Did some searching here, and other places, but nothing jumped out at me.Customer has a red product on her deck… almost looks like paint, but she says she thinks it was a behr product.
I know most people say run dont walk from stuff like this, but whether or not i proceed with it, i would like to learn a little more about what i am dealing with, and what you could do to deal with it. Right now im leaning towards walking, but still curious.
I mixed up a test bottle of F-18 at 16 oz. per gallon concentration, with 12 oz. per gallon propylene glycol added for a boost, let it dwell for 30 minutes, then applied again and let it dwell for 15. Didn’t do anything. Probably because i think my test solution using is for oils, and this is an acrylic or latex?
Thoughts on what type of product this is, and how one might strip it, if they were dumb enough to proceed?
Here are some pictures, and a video where i scraped the surface after 45 minutes of dwell. I pulled some loose spots up, just to show how it was failing.
I personally would pass on that one. Doubtful you would be able to get all that off without having to sand some of it. You might get some sections to come up but others will likely be pretty stubborn. It would likely be cheaper for the customer to replace the deck boards if you expect to make a decent hourly rate working on it. I have purposely avoided looking into making a stripper strong enough to get anything like that off if even possible. Not something I want to expose our guys to. Strong F18 is about the furthest we will go.
Some guys will blast the loose stuff off and put the same product over the top. I might look ok for a year or so but start to peal again.Not really something you want to put your company name behind in my opinion.
Diamabrush works great on junk like this. Took me about 2 hours to strip a 3000 sq ft deck. Railings and all. I doubt I would market it but if your in a jam it works nicely.
Behr Deckover - Couple of things you can do. Turn boards over or get new deck boards. It’s takes a ton of work to get off and if you’re charging a decent rate, will be cheaper for customer to replace. On Behr’s website, they explain that removal of DeckOver requires multiple application of stain and finish stripper, and will likely also require a scrubber, scraper, power washer and/or sander.
One guy said it took about an hour for every 10 sq ft to remove.
If what Sharpe suggested above works, then that would be the way to go. But I keep up with wood stuff since I do a fair amount of it and no one has any magical formula for removing this product.
Sorry to say that is a water based product aka. paint. I am seldom one to walk away from work but in this case I would have to say walk away. It will pressure wash off without any issues in some places but in others it will be stuck like glue. You will have to first scrape any loose paint up then find a stripper for water based paint, apply it, let it soften the paint and hope it comes up in one or two applications of the stripper. Then comes the sanding to ensure everything is smooth so there are no splinters etc. Then you can go back with a good oil based product. There are people that specialize in decks that do this with the ones that have been painted. I don’t do them. They take a lot of time and I have too much work that I can make better margins on. The only way I would take one of these on would be if I had nothing else on the books and even then I would charge a ridiculous amount of money. I don’t want to spend hours on my hands and knees. I have been through this with fences on occasion (I still get fooled from time to time), it is a huge time suck and you will not make money on it. I have yet to find a consistently good product for removing paint like this. Maybe one of the other guys has more experience with water based products, fortunately we don’t have many of them in the DFW area.
Just saw the video. Your scraping is exactly what I am referring to. Some places it comes right up and others it is stuck like glue. Also note the little section that it came right up. Look at the backside of the paint. It has wood on it. That means the wood is (for lack of a better term) de-laminating with the paint. I literally just went through this with a fence and it was not nearly as obvious as this one is. It was the hardest fence job I have ever done. They were happy with the result but a five hour job took a week.
Wow that is a great little tool. Reading the reviews on the Home Depot website, and lots of people are saying it works great for stuff like this. I sure could have used it when i had to remove a bunch of old carpet glue from a hardwood floor. Will definitely keep this in mind, thanks!
Thanks Racer, yeah i think i might pass on this. Will still be doing a lot of work at the house. Might try out that tool just to see, though.
MDA, really appreciate you taking the time to give all that info… helps me out a bunch! I also dont like to walk away from stuff, but im learning that sometimes that’s the best move. Thanks!
Glad to help if I can. I’ve seen the Diamabrush but an angle grinder with a 4.5" brush seems like a long road to hoe if you have a large surface but if it works it might be handy. BTW, look at the wood itself it’s developing cracks perpendicular to the grain. That is never a good sign for longevity. Regards, Mark
