Who am I kidding....had I started this post originally with "one of the joys of buying an old house"..... but the only joy I've felt over the last 2 weeks was on Tuesday when I visited my chiropractor to relieve the pins and needles in my fingers from endless scraping, water blasting, sweeping, more scraping and more water blasting and more sweeping.
When we bought our 'Heritage Listed' Spanish Mission [apparently there's no category for Italian, which it is] style house 11 years ago , and in all fairness it has stood the test of time from it's humbles beginnings in 1919/20, we knew that there would be maintenance...whilst we done bits & pieces over the years, she's now desperate for a fresh coat of paint on the western facing, exterior wall.
Two years ago I undertook the refurbishment of the front facade. I undertook this quite naively saying "don't worry it'll be easy", to Mike (husband) "a week of scraping and I'll have it done". That week turned into 3 months of preparation and the wallet $12,000 lighter as we needed to get the facade fully covered with scaffold ) we are 3 storeys if we count the garage underneath, and hire a professional painter to finish the painting that was too high up for me to reach with my extendable roller and ladder.
So here I am, 5 days into my west exterior wall prep work and the weather is seriously starting to make me think this will be another 12 week exercise as I've only just managed to scrape back to the 1st floor level....
seriously thinking the 2nd floor will have to wait to the new year. The neighbours are again being ever so tolerant, they never complain about what seems like a never ending supply of paint flakes falling onto their access steps, although I do think that they wonder who I'm talking to when I'm reciting my current mantra "90% of the work is preparation"....maybe there thinking I'm inhaling too many paint chips.
Now with all good projects you all know there has to be a good objective....so I'll be looking to do a good job and be finished by 23 December and my strategy will be: pray for rain to clear and use the same methods, products and "apparently" FREE advice received from my professional painter two years ago. (True story his adjusted quote stated: FREE phone advice to client)
Here's my wall with paint on, you can see the raised mortar ridges which are very crumbly:
And this is after paint removal. The original layers of paint are going all chalky so when you get a crack in the newish paint layers levels, you can just remove the paint in big large flakes. Also the render has weathered and broken down.
Here's the wall after scraping and gentle water blasting.
So today it's raining....so I'll be waiting until tomorrow before I apply
Durobond Super-Seal®. This is a great WATER SOLUBLE resin based clear penetrating sealer for surfaces needing a binding, highly adhesive seal, such as chalky, perished or fretting substrates. Quick drying. VOC content less than 30gms per litre (<3%).
Once my Super-Seal® is dry I'll then be restoring the render and hand moulding the surface of the render with all it's little lumps and bumps with
Nordsjo Super Filler.
Give me a day of drying time and it'll be into the home straight with two coats of
Durobond Tuscany Suede which is is washable, stain, crack and mould resisting and easy to re-coat at a later time. It gives an attractive Mediterranean finish to withstand years of weathering.
VOC Free and Low Odour
Wish me well in my endeavours and I'll post you a lovely pictures of my progress and the finished exterior......hopefully sooner rather than later.
