I've have a silent paint remover and have used it inside and out. Done a lot of trim and doors inside. Done three sides of house outside. One more to go! :) Get and use the scrapers they sell. You don't need any of the fancy ones. Just the plain ol triangular ones. They sell replacement blades for them very cheap, especially if you buy a five pack. I really can't tell you how much better these scrapers work. Keep the blades on the scraper sharp. Very important. I found a sharp blade would last about a days worth of scraping. When the paint literally bubbles off, that's and oil based and will come off the easiest. When is kind of burns off, that's latex. SPR will handle both. I didn't find is useful for detail work, tight corners (like stairs) or windows. To hard to put the heat where you want it and keep it from where you've already stripped. It works great on claps. Contrary to what they say, hit the claps with a random orbital sander using 36 or 40 grit after stripping. A light hand sanding ain't gonna cut it. Not at least on my 200 year old home with every type of paint ever invented. Then prime, then two coats of paint. No need to pressure wash. Oh, they have some tip on their website, for dried out areas, to apply some linseed oil to it a few days ahead of time. Doesn't work. I tried it. Made a big mess. Google search will confirm my results. Also, forget the linseed oil on the claps after priming. Unless you want you claps to be covered with black mold in a few months. To speed things along you MAY consider shortening the fins that keep the SPR off the claps. Stripping paint is hard work. For claps it doesn't require a lot of know how. Just grunt work. You might consider outsourcing this to some day labor. You'd be suprprised how much progress two people can make in day. Here's a good reviews... http://www.houseinprogress.net/archives/000108.html http://www.hereandthere.org/oldhouse/removing-exterior-paint.htm

First you might want to do a little research on lead paint and at what point it becomes a hazard. Unless every wall,door,door casing,floor molding,and ceiling has been replaced there is lead paint all over your house once it has been sealed and painted over unless a child is actually eating your windows the hazard is not there. Lead paint becomes a hazard when it is peeling or when it is being sanded from air born dust. Read the below link which also contains a link from the CDC paying close attention to at least the following statements. Government studies reveal that children become lead-poisoned primarily by hand-to-mouth lead dust ingestion, and only rarely through eating old lead-based paint chips. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) reports show that well-maintained surfaces containing lead paint do not present a health hazard. Interim controls such as "in-place management" have been recognized as valid methods of preventing lead exposure and encapsulation technology provides a feasible, effective abatement strategy for the permanent correction of residential lead hazards. Educate yourself so you know the true facts before hearing sales pitches. Here is a link that might be useful: Lead paint

I agree with beesneeds. Lead poisoning is typically the result of ingestion (e.g., kids eating paint chips), or lead vapor (using heat guns to remove lead-containing paint), or eating/drinking from colorful ceramic vessels that have high lead concentration in the glazes. If there was any lead in the paint, and if you inhaled any of the particles, it's likely to have been a trivial dose. Also, the potential for lead poisoning is more of a concern for children than adults for physiological reasons. I'm not saying you shouldn't be concerned about environmental hazards, but I spent a large part of my career as an environmental engineer and this does not sound like something you should worry about. Just take precautions if you do this again in the future, and clean up any paint dust lying on the ground if you have young children who play in that area of the yard. And again, you don't even know if you were dealing with lead-containing paint at all.

Daughter has a 1753 house and had lead painted clapboards scraped and repainted. Is it smooth- nope? But the other choice was full scale lead abatement down to total bare wood everywhere at an astronomical price. New paint has been well adhered for six years. Can recommend that you embrace the imperfections that come with an old house. Replacing old clapboards are way more expensive than you may think. A tree fell on end of daughter’s house. The original clapboards were 1 1/2” thick cedar- the reason the house was not more damaged than it was. The area that had to be replaced required custom milled 1 1/2” cedar boards- $$$$.