I have an older house and a pre-sixties budget, so I am trying to save our current siding that has about 10 to 15 coats of paint. The siding is the larger striated siding panels (sawdrawn?), and most are in good shape physically, but we are having a difficult time stripping the paint – strippers thin out the paint and just smooths out into the grooves. Any tricks of providing a similar texture over the top or convincing contractors to join me in my sixties budget?
If you want all of the paint removed then using a chemical paint stripper is one option. Another option is using an infrared paint stripper. Both will be a lot of work.
This type of siding can't be sanded, but I do have a couple of ideas that might help if combined with the paint stripper. Using a wire brush is a good method for removing the loosened paint. This is a bit labor intensive. To reduce the labor and speed things up you can use a wire brush attachment for a drill. This could be a good option. Be careful the wire brush can cause damage to the siding.
Apply more stripper to the areas where the paint has filled the groves and use a wire brush or nylon scrub brush to get the paint out of the grooves. Trying to provide a similar texture over this isn't a good idea.
