Hand or Dip Stripper?
I posted a couple of days ago asking for a wood stripper, and thank you for the replies. Someone said, “Whatever you do, don’t dip”. Then I read the great post on the reno blog about dipping shutters. Why no dip?
I posted a couple of days ago asking for a wood stripper, and thank you for the replies. Someone said, “Whatever you do, don’t dip”. Then I read the great post on the reno blog about dipping shutters. Why no dip?
dipping cooks the wood changes the grain when possible dont dip
We used East End Wood Strippers to strip our parlor floor shutters a couple of years back, and they came out beautiful. They are pine. We then had a constractor fix them up and re-install and couldn’t be happier.
This year we are renovating our top floors and had the shutters again pulled out and stripped by Dean and his crew, and again they have come back beautiful.
In any event, can’t recommend him and his crew enough – he did a quick and professional job.
This all after some people warned me similar to comments above that the dipping would ruin the wood, which it did not. But perhaps just pure luck, I don’t know.
Many thanks! This is all terrific information. Homesweetstuy, you shutters look great.
Greetings Susan and congrats on your new home. Its my blog that you refer to above and if you go back to some of the earlier posts you’ll see that I have done the stripping both ways and have learned the long way that it just does not pay to strip doors and shutters by hand. The best piece of advice I can give you is go to someone reputable and who knows what they are doing like Lou. I haven’t seen a single negative post about lou and he has been doing this dip and strip thing for years. He also clearly has a deep appreciation for all things wooden and stripable and I don’t think he’d strip something if he thought it would ruin it. That said there are things like–the bannister, newel post and super ornate pieces that should probably be stripped by hand—although there is a risk of gouging the wood if you don’t know what you are doing. Finally, make sure you oil or pre-treate the wood as soon after stripping as possible–stripping does dry out the wood. I like teak oil for hard woods and that miniwax pre-stain for soft. As it will probably take the next 10 years of my life to strip and refinish all the wood in my house–i am sure I will have more postings soon.
there’s a big difference between dipping in a “hot tank” (which is a lye solution at about 130 degrees) and dipping, or presoaking in a cold solvent ( standard methylene chloride paint remover at room temp)
The lye bath, or caustic bath, is what is used in the first steps in paper production. wood is left in the bath until the wood fibers start to disintegrate . SO when you use the process for paint stripping, great care is needed not to keep the wood soaked for too long – the potential for damage and raising wood fibers is very real.Glue joints can come undone, as well. Also the caustic can change the ph of the wood and could create problems in the finishing phase.
Cold solvent is a much less harsh method. It is often used on fine furniture because of that. The wood is left in a much better state, but either way , you will need to prep the wood surface.
And regardless of the method used to strip paint, a increasing concern is the disposal of the hazardous lead paint waste.
Hi Montrose, I bought on Bainbridge between Stuyvesant Ave and Malcolm X. We’re now getting ready for a near-gut reno. I haven’t gone anywhere but I have become more of a lurker. I found I just wasn’t getting my work done, so I had to cut back on my ‘stoner time. I’m consider doing a reno blog on this site, but I’ll have to see have much spare time I have. I know it’s going to be crazy!
The trouble is, with something as large as a chair, dipping is not a DIY project and you’re at the mercy of a commercial operator who may very well “let it sit too long.” My chairs weren’t anything great and were free, since they’d been left in our house, but we did have the seats nicely upholstered, so we were kind of pissed when they disintegrated.
We had solid pine shutters which we dipped last summer. A contractor suggested they might not make it through the process, but my dad, himself a carpenter / joiner for 50 years said they should be fine. Dad was quite right, they came out great. Very similar to the ones posted on yesterday’s reno. Now admittedly without my dad there to fix up them up a little to ensure they were still structurally sound we would have struggled I think but the end product took way less time than hand stripping which is one of the worst jobs going in my mind. Also the cost – 600 to do 8 parlour floor shutters vs 3200 for strip and re finish from local quotes.
unfortunately this is one of those tasks where you’ll only really know by ploughing ahead. You could just dip one shutter and see how it comes out ?
Dipping can be a real time saver with stair spindles though. Your experience with the chair sounds like you let it sit too long. You want to let it sit just long enough to eat the paint but not more. Then you oil and reseal the wood to keep the natural oils in.