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join:2003-11-01
Juana Diaz, PR

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Stripping paint from concrete ceiling

I have a detached garage that I need to strip old paint from the ceiling that is flaking and the residue left behind is chalky. Although the roof does not leak water tends to pond above it after heavy rain and humidity finds its way through the slab. I have already taken care of that part by putting some leveling cement in the deepest part and then sealing the entire slab with an elastomeric sealer. However decades of this problem have caused some minor damage in the inside with rebar partially exposed in one part. The roof is not in danger of collapsing, though and there are no cracks visible from above.

I could use a pressure washer but there are other considerations besides causing more damage to the ceiling such as having to work for an extended period inside the garage with door down and springs fully extended. The garage is detached and has no other access.

Is there a less aggresive way of removing the old paint from the ceiling?

And yes, the roof is concrete because that's the most common building material here in Puerto Rico.
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And I don't need to get to the bare concrete, just remove all loose stuff so that I can repaint over it.

LazMan
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join:2003-03-26
Beverly Hills, CA

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Either the pressure washer, or a ladder, scraper, and extra heavy-duty elbow grease are only two options I can think of...

tp0d
yabbazooie
Premium Member
join:2001-02-13
Bulger, PA

tp0d

Premium Member

uhm, if its a single, or even a double garage, just scrape the stuff off with a large putty knife. If its flaking that easily, shouldnt be a big job.. just need some goggles and a light respirator. Then give it a hose down to wash off the chalky stuff..

-j

Warzau
Premium Member
join:2000-10-26
Naperville, IL

Warzau

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I add to it, add large knife 8" tape it to a extended pole and add glasses.

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join:2003-11-01
Juana Diaz, PR

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It's a single garage about 12x20.
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I have done some testing scraping with a scraper attached to the end of a stick and it works but is as aggressive as blasting it with water anyway. And I will probably need to use the pressure washer anyway at the end to remove the chalky stuff but at least I will not need to put too much pressure on the ceiling to do that.

robbin
Mod
join:2000-09-21
Leander, TX

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Not sure what you can buy there, but the Wagner PaintEater is great for old paint. Disks are rather expensive, but it works really well. Have used it on several old houses.

cdru
Go Colts
MVM
join:2003-05-14
Fort Wayne, IN

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said by printscreen:

I could use a pressure washer but there are other considerations besides causing more damage to the ceiling such as having to work for an extended period inside the garage with door down and springs fully extended.

If a pressure washer is going to damage the ceiling, it's not a structurally sound ceiling.

If you want to remove all the paint, you can also use a dry ice blaster. Think sand blasting, but without the cleanup of all the sand.

Cho Baka
MVM
join:2000-11-23
there

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Perhaps there is some useful info in here:
»sealing a crumbling concrete ceiling??

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join:2003-11-01
Juana Diaz, PR

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said by Cho Baka:

Perhaps there is some useful info in here:
»sealing a crumbling concrete ceiling??

It is not even close to being that bad. Only some spots where the rebar is too close to the bottom surface and the concrete has cracked. Scraping has broken off a few spots and I know the pressure washer will only create more of this. The ceiling is not finished and you can see some texture from the forms. It was only painted. And I know it is not compromised structurally since there are no major cracks anywhere and doesn't leak. Just had the humidity due to ponding of water above and this has been mostly solved.
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said by cdru:

If a pressure washer is going to damage the ceiling, it's not a structurally sound ceiling.

If you want to remove all the paint, you can also use a dry ice blaster. Think sand blasting, but without the cleanup of all the sand.

It's a no less than 4-inch poured slab and the damage is only in the interior surface as I described above.

I have seen the dry ice thing at work where they used it to decontaminate some machines (pharmaceutical packaging) from some nasty stuff before they were used for a different product but that's just too expensive. I think some elbow grease will be the solution after all.
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I finally ended up doing both the scraper and the pressure washer. I did the scraping first to remove all the flaking and loose paint. This part did some damage as I expected, which I later "repaired" with cement mix. The damage was mostly due to an electrical conduit that has rusted over the years. The garage is about 52-53 years old. Then I finished it off with the pressure washer which removed a lot more paint than I expected and left bare concrete in most of the ceiling. However, it *did not* cause any additional damage. All damage that could have resulted from the whole thing was from the scraping. Still have to paint but the hard part is done already.

The slab is not structurally compromised as there are no major cracks on the outside surface and it never leaked even with the ponding as I said before. At least not at this moment. Perhaps in 20 more years things will be different.