Stripping paint off exterior

[SomethingToldTheWildGeese]

House is brick, painted white. I'd like to have the paint stripped.

• Has anyone had it done by professionals, or done it your selves?

If you had it done professionally, how much did it cost and was the end result good?

If you did it yourself, was it difficult and how long did it take?

We did it. We had professionals quote and gave them the go ahead. They turned up, did a tiny bit and decided it was far more difficult than they’d thought, so they doubled the quote. We told them to bugger off. But by that point I’d got used to the idea of having the paint removed, and was horribly disappointed, so Dh decided to do it himself. How hard could it be?

That was a bit of a mistake. It was an absolutely horrible job; involved really nasty caustic stuff being painted on to the paintwork, covered with paper, and left overnight. Then peeled off and the wall rinsed with acidic rinsing stuff <technical term>. I can’t remember what the products were exactly, but the process was very messy and even with Dh swathed in protective clothing, goggles and thick rubber gloves he still burnt the tips of his fingers off. FIL, who came to help, got burns too, and the poor cat ended up at the vets after she stepped in some. It was months of chemical horror.

Worth it in the end though; the house looks amazing taken back to the original brick!

A neighbour had it done. Hers was all cream. Looks amazing. Ugly house to lovely house!

I’ve done it before. Turned out exactly like any other natural brick period house on the road. Glad I done it. Cost about 2.5k for a large semi. But then about the same again as once the paint came off it needed repointing. House looks loads better and was worth every penny. No residual signs that it was ever painted.

@VenusClapTrap brilliant!! This is exactly what me and my DH would like to do (minus painful burns / injuring & traumatising a poor cat - bless x). But your post has given me a lot to think about. So, it sounds like the actual method is as simple as I read online, yet the devil is in the execution. And I'd need to think really carefully about safety and chemical disposal.

Can you remember how much you budgeted for the cost of the strippers? And did you use scaffolding for upper floors?

@AlicesAttic and @MilkHunt50 that's good to know! Yet our house may not be so beautiful - there's a mishmash of brick types beneath the paint - partly really old, & part mid1900s where floor levels have been raised & windows replaced.

@MilkHunt50 did you need to get planning permission to take the paint off?

Sorry I can’t remember how much it cost as it’s about a decade ago. I know it required quite a bit more stripper than we anticipated though, and we kept having to order more, as several coats were needed to get lingering bits off. We didn’t need scaffolding, just did it all with a ladder. Only one side was full height, the rest was either hanging tiles on the upper storeys or unpainted, thankfully.

We did get planning permission as it’s grade 2 listed, in a conservation area, within a National Park. You can’t plant a geranium without asking permission here 😁

@SomethingToldTheWildGeese no I didn’t need planning permission. Unless it’s a listed building don’t believe you would. We did have scaffolding though.

We had this done in France ( yes , different country but same process.) As pp said, the ‘professionals’ found it was much more difficult than they thought, it took much longer ( we had it done in the winter when we weren’t there.)

when it came to do the front, ( the first time was just the back) we just had it repainted in a better colour. Much cheaper, and looked really nice.