Best DIY Way to Strip Paint
I’ve done a few smaller scale stripping projects in the past (furniture) and always used the low toxicity orange goo paint/varnish stripper and a plastic scraper/elbow grease. Now I’m looking to undertake stripping the paint off some moldings in my house – much more area to cover. What is the best DIY way to go…
I’ve done a few smaller scale stripping projects in the past (furniture) and always used the low toxicity orange goo paint/varnish stripper and a plastic scraper/elbow grease.
Now I’m looking to undertake stripping the paint off some moldings in my house – much more area to cover. What is the best DIY way to go about this?
Heat gun? Specialty tool? I’m a little hesitant to drop money on a special tool because none of the wood is currently exposed, so I don’t know what I’ll find under the 10 layers of paint. The doors are very pretty, so I’m taking a gamble on the moldings. Even if I end up painting them again, I’d like a much smoother finish than I have now.
Any advice?
I use peelaway 7 and most importantly I go to a local lumber yard and get sawdust to put on the floor to soak up the gooey mess. Especially the last layers of varnish and milk paint.
Just a note: You may find varnish on pine, poplar, and fir. In inexpensive houses of the 1890s, those woods were stained, varnished, and semi-transparently faux grained to look like mahogany and oak. It’s not as beautiful as the real thing, but if has it’s own cool and was not meant to be painted — in the 1890s.
I should clarify that my approach is very similar to renomandru–silent paint remover for most of it and heat gun for tricky spots. In addition to a variety of scrapers, I also use a sharpened flat screwdriver a lot as a scraper. I’ve sharpened the tip edge down to a thinner flat chisel. Very useful for curved and stepped edges. I wear a respirator and create good ventilation when working with the heat gun because unlike the SPR they can create lead vapor.
With some very old, very damaged paint I’ve used the SPR to get most of the paint off but was only able to get it all off with a final heat gun pass. Luckily this was on an exterior door. Paint stripper wasn’t very effective and created a huge gooey mess.
I have used just about every paint removal product on the market, both at home and at manufacturers seminars. First, heat guns. My wife decided to try one and badly scorched the wood, to a point that it cannot be repaired. And yes, you can set the wood on fire…I’ve seen it happen. Most of the older paint strippers (Miracle Strip, Zip Strip, etc.) are very toxic and can cause chemical burns…leave them to the pro’s. The very best I’ve used (and this is probably over 100), and the one I use at home myself, is Peel-Away #6 and #7. It’s a little slow but the results are fantastic…well worth the wait. If you are removing paint and varnish from original woodwork it probably has an original (base or prime) coat of shellac, then varnish on top of that. Usually it was top coated with paint after that. When I use Peel-Away I apply a heavy coat (I use a cheap “chip” brush), cover it with their “cloth” (it’s really a “treated” paper, but they call it “cloth”)wait about 2 or 3 days, lift off the paper, and 90-95% of the finish comes off. Then, I clean the surface with denatured alcohol and paper towels dampened in alcohol. In detailed trim I use a toothbrush and maybe a “pick”. Remember to keep the doors and windows open and use a fan to vent the alcohol vapors (they are flammable), and take your time. Oh, the alcohol strips away the shellac, and any paint remover residue.
Get yourself a DeWalt Heat Gun, a 5 in 1 tool, Rock Miracle stripper if you’re not concerned about health or the soy based stripper if you’ve the time to let it work (leave on for a day), and a bbq brush from the 99cent store. Wearing a respirator, heat the old paint and pull it off with the 5 in one tool. Then go to the stripper. Pull off the old paint with the brush. Once that’s clean, use some sandpaper to restore the profiles.
-bm
I agree with BHS in terms of knowing what you are stripping. It may only be paint grade wood and that may not be worth stripping to the last speck because you may end up simply painting again. Varnish underneath will greatly help in the stripping, particularly if you use heat, but is not necessarily a sign of a buried treasure. Varnish was used to make pine and poplar look more expensive than it was.
I personally use the silent paint remover a lot, which is actually superior to heat guns for most situations. It uses infrared and deep heats the wood, causing the bond between the first layer and the wood to break. The more paint, the better, actually. For some situations, such as 10 layers of paint on top of varnished, elaborate moulding, it is fantastic.
For small corners and edges, I break out the heat gun. In other situations, I use high-end Swedish steel scrapers, not the crap from HD. And I use various chemical solvents to clean up the remnants. I scrap off the gooey mess with a plastic brush on top of those blue, industrial paper towels. An finally, light sanding. Get yourself a stainless steel dental pick for the nooks and crannies if you plan to get anal. Good luck.
Be careful if you use a heat gun. More than likely there is lead paint there and the heat gun will turn some of that into fumes which you will breath in. I rarely worry about myself when I do these things, but I do worry about children and women of child bearing age.
Do not use a torch. The paint will catch fire as it peels off; I’ve done it and it is not worth the trouble.
Steve
i have used a powdered milk paint remover. you have to add water to it. what’s great about it is that it’s not sticky. It really works in getting the white powderish residue off when you get to the final, really old paint layers. you don’t have to scrape and worry about releasing lead dust. here’s the link: http://www.realmilkpaint.com/remover.html
Here’s what I’d do: rent a heat gun and get the feel of it and see how it works. If the original wood was shellacked, the paint will come right off. You’ll need to go at the crevices with some hard core stuff like Zip Strip. You can then remove the shellac with dentured alcohol.
OTOH, if painting is your ultimate goal, you might want to use Peel Away 1.