Paint Stripping Advice......... Please?

tracilla63

Hi All,

About to take possession of my dream house (hopefully)!
It is over a hundred years old and luckily has not been painted a hundred times.

I want to strip the paint off the doors/ surrounds and skirting.

I would like some advise on the best products to use, anything new and improved on the market?

I may have the doors professionally done ie - dipped but the rest I want to keep in place and strip in situ.

Many thanks

phill99

Don't want to put you off, but builders at that time used to use very poor quality timber for architraves, skirting and doors with the knowledge that they would be painted. You may find that, once you have stripped, that the timber is full of filler etc and not pleasing to the eye.

Over time it may be more pleasing to remove architraves, skirting etc and replace them with (period ) new ones. Then you can wax them, varnish, stain or whatever.

Also you may find that dipping the doors has an adverse impact on the timber. It dries the wood out and often results in the joints splitting. Soilid Pine doors are fairly inexpensive now, so again it may be more cost effective to replace.

However, if you want to strip, there are some good chemicals - Nitromors and cuprionol are the market leaders and both do non-caustic based prooducts which are much safer to use.

MinMoz

We are still in the process of stripping the paint off in our house - same sort of age as yours. 8 months on!

It has taken ages with the heat gun but is the most effective means that I have found - certainly helps build up the muscles in your arm!

Not sure that I would do it again though. Only recently found a local timber merchant that had exactly the same door surrounds so if I were to do it again I may have bought those and concentrated on making a good job the doors and window surrounds. Would probably have finished by now if I had.

Our wood is in good shape though so no regrets. As with you it is a great house we have so quite happy to spend the time on it - an extreme amount of patience is advised!!

lovethymini

I used nitromors and a heatgun to strip paint in my 30's flat - I preferred a heatgun as it was less messy (and strangely satisfying to see all that clean wood underneath). I lost the will to live after doing half the bathroom door with nitromors (such a sticky messy job). Not sure if you need to take precautions with potential lead based paint though. If you are eco-conscious, I have read that dipping doors isn't good for the environment as the councils have to dispose of the acid somehow...

Good luck, sounds like you've got a nice little project there

tracilla63

Hi all,

The wood used through is very good as it is a 'period property' with loads of features and lovely cornices and roses.

So no heat guns or sanding allowed in case lead based paint has been used.

Anyone used Peelaway or the eco Home Strip stuff?

Nitromors is not an option, cant stand the smell!!!

Or the burns..........

Curly

well 2 bad you only have 3 options

Heat Gun ( lots or electricity used)
Nitromors ( only lifts a couple of coats at a time so expensive)
Blow Torch.

that's it i would not think of sanding off 100 year old paint, tho if u take the wood off it would be good to plane.