Frugal Way to Scrape Paint Off House

Removing paint from the outside of a house can be an expensive and time consuming endeavor before repainting everything. It entails scraping away the old paint that has been on the outside of the house weathering the elements since it was first painted on, which is much easier said then done. However, there are cheap and efficient ways to scrape away paint off the outside of a house with the right type of supplies and elbow grease.

Paint scrapers are the primary tool you will be using to scrape away or loosen the old paint on the outside of your house. These scrapers vary in size and purpose. The flat blade scraper is your standard paint scraper with a handle and a blade which scrapes paint off by scraping it all in one direction, especially on a window sill or small concentrated area. Double edged blade tools have a long handle and are excellent at scraping paint off large flat areas. Powersanding while scraping is also a good idea, as it will loosen the tougher-to-remove paint. All these tools are very cheap to purchase.

One of the most expensive parts of doing any repair or construction job is paying other people to do all the labor. While you'll certainly be removing the paint yourself, recruiting some friends and family to help you with this daunting task will help speed up the process and save you time and money in the long run. Most friends and family will help out for a certain amount of time with the guarantee of a good meal after a hard day's work.

If the paint is flaking already or is loose, a high-pressure power washer should be rented to help start the process of removing the paint from the outside of the house. The high pressured water will help scrape the paint off the outside of the house, though should be used sparingly as you don't want to force to much water into the wood without the protective paint coating.

However, water can exert as much if not more force then a person tiredly scraping, so power washing is a good way to save time and energy before the labor intensive scraping process begins and toward the end, to help remove the tougher bits or sections of paint that may have been loosened with the scraping and sanding. It is also better to do this job in the heat of the summer, when the paint will be the loosest against the house itself.