[MassHistPres] Question on painting vs staining, and shaving vs scraping

[dbibel at comcast.net]

As a member of a congregation as well as a co-chair of our towns HC, I have a question for which I do not have an answer.

The church building (National Register, circa 1789) is in desperate need of a painting.  We've gotten a quote for paint shaving - mechanical removal of the lead paint, down to the bare wood.  Since the building has many layers of paint on it, which have peeled, cracked, etc. it seems this would be a good thing to do - and in addition, would remove all the lead.

A question was raised on putting stain rather than paint on the surface, as stain supposedly will last longer, have no need to be scraped, etc.

So two questions  - anyone with experience (good or bad) with shaving vs traditional scraping and washing as surface prep; and the potential advantages of stain vs paint.

Dan Bibel
Medfield HC


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