Soda Blasting radiators

pdonnelly

We bought an old house this year with a steam system.  We're currently refinishing 3 rooms that all have radiators painted umpteen times.  I was considering buying a soda blaster (rather than a sand blaster) because I could use it on other projects around the house.  Does anyone have an experience with using a soda blaster in stripping a radiator....it seems like it should work, but just wondering if anyone had any success with this process.  

Mark Eatherton

Seal the openings...

I'm thinking that as long as you seal the opening to the radiators you should be fine. Baking soda should be fairly benign, but no sense in taking any chances.



I have to admit, until you asked the question, I didn't know that soda blasting existed, or what it even was.. THanks for making me look :-)





ME

JeffM

lead paint

I asked some questions about radiator blasting in the Steam forum recently, so you may want to keep an eye on that thread too. One reply wisely suggested to be aware of lead paint issues, and you likely have some layers of lead paint if the radiators are fairly old. If you're doing the work yourself I think that gets you around the legal aspects of the job (the DIY loophole), but blasting lead paint will create lots of lead dust so serious precautions would need to be taken. Scraping through the layers and doing a lead test would be a good first step so you know what you're up against.

SWEI

blasting off lead paint

Safest route for lead by far is sponge blasting http://www.spongejet.com/



Soda blasting is very gentle - great for soft substrates, but you really want a hard, fine grit which will leave a good surface profile on that metal.