pressure washing eaves

[kreyszig]

Hi
Another diy question for you all. One of this years tasks is to paint the eaves, these are exposed (no soffit) rafters with some tongue and groove above the rafters.
There is presently quite a bit of flaking paint and when I was even greener than I am now I had a contractor round to look at my rotting barge boards, in the course of discussion he mentioned that he would just use a pressure washer to get all the old paint off.
I am of two minds regarding doing this- I can see the ease with which a washer will take the paint off, but I'm a bit hesitant about forcing water up in between any gaps that may exist (there are bound to be some). I don't really want to go back to bare wood for this job so I'm thinking perhaps a fairly careful attack with a pressure washer might not be too bad, especially if I added in some drying/leaking time..
the collective wisdom of the forum is most appreciated

 

[plasticpigeon]

Hmm, I can imagine that you might find that some of your upstairs ceilings get a bit wet if you use a pressure washer. It doesn't sound the best idea to me. I would scrub with a stiff brush, and lightly wet sand any really loose bits. It's high up so the finish doesn't need to be flawless!

 

[TheRoost]

I don't know why anyone would want to blast water at woodwork that needs to be repainted - would need days/weeks to dry out again properly and potentially get water where it shouldn't be. Laziness??

I would use a stiff bristle brush, scraper, chisel, coarse sandpaper - that way it can be painted straight away.

 

[Feltwell]

I wouldn't be happy at a pressure washer being used. I'd stick to dry processes only.

A decent "pull type" scraper like the Linbide one below will get most of the paint off. The finish won't be perfect unless you do a lot of sanding down but at that height, does it matter?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Generic-Lin...993423&sr=8-7&keywords=paint+scraper+tungsten

 

[88v8]

In the 60s, I remember my father burning the (brown) paint off the eaves with a paraffin blowlamp, and setting the loft alight.
He managed to get up through the hatch and extinguish it, but I clearly recall the resident mouse family running down the vertical face of the wall to escape.

Pressure washer? Sounds like something the Trotters would do.

Ivor

 

[kreyszig]

thanks all, I'm glad to be able to generate a unanimous response I'll keep it dry.

 

[MatthewC]

In the 60s, I remember my father burning the (brown) paint off the eaves with a paraffin blowlamp, and setting the loft alight.
He managed to get up through the hatch and extinguish it, but I clearly recall the resident mouse family running down the vertical face of the wall to escape.

Pressure washer? Sounds like something the Trotters would do.

Ivor

:lol: :lol: :lol:
You've made me laugh and it has disturbed my cough again, just when I thought I was better!

 

[worms]

thanks all, I'm glad to be able to generate a unanimous response I'll keep it dry.

Were they perhaps meaning that they would use the pressure washer on a steam-cleaning setting? Still don't think I would want it, but it might be less of a problem than actual water-jet treatment.

 

[kreyszig]

They were talking about blasting off the old paint with the pressure. Seems a very daft question when I look at the responses I've had. The guy was so definite about it, god knows how many houses he must have done that way! I

Funnily enough I can remember my parents pressure washing a single story timber framed + weatherboarded house in NZ - our job as kids was to hold towels up to the windows to soak up the ingress That and running buckets full of water from the rainwater tanks to keep topping up the washer, as there was no mains supply!