starting a building fire.

- Helps control the lead-dust health risk issue because it is an inherently damp process and eliminates the lead-fume risk.

- No fumes from heat decomposition of binders in the old paint.

- Relatively low setup cost.

- Lower operating and supply costs than chemical paint removal.

- Lower residue disposal costs.

Buy the Steam Paint Removal report:
http://www.historichomeworks.com/hhw/reports/reports.htm#Steam

Join in the discussion of this new paint removal method at:

http://historichomeworks.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=133

Text and Video Copyright 2005 John C. Leeke

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• steam paint removal
• steam
• paint removal
• paint
• removal
• stripping
• paint stripping
• strip
• strip paint
• old house restoration
• restore
• restoration
• repair
• wood
• glass
• historic preservation
• historic
• preservation
• john leeke
• historic homeworks

[fudgedogbannana]

So if you hired a painter to strip the paint off of all the windows(15) and doors(10) in your house you could expect to pay $ 2,500. or more just to strip the paint off, then sand, prime and paint another $ 2,000. thats $4,500. maybe another $2,000. walls and ceilings for a small 3 bedroom house will run you $6,500. if you,re lucky which is half of what I paid for my entire 1600 sq. ft. house on a 50X100 lot. where is the sanity in this?

[johnleeke]

Since you imply that it would not be good for you spend all that money, in your situation it may not be a good thing for YOU to do, but not everyone is in your situation.

What you paid for your house does not have much to do with how to remove paint. I know someone who got a good deal and paid $2k for a house that is worth $35k. That does not mean that they should not spend more than $2k taking care of the place...

[johnleeke]

...in fact, they got such a good deal on the place that they have about $10k to spend taking care of the place. Let's say they do hire a friend who is a painter for $6,500 to work on the door and windows. There could be worse things in this world than helping a friend support his family. There is more to life than dollars.

[TASHIAWATKINS]

can u do this on wood staining?

[johnleeke]

I have only used this steam method to remove heavy paint buildup from wood.

The only way to determine what it would do with wood staining is to try it out. Since stain is usually embedded within and just below the surface of the wood, I am pretty sure it would not have the same result as removing paint, which is in layers on top of the wood surface.

John

[phillyflash43]

I need to RENT that tool!

[tvhk04]

I wish i have too much time to do this.

[echtconservative]

Thank you for the excellent demonstration! I'll have to try my clothing steamer on this. It sure seems to beat both toxic solvents, dangerous heat guns and expensive infrared lamps.

[irgeniusib]

@leapfroglilly it it would cost you less to re drywall the wall.  steam will sog the drywall

[johnleeke]

partwerks:

YouTube changed the webpage layout. For more you can now click on "Excerpt from the Steam Paint Removal booklet:". Hope this helps.