Painting Facias, Barge boards & Soffits

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Hi can anyone offer some advice. I am trying to paint the exterior wood of my property as the house is 1890's there is a fair build up of old paint, I have stripped off one part with a heat gun......but it took ages. Is there an easier way of doing this, I'm not aginst leaving the old paint on it has just started flaking a looks awful, and I fear if I just sand lightly and paint over it will look rubbish.....my neighbour had some professionals in and that is what they did.....light rub down, prime and paint over, looks terrible though as its gloss and shows everything. Any advice / pointers much appreciated. I've got the whole house to do........
 
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Its all oak so not an option to rip down and replace.....well without a winning lottery ticket anyway :LOL:
 
I would just replace it with UPVC if I where you, otherwise you will be in the same situation in three to four years time wishing you had replaced it!

Got to be worth getting a quote at the very least...
 
UPVC? Some people have no taste. :cry:

Try a gas burner, they burn a lot hotter than a hot air gun. Just don't set the loft on fire.
 
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so no other real option other than to strip right back to wood with a heat gun.......god thats doing to take an age :(
 
Be very careful if you are burning off paintwork at roof level, I wouldn't advise it to be honest, the potential fire risk is too great. You could chemical strip it with nitromoors or something similar.
 
Does nitromors actually work.......I've used it in the past and just makes a congueld mess.
 
When stripping paint at roof level its the safer option. It is messy and you will have to apply it a few times to get good results, but safety is paramount, there have been house fires caused by blokes burning off with a blow lamp or heat gun while working at roof level.
 
To be honest I think it is totally impractical to use paint stripper on soffits, this will drip everywhere and besides I have always found this stuff to be totally inadequate, agreed I am too a little apprehensive about using the electric heat gun at height. I think I will just have to plug away with sand paper and do the best job I can.
 
Try scaping all the flaky stuff off, and give it a HARD rub down where the bare wood meets the old paint. Feather it in so you can hardly feel a 'bump'.

Don't use too rough sandpaper as you will damage the surface of the wood. Make sure the wood is totally dry before sanding.

Sand the rest of the paintwork.

Prime bare bits. If it still looks like it's going to look rubbish, apply some hard wood filler to smooth things out a bit.

No point stripping off all the paint really, unless you really want to. It should look all ok by the time the final coat is on.

Use knotting on any knots.
Primer.
Undercoat.
Use more than one undercoat if there are any really dark areas to cover.
Top coat.
 
What would be your recommendation on the sand paper requirements?

I have never done any serious gloss work before so.....hence a little green!

Thanks for your post it was very helpful,
 

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