Talk me out of trying a crazy idea I have for painting my house!

It sounds like a great idea and please let us know when you finish!

Thanks so much for your optimism! That's all the encouragement I needed and I am ready to start!

I'd sand the lead paint off without the special lead containment tools. The environment has much worse things going into everyday than a few lead paint dust particles.

What kind of shingles are on your house?

Are they the hard asbestos shingles or wood shake shingles?

The hole saw might be over-complicating things and would leave a huge hole, why not just gently pry them off and replace the ones you break... or you might be able to get the nails out without damaging the shingles with a cat's paw tool or some pincers with a shim underneath to protect the shingle.

At first I thought the idea sounded crazy, but you have to remove the old shingles anyway, and I've heard that the lumber available 100 years ago was much better quality than what you can get today. I would at least try out a small area first and see how it goes.

I'm pretty sure taking the shingles off, labelling them and then flipping and painting them will be more man hours than just stripping them off and putting new siding on.

1/10 btw

No this is a 10/10. I have to do something. Unlike many here, I have a limited budget.

Stripping them off and replacing is not an option. Replacing wood shingles is too expensive.

The hole saw is slightly larger than the nail head. Prying them will split them. The hole gets covered anyway.

Think of how long it would take to do one shingle. Hole saw, hole saw, re-nail it. Maybe 15 seconds when I get in the zone. Now think of stripping one and sanding it. Probably a least 2 minutes. And It would be a lot messier and difficult and requires those special tools.

So far, I'm sticking with the plan!

Do you know what is under the wood shingles? You may find clapboard or dutchlap siding that would be easier to repair and repaint than the wood shingles. (unless you want the shingle look)

Another inexpensive option would be to buy enough odd or overstock siding to put on your house. While the style of the siding should be the same, the color wouldn't have to as you can easily paint it all one color after it is installed. You will use less paint as the paint just covers the siding and doesn't soak into it. You have to use a lighter color of paint so the sun doesn't buckle the siding which it will do if you use dark colors.

I've yanked off the wood siding and replaced with vinyl on a few houses and know your plan will certainly be labor intensive.

What I would do:

#1- Have the fire department burn the house down. Then build a new house.

or

#2- Sell the house, and buy a new house somewhere else.

and

#3- Find something better to do with your time.

In what part of the country is the house?

How would you drill with the hole saw directly over the existing nail? A hole saw usually has a normal drill bit concentric in the center as a guide. This would be drilling right into the nail, so wouldn't work. You would be forced to go off center and drill a slightly larger hole for this to work.

Also, are you planning to then remove the nail and disc of shingle that is still on your house? Or were you trying to get clever by doing something like slip the shingle back over that small disc and nail it on again? If so, you'll have a gap where the shingle goes onto that small disc of shingle the width of the hole saw material. You'll also have a hole from the guide drill bit.

It seems like if you are going for "cheapest and easiest" solution, then replacing it all with a cheaper siding is your best option.

Alternatively, strip all the paint in the middle of the night so nobody notices you arent properly mitigating the lead. Mix it into something different that doesnt look like it will have lead and drop the stuff you remove at the dump.

I'd have some extra on hand as I'm sure will have wood rot or other damage you may not want to retain. But the general concept should work - I had an uncle tore do something somewhat similar years ago. It's all what condition the wood is in. I'd spot check several sections to see if you have any large areas that might be problems (e.g. north side of house if shaded, etc).

Here's another challenge you might be overlooking: sheathing. What are the shingles nailed to? We just took the siding off a 1982 house and there were huge gaps where there was no sheathing or it had rotted away. So you might at a minimum want to have some 4'x8' OSB sheathing and a saw to patch any spots.

You also probably don't have any house wrap underneath whatever it's nailed to. Again... do you have to have house wrap, no. If you're taking everything off it's a good time to add it, though! As long as you're doing the labor (the new paint cost alone will add up) I could see maying doing one side at a time, or one large section per side at a time. take off a ton of shingles, patch and wrap, and then nail 'em back up.

Worth a shot.

Start on the back of the house, see what happens. If it's a mess or a time suck, stop and regroup.... if it works, onwards you go!

Awesome! DOOOOOO IIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTT.

Your exterior walls probably aren’t insulated. If you really do this take the opportunity to apply batt insulation from the outside.

Also when you suggest installing them upside down do you mean lapping them starting from the top or just flipping them over and jnstalling them with the same lapping? Obviously they need to lap the same way they do now to shed water properly.

If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.

If the existing paint isn’t in too bad of shape just paint over it. Better call a painter and have them do it.

Pulling the wood off and flipping it sounds interesting, but it’s going to be more difficult and expensive than you expect. It’s going to be dirty and dusty. You may want to wear a good quality face mask. As someone else said start in the back and do as small of a section as you can first to get a feel of how difficult it’s going to be.

Good luck and watch out for wasps.

Pretty decent idea. "Flipping" them over would be the word... Get a price to paper, lath and stucco right over your shingles.

I have a neighbor with bipolar disorder. Last year, during a manic period, he walked the entire neighborhood collecting twigs and branches for “firewood.” He collected all the leaves that fell (literally all of them) because he wanted to fill up those novelty leaf bags. Anyway, the point of this story is that even he had enough sense to let professionals replace his siding. (Which he then loaded piece by piece into his Prius to take to the recycling center, but I digress...)

apparently, Youve got too much free time.

Painter wrote:

My crazy idea is...

Remove all shingles carefully by using a hole saw right over the nail heads. Save and mark each shingle to keep track of the exact location it came from. Then, put them back on in the exact same spot they were originally - upside down!

I don't think you realize just how much of a pain in the ass that would be. Even if you get them all off cleanly (you wont), putting them back into their exact location will be extremely tedious. Also, does drilling holes into your shingles really seem like a good idea? That's just asking for problems down the road.