Cheapest way to take bitumen paint off an old house

Birchlj

Hi,  
Need advice on how to get bitumen paint of a victorian gable end without spending huge amounts of money.

Ebe_Scrooge

Heat gun and scraper?

Depends how old the paint is and how thick, but that's got to be worth a try.  It'll cost nowt to try if you already have a heat gun, otherwise you can buy a very basic one for less than 20 quid : https://www.screwfix.com/c/tools/glue-heat-guns/cat830804?producttype=heat_gun#category=cat830804&producttype=heat_gun&sort_by=price

grumbler

Ebe_Scrooge said:

Heat gun and scraper?

I can be wrong, but I think bitumen will melt and get sticky, not softer.

Possibly, scrapping without heating in winter can be more effective.

With something like this -

Ebe_Scrooge

grumbler said:

Ebe_Scrooge said:

Heat gun and scraper?

I can be wrong, but I think bitumen will melt and get sticky, not softer.

That's a good point.  Yes, bitumen will certainly get sticky with heat - that's why I suggested a heat gun, but actually your suggestion of doing it cold may very well be a less messy option.

BrownTrout

I would suggest having it sand blasted

FreeBear

BrownTrout said: I would suggest having it sand blasted

Sand blasting could well be too aggressive - Much would depend on how hard the bricks are.

But there are alternative blasting media that would be kinder to the brick. Soda or dry ice are two that spring to mind. Won't be particularly cheap, especially if scaffolding is required.

Eldi_Dos

Removed some parquet flooring that had been set on a bed of bitumen on top of tiles.To remove the bitumen I brushed on a good covering of swarfega to soften the bitumen then used industrial hot air gun and various scrapers then cleaned tiles with swarfega.Took two days to do a area 8' x 6' and I had tennis elbow at the end of it. So do not think it is doable on a gable end.

Like other posters have suggested sand blasting if brick is suitable would be best option.

Could try on small test area putting some paint stripper on then jet wash off but I doubt that would give a good finish.