Festool sander for deck refinish, 2 car garage. Yet another RO90 vs 125 question

[blauschuh]

Hi All,

I've got a couple of projects to do this spring:
1) Sand and paint 2 car garage. Paint is flaking, prior repaints were done without proper surface prep.
2) 12x12 Deck refinish. Paint is starting to peel and flake.

In both cases it seems the rotex aggressive mode would be just what I need, I want to take off all the crap and get a nice smooth surface for priming and painting. This would be my first festool purchase. If I can swing the cost I'll get vac as well.

I was considering buying the RO 90 or the RO 125 to speed things up. I'm also looking to move and buy a house and high prices are pushing me into looking at older, less 'loved' houses in the area that may need a lot of paint work and sanding.

Can the RO 90 suffice for my projects or will I be cursing myself for not buying the much larger RO 125?

 

[mwildt]

Welcome to the FOG.

You may get better guidance if you include what the material is, like clapboard on the garage. Even a picture or two can help.

Beyond that my comments would be:
- always use/get a dust extractor unless you already have one. We're talking about large surfaces that will generate a lot of dust. With some states having lead abatement rules etc being safe definitely is the way to go.
- pick a sander size that will cover as much as the surface as possible so your sanding effort is less

Lots of folks here will be able to comment way better.

 

[AlexThePalex]

I wouldn't want to have the RO90 as my only sander, it is too small, projects would take forever. You really want at least a 125 mm sander to start with. With the projects you mention here in mind, which are somewhat sizeable, I'd go for the RO 150.

 

[blauschuh]

Welcome to the FOG.

You may get better guidance if you include what the material is, like clapboard on the garage. Even a picture or two can help.

Beyond that my comments would be:
- always use/get a dust extractor unless you already have one. We're talking about large surfaces that will generate a lot of dust. With some states having lead abatement rules etc being safe definitely is the way to go.
- pick a sander size that will cover as much as the surface as possible so your sanding effort is less

Lots of folks here will be able to comment way better.

Thanks for the reply.

The 2 car garage is cedar shingle.
The desk is pressure treated wood. Honestly though, moisture has gotten under the paint in so many places it really won't take much muscle at all to strip it off.

I bet at least 1 layer of the paint on the garage has lead. It's a pre 78 house and various places inside the house have tested + for lead with using a 3m test kit.

edit: I should add that I won't be sanding without a hepa, I've got a kid running around. A friend has a fein hepa vac that I may be able to use.

I'm heavily leaning towards picking up a package with the sander and at the least the ct26.

 

[Sparktrician]

Test the paint to see if it has lead before you do anything.  The best advice I've heard is to not sand any areas with lead in them, but tape off the area with 6 mil poly sheets and scrape off that which is loose so it comes off in chunks that can be collected and bagged for appropriate disposal.  The HEPA vac is all well and good, but scraping makes so much better sense if there's lead involved. 

 

[blauschuh]

Test the paint to see if it has lead before you do anything.  The best advice I've heard is to not sand any areas with lead in them, but tape off the area with 6 mil poly sheets and scrape off that which is loose so it comes off in chunks that can be collected and bagged for appropriate disposal.  The HEPA vac is all well and good, but scraping makes so much better sense if there's lead involved.

I'll be testing it as soon as another test kit arrives. I try to operate under the assumption that even if the multiple test kit results are negative from various places that some parts still may contain lead. The garage is really old and in some places it appears that there are 10 coats of paint. Hard to believe there isn't any lead in there.

A while back I lightly wet sanded some trim of the entrance to my son's room just to knock down a few spots where chips could become loose. I spot checked a few chips and only 2/4 came up positive for lead. Eventually I had to ran a double layer of clear tape up and down the edges of the trim as my son decided he would ram the trim with his toys.

From everything I've read the Rotex + CT combination is approved for use in lead paint removal. Specifically, the results from the "Dust Extraction Shootout" in the Spring 2014 edition of the Festool Paint Magazine lead me to believe that it should be safe to use this combination to redo my garage.