Posted by Sherman in Idaho [24.32.202.166] on Tuesday, October 01, 2013 at 20:37:59 :
In Reply to: Re: O/T- steam cleaning a log house posted by Tim Holloway [69.54.28.229] on Tuesday, October 01, 2013 at 20:03:18 :
I had a neighbor who set his house on fire that way. It was a nice old house and he'd just bought it. The fire department put it out before it did too much damage to the interior but it got up into the attic and burned up a lot of what was probably the trickiest roof I'd ever seen. It was a simulated-thatched roof made out of cedar shingles (sawn shingles, not shakes) that were curved around an elaborate framework with a radius of about 2 feet on the gable ends, and less of a curve at the ridge and eves, to make it look like an old English cottage. the walls were a half-timbered stucco look. Insurance covered it, but that was one very expensive roof to repair.
Personally, I wouldn't use a torch on a house either, but I've used a heat gun many times. It's better and cheaper than chemicals for getting off hardened old oil paint. Either way, it's important to keep a hose handy that's known to be long enough and has a good nozzle on it.
My main point, though, is there's no magic shortcut, and to do a good job, you've got to figure on a fair amount of hand scraping.
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