[Kes Green]

Hi all. I hope somebody can give me some advice.  I live in a small, two-up two-down detached house in southwest London, built around 1901, which has been painted white. I want to get rid of the paint so the house can breathe and have had a contractor give me a quote. To do the whole house, they've quoted around £14000 including scaffolding (any repointing would be extra). As we haven't won the lottery, we cannot afford anywhere near that money! I looked into hiring a Thermatech, but they only let companies hire them. Apart from learning to live with the horrible paint, what are my options?

[Smudger]

Pay the 14k and be grateful......

There's every chance it's not paint but lime wash and thermotech won't shift it

You need to know what your removing,
How to remove and with what to remove it with

Your paying for the guys knowledge and experience...

Good luck

Darran

[Kes Green]

I don't actually have a spare £14k! Do many people have that much money saved up? If I could afford to pay somebody, I would. I'm trying to find a cheaper alternative.  I'll probably get a test kit of one of the poultice type removers. That should give me some idea whether or not it's possible to remove. It looks like modern plastic-type paint. I guess it could have limewash underneath, but how common would that have been?

[Smudger]

Out this way - very common

It was widely used for a whole host of reasons

If it's a modern paint treat an area with graffiti remover - if it melts it's a modern paint - if not get in a expert
14k might be a lot but how much a age is it currently doing to the property by causing damp?

How much is this effecting the value of your property-30-40k off the market value - you need to weigh it up but even this a thermotech - should you be able to get one - an inexperienced operator WILL case horrendous damage to brick faces and the mortar joints

Darran

[dustee]

You actually doing this for someone else by any chance and  got no idea 

[waterforce]

Mark out a 1m square on your "painted" wall. Go to B&Q and buy 1 litre of Diall water-based paint stripper. Paint the stripper on the 1m square (Apply as thickly as possible) Tape a bin bag over the 1m square (that is now covered in Stripper) Leave 24hrs ....see what happens. If it looks like porridge the next day wash it off and repeat.  You have paint  ,,,if there is no difference you have lime wash.