Different ways to restore old painted wood siding

Q:How should I paint my previously painted exterior siding?
A: Depends on the desired outcome.

There are different ways to prepare to restore old painted wood siding.
Here are a few:
Gel Stripping agent
Angle Grinder
Orbital Sander
Scraper
Sanding Sponge
Sand Blasting

The level of finish you would like will determine the process.

Every year I run into multiple projects on houses that have multiple coats of paint where the previous painter scraped the peeling or flaking paint, scuff sanded the edges, spot primed the bare wood and re-painted. This is fine but normally it hinders you from using a higher gloss paint (because the scrape marks will show up) and normally is the minimal expected from a painter. A step up from that would be using a orbital sander after the scraping to get a more polished sanding job. Better yet would be to take a angle grinder with a sanding attachment and fully sand any peeling areas back to the closest board cut so you have a perfect finished look. A few draw backs to the angle grinder and orbital sander are that they remove the vertical texture in a shake and they create a lot of dust. Another draw back may be that while some areas are peeling and will be fully sanded to ensure a perfect finish, the areas that are not peeling decide to peel the following year. To ensure the most durable, flawless finish the the painter needs to remove ALL of the previous coating. This can be done by Sand Blasting or extensive sanding/angle grinding. You should consider the project, talk with a qualifed painting contractor and decide which option is best for you. You'll probably not sand blast the 150 thousand dollar split entry but may want to consider it on the 1 million dollar house.
Be aware of Lead Based Paint Laws, Risks and Requirements

Call NICK DETTINGER
COMPLETE CUSTOM PAINTING
651-336-0561 cellular