Okay, stripping paint from wood trim

[430752]

Okay, this must be the number 1 home improvement issue. Mort's recent post kinda suggested people had stuff to chime in with.

So, how do you strip paint from wood work in your home?

My experience is as follows:

bought a 1926 colonial in the craftsman style. Has chestnut trim throughout, but for whatever reason, the two (yeah, only 2!) previous owners decided to paint over every piece of trim on the second floor and used a "pickling" stain on the first. So, I've been doing a lot of stripping amongst othe things. I have about 7 layers. looks like the first layer or three is a milk paint, then lead paints, then latex. might mistake one of the lead layers for oil based. anyway, its stubborn.

Tried the heat gun thing. It stunk. I would recommned that people try heat guns over telekinetics or "wishing it off", but otherwise I found it worthless. I tried straight sanding, but too many layers. Luckily I figured this out before I inhaled more than a couple pounds of leaded paint. Kidding, but not too much so. Anyway, the best method I found, and I think others may agree, is the chemical stripper. I actually used this first, did the heat gun and straight sanding only after I thought chemical stripping was too slow. Slow it may be, but chemical strippers work.

So, what's your technique? I put on a generous slobber of the most potent zipstrip (or equal) I can find. then putty knife. repeat 4 or 5 times. Then I switch to steel wool for another 4 or 5 strips. then I power sand flat areas with a ROS and then hand sand. for trim I use dowels and etc. to wrap the sandpaper around in order to mimic the contours of the trim. I also use a dremel for hard to reach creases, etc. The dremel actuall works well for certain areas, for example, where a "top" piece of trim caps a base board.

To speed things up, I tried putting saran wrap over the zipstrip while you wait. The idea was the zipstrip wouldn't evaporate so quickly. I think this helped, but not enough for the trouble. Anyone have better ideas?

I did hire one "professional" to do a room I needed quickly. He did about the same as I have done. He thought he could do quicker, even after I told him I had stripped myself and knew there to be about 7 coats. He was wrong! However , he did use a stripper I hadn't seen before and it seemed to be one application quicker. It was "antique paint" stipper, but he wouldn't tell me where to get it. (btw, I have had no luck with citrus strippers). In any event, he used an angle grinder (!) to finish the stripping. it worked, but left marks in the wood which I had to then sand down to get rid of.

so, please share your success stories.

curt j.

[Nick Keenan]

I have used chemical strippers, the toxic kind. It's slow work, but if you do small areas and let the chemical work you can get good results. I've tried the soybean-based non-toxic stripper and it was pretty worthless. Also, our old house had painted hardwood floors and a floor sander dealt with that in no time.

Two things to keep in mind: First, there is a good chance that the paint you are stripping is lead-based, so read up on the dangers of lead, especially if you have kids. Second, keep in mind that there is a strong likelihood that the wood was painted for a reason; specifically, that it's ugly. It is true that tastes have changed over the past century or so, but I would be wary of stripping anything that was painted less than 75 years ago.

That said, in our old house (1873 vintage) there was wainscotting in the front hall with seven coats of paint -- including purple, orange, and battleship gray. Underneath was alternating strips of walnut and oak. It took a lot of work with the chemical stripper, but it came out quite nice.

A true story:
Before we were married, my wife bought a house. The couple she bought
it from had moved in when they got married, but after a few months had filed for divorce and put the house on the market. When my wife moved in, there were unopened wedding presents still in the basement. In the master bedroom, they had stripped the paint off of one of the windows, and were half way through the second when they called it quits and got divorced. My wife was convinced that there was a direct relationship between the paint-stripping and the divorce. (She then proceeded to paint both windows).

[Mort]

First the problem
Each of the rooms have at least 100 lineal feet of molding - ignoring the window trim and crown molding - ranging in width from 3" to 9" not counding the 12" base boards. All of this had apparently been faux finished to look like mahogany. Paint used in the house over the years is milk, lots of coats of lead and latex. We can't determine when the first coat of white went on but are sure that it was a very long time ago. Anybody ever seen alligatored latex paint? We have it. The alligator effect is caused by painting latex when it is too cold. The stairway is mahogany and was shellacked - that shellac has created tiny balls of shellac and dirt that give the surfaces a used up 40 grit sand paper feel. Fortunately this is the easiest to restore. Rub with pads soaked in denatured alcohol - the solvent for shellac, one gets the dirt and the top layers of shellac and one can quit there or refresh the shellac.
I will start with what didn't/doesn't work for us.
Non toxic paint removers, citris and the like don't remove paint. Tried Peel Away,it doesn't and is very expensive and raises the grain regardless the claims, requires water clean up as all of the strippers do. We have tried every stripper on the market and have heard about the Antique Stripper but have not found a source either. Have also tried the saran wrap trick. It really helps outside and is worth the hassle to keep the stripper wet and active. We bought a Fein Multimaster [$140] with the contour sanding attachment[$65]. Short story is the Multimaster won't sand paint it melts the paint into the detail sanding pad in seconds, pads are 50 cents each. The contour kit slings the rubber contour pads 20 feet, right after the sand paper tears - 3 feet of molding sanded. Takes 5 minutes for the rubber to cool off to pick the thing up.
What we are using that works is a heatgun - odd that the low setting on the gun is just under the temp that vaporizes lead but won't remove the paint - various scrapers and hand contour sanders all from Lee Valley part numbers are molding scraper 64K12.01; Pocket scraper 97K52.10; Contour sanders 68K82.10 plus dental picks and lots of 40/80/120 grit sand paper as well as paint stripper. Electric sanders Palm, mouse, ROS, 1/3 sheet, right angle grinder with 40 grit outside. Dust collection on all tools. Really top drawer dust and fume masks and full face shields. 3M makes a sanding wheel of really coarse material like the green scrubby except the material is black. The material is mounted on a 1/4" mandrel about 5" in diameter and either 1/2" or 1" thick, chuck this up in a corded drill and it will remove the first 3 to 5 layers of paint in a flash. I suggest blocking off the room and wear a full face sheild if you do this as the paint chips and dust go everwhere. These wheels work a treat on painted exterior shingles and clapboard siding.
We have picked up a trick or two on the path
To determine the type of finish we are dealing with
Denatured Alcohol will soften, remove or clean shellac
Mineral spirits will soften varnish
Rubbing alcohol will r e m o v e latex paint. That is correct drug store rubbing alcohol will remove latex paint!!!!!!
Rubbing alcohol will clean oil based paint.
Buy the stripper that weighs the most per gallon - the active ingredant causes the weight increase.
I scrounged a 36" x 96" 16 panel solid wood entry door in 2003. It had been painted. I counted 12 coats. I left the door outside last winter. This past spring all of the paint flaked off without warping the door. 3 more doors are getting the same treatment this winter. Painless, yes, time consuming, yes but it worked. BTW All of the doors interior/exterior in our house are eastern white cedar. Our real stripping challenge is two very involved mantels.

[Mort]

Opps, forgot Greased Lighting will disolve/reliquify milk paint.

[Mort]

The real stripping challenge is two of these.

[Pappy]

quote:Originally posted by Mort

The real stripping challenge is two of these.

If the mantles can be removed in 1 or 2 pieces, I would look for a refinisher/restorer that can put them in a stripping bath for you.

I saw some Antique Stripper in Hot Springs, Arkansas several years ago. Sally Rand was doing her famous fan and bubble dances, with a lot of comedy, when she was in her 70's. If she's still around and available for private shows, that might scare the paint off the trim.

[Ken Weaver]

When we did our 1920's house in Dayton we found that the secret to using a heat gun was the first coat on the molding. Where there was varnish the heat gun worked great. Where the first coat was a paint, it didn't work nearly as well. The gun would bubble the varnish lifting off subsequent coats faily easily. No such luck with a paint base. We had similar experience with strippers, all over the map with none of them really easy to use and with mixed results.

[jAngiel]

I used a heat gun with some success but there wasn't seven layers on the baseboard that I stripped. We also used some chemical stripper that had a paper or fabric layer that you put on right after you paint on the stripper, wait a while and then use the paper/fabric to peel off the layers of paint. I forgot the name but it actually worked really well. It removed multiple layers at once and the mess was contained fairly easily. It wasn't cheap but as far as chemical strippers it was the best one that I have ever tried.

It was called Peel Away and I think they said it was available at HD now.

[Tundra_Man]

About 20 years ago, my father used a heat gun to strip all the paint off the siding of his house. We then discovered that there was lead-based paint in some of the bottom layers.

Unfortunately, we also discovered (the hard way) that breathing the fumes from lead based paint can make one extremely ill. My dad fought the effects of lead poisoning for nearly three years afterwards, and lost nearly 40 pounds in the process (which he didn't need to lose). He was one sick individual, but thankfully survived the ordeal.

If you suspect lead paint, don't even consider burning it off; keep your heat gun far away! You don't want to mess with breathing this stuff. A dust mask offers no protection from the fumes. Lead based paint is nasty; this is one of those things I'm glad they outlawed.

As much as a PITA it might be, if you want to salvage the wood I'd say go with a chemical stripper.

[GarageGuy]

I hope this isn't a dumb suggestion, but if you're stripping a baseboard or other symetrical piece of trim, could you just remove piece from the wall, trim the top edge and reinstall the piece with the unpainted backside facing out?

[430752]

garageguy-

not sure exactly what you mean, but no - or at least not in my case. First, my trim, or at least the top "cap" piece is faced only one way. cannot take it off and reverse since no wood left to match the contout and also since its a special design for which I can find no matching router bit.

More problematic, however, is that with 70 year old wood, it cracks and splinters easily when trying to get it off. The many nails embedded in this stuff over the years are hard to find and harder to get out or to pry over them. not to mention all the paint which has kind of acted like a glue at the edges. It can be removed, but I found it much easier to leave it in place in the few attempts I tried to remove for ease of access.

curt j.