Forum Archive: Posts by: awright5424

I’m preparing to repaint some of the rooms in my pre-war apartment, and thought I could use some advice from the people here who have experience with painting and stripping in older units. The building is a little more than 80 years old, and my apartments suffers from layers and layers of cheap and poorly applied paint. I’m also sure there’s plenty of lead paint underneath the surfaces. The effect on the trim is something that could generously be described as a “cake frosting” look. Since I’m going to be repainting regardless, I’ve been exploring the possibility of partially or totally stripping the areas where the paint is really gunked on, namely the window and door frames, using chemical strippers. I don’t necessarily have my heart set on stripping the trim down to the wood, I’d just like to have a smoother, nicer surface to paint on top of so I’m not exacerbating the current situation. That being said, it doesn’t really seem to me like it’s possible to go ‘half-way’ with something like stripping – you either do it or you don’t. I’ve got some experience with painting and home projects, but this is the first time I’ve taken on a major project like this on my own, and there’s a lot of experience I don’t have. So my main question, then, after reading and hearing so much about stripping being an incredibly time-consuming and aggravating process, is this – am I an idiot for considering trying to get rid 80+ of rental unit paint? Considering it’s a rental, is it worth the time and effort? If I go this route, I’m going to try to stay away from the methyl-chloride based strippers. I’m intrigued by Ready Strip and SOY Gel in particular. Does anyone have any experience with these products?

(Sorry for the longish post – if you stuck with me this far, thanks!)