Need "exterior House Paint Stripper" tool--what to get?

[Dave MacArthur]

Hi,
--- I think I need some kind of vibrating knife tool that has a vacuum pickup, to scrape peeling paint chips off a house; I'm thinking something like a Fein Multimaster? But not sure if that's the right tool. Here's my story, someone tell me what I need, please!---

I'm in the process of re-painting a house, one story. I spent all day on a ladder with paint scrapers and putty knifes stripping weathered and peeling paint from up inside the eaves. House is stucco (AZ standard) with overhanging eaves of 2x10 rafters sticking out 14" and a facia board across the front, plywood roofing material. Paint is flaking off the wood on the eaves, and I can scrape off 1" flakes... but it's hard work.

I have a Festool Rotex that I've used for this before on other houses, but it's not doing too good a job... it doesn't quite fit up in there, the "box" under the eave is too small to turn it around. I end up having to scrape the loose paint off with scrapers anyways. Today I scraped it off first, the used the rotex to clean/smooth it out to mostly bare wood for re-painting.

Standing on a ladder with arms over my head for 10 hours scraping and holding that 400 lb Rotex... well, I'm pretty tired and only about 1/3 of the way done the house. And when I'm done scraping, there seems to be buckets worth of paint chips laying all over the landscape rocks, which rocks are too small for my vacuum to discriminate against paint chips when trying to clean up!!

So... I'm thinking if I had a vacuum enabled vibro-blade thing, it might strip that paint off like butter? But I've never used a multimaster before so don't know if they're any good, or what exactly they're most useful for.
I could just tape my Festool CT-33 pickup hose to it somehow, or maybe to the apex of a dustpan I held underneath the chips...
The putty knife does pretty good, better than a standard paint-scraper--the low-angle I can attack it with slips under the paint better and pops the chips loose in big 1" or more chunks instead of dust. But all that hacking away is killing my arms.
edit: info:
1. I own the house, it's a rental I'm re-painting
2. Built in 1993, no lead based paint

What's the "tool of choice" for stripping paint to re-paint a house?
Thanks!

[Chris Matus]

Pricey, but looks like it will get the job done. They also rent.

http://www.paintshaver.com/paintshaver.html

[Rick Lizek]

Saw a recent issue of Journal of Light Construction that dealt with this topic...http://www.jlconline.com/cgi-bin/jlc.../View/1103lead

[Peter Quinn]

My first thought if your doing this for money is are you aware of the new EPA regs concerning lead and paint removal? Maybe not so much a problem given the age of housing stock in AZ. I use a silent stripper for paint removal though I'm not sure that will fit in a spot where the rotex won't. They have a mechanical "arm" for the silent stripper which connects to a ladder that will hold it in place as you work to minimize holding it over your head for long periods. It softens multiple layers of paint quickly and makes the scraping Childs play. It leaves a very decent surface for painting. There is a scraper for the multiple master that works pretty well but I could see that gouging the wood very easily, it's more like a linoleum removal thing than a prep for finish thing. For the land scape paint chip issue I'm thinking big pieces of plastic drop cloth taped to the walls and spread out 15' or so.

[Pat Barry]

Dave - I suggest renting yourself a power washer (hi pressure) and assortment of nozzles. Put on your raincoat and goggles and have at it. I did this several years ago on my rough cedar siding and it worked great to remove the loose stuff. Previous to this I tried scrapers and wire brushes and all they did was leave my arm aching from the overhead work. The power stripper did great once I learned the right distance and the spray pattern. Of course if you have concerns about lead based paint you have a whole nother world of trouble to contend with.

[Josiah Bartlett]

The best way to collect all the paint chips is to put down drop cloths over the landscaping.

While a power washer may work ok on rough cedar, it will almost certainly ruin the plywood and make a huge mess.

[Mike Davis NC]

I had that problem with a house in Georgia twenty years ago. I finally used a handheld propane torch to soften the paint and a small putty knife to scrape it off. I kept the flame just a few inches ahead of the knife and it went pretty quickly.

Of course if the paint is lead based I would not heat it as that may release lead vapors.

[Craig Ryder]

If you use a pressure washer be careful as it is capable of damaging almost any wood.

[Dave MacArthur]

Thanks for the tips, I should have put in there:
1. I own the house, it's a rental I'm re-painting
2. Built in 1993, no lead based paint
Thanks!

[Randy Alkins]

power wash using HD 80 stripper followed by neutralizer for the wood.

[Callan Campbell]

Dave, I have a Fein MM, and with the flex or rigid scraper blade installed, you're not going to get any easy vacuum pick-up to help with your paint chips. The Fein MM stock vacuum pick-up works around the shaft of the tool with a shroud, directing everything backwards to the rear of the tool via the thin plastic tubing, so when you're a few inches away from it like with the offset scraper blades, you're talking minimal vacuum impact here. A drop cloth on the ground is your best bet from your description, nice that you don't have to worry about lead paint either since the house is so new. This may also be the time you're going to talk yourself into the new Festool RO 90 model, with its smaller sized paper and disc. Much lighter than the Rotex 150mm, and still very aggressive in the Rotex mode. You then have the option of getting smoother with the random orbit mode next, or even hooking up the Delta/Triangle sanding plate and kicking in the 3rd mode for the Delta/Detail sander if you've got some tight spots to get into. You already have the Festool Vacuum, so you know how well the dust extraction is going to work with the new "small" Rotex. Won't work like the Fein Tool, but they're not the same anyway.

[Jim Heffner]

Dave, I went that scraping and clean up route several years ago...didn't like it then and even
less now! That is a part of the reason that I had the trim work on this house covered with
vinyl and aluminum ...once covered no more upkeep! It still looks as good as the day it was installed and won't ever need painting...something to think about.

[Brice Burrell]

....This may also be the time you're going to talk yourself into the new Festool RO 90 model, with its smaller sized paper and disc.....

I've got the new RO90, great tool and perfect for this application. I'm working on a review but it's only about half done so it's not much help to anyone looking at this sander. I do have a Youtube video of this puppy stripping paint off an old window sash. It should give you some idea of how it might work out in your application. I know you have already have a Rotex so this post might be moot...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46GHlFiYBM8

[Dave MacArthur]

Good info Brice, that RO90 looks decent. I did use the RO150 rotex I have now, on a different house to do the same task. On that house it actually fit inside the eave-pockets so sanding was easy, and there wasn't much loose paint that needed removing. The RO90 looks great for this, but it's the long handle that is a problem... not sure if the 90 is short enough to help, looked almost same length as 150 on the review I watched (watched a couple).

Ahh, who am I kidding? I need some new bags for my CT33 anyway, and here I have a perfect excuse to buy a "money and labor saving Festool", pardon me while I go try to figure out where to order. I'm thinking Bob Marino, but he's not showing up in Friends of Creek... prior posts are showing his site as http://festool.safeshopper.com/ but it's returning bad?
Ok, found it.

[Dave MacArthur]

Ok, not sure if this is the "right tool" or not, but it's sure a good excuse to buy one... so here's a sorta-gloat.. I guess I'm now the owner of an RO90 and some new CT33E bags and a bunch of P40 grit abrasives and what not.

My thanks to all above, I did spend about 2 hours reading about painting houses and stripping paint. The infra-red systems look great, but since I'm only having to strip the soffit (think that's it, up under the eaves), none of the IR systems I saw looked like they'd fit, nor hang there too easily.

After all the reading, I do think I just need to man-up and hand scrape the stuff. Laying down a plastic sheet to collect the chips is the (obvious now, what was I thinking?) answer. Then hitting the scraped areas with the RO90 should quickly get any of the loose paint off. I did learn a lot about spraying over old paint that is physically secure, so now I'm not thinking I need to get down to bare wood everywhere. Since this is all underneath the roof, I should be able to just chip off loose paint, rough sand, and spray with maybe a penetrant then final coat.