paint stripping

trailingspouse

OK, I give up.

I have an Art Nouveau fireplace, original to my house. It's cast iron, and has been painted, and painted and painted again.

I want to bring it back to it's original glory, and had this crazy idea that I could strip the paint off.

Well, a full 750ml tin of green Nitromors later, and all I've managed is the mantelpiece - and even that isn't anywhere near finished. That was yesterday. I went and bought the yellow 'Craftsman' Nitromors yesterday evening, and have tried it this morning.

It's better than the green stuff, but still not doing much. The paint hardly blisters at all, it just goes everso slightly softer and needs a lot of effort to scrape off.

I used the green Nitromors years ago, and the paint came away like treacle. I know they had to take something out to comply with EU regulations back in 2010.

There MUST be something out there that works better!! I mean, something that actually works!!

Any suggestions?

I wondered about using a hot air stripper, but I seem to remember reading that there's a danger of the metal underneath cracking. What about a steam stripper on the small attachment?

Anything!! Help!!

robatwork

I used Kling Strip after advice in here and elsewhere a good while ago. This was on a wooden staircase however, but the consensus was that it was more effective than nitromors.

http://www.stripperspaintremovers.co.uk/

It worked very well for me.

DaftyDuck

If you want to make a real mess, but get more paint off for the same quantity of Nitromors, paint the Nm on, then pat a length of soft loo roll on top, then lightly mist spray with water with a plant spray (or any reused spray gun like windowlene etc.). Only a tiny amount of water, mind, to keep the humidity up.

Then, every five minutes for an hour, poke about with a soft paintbrush. Add another light water spray if needed. After an hour, clean off.

I did this on a couple of heavily-painted 1840's fireplaces. Worked really well, especially in the fine detail. The loo roll certainly helps keep the nitromors working underneath, but does double the mess.

I've never found a heat gun on metal effective. I think it transfers the heat away too easily. Might just be me though...

trailingspouse

Very many thanks. I like the loo roll idea - I now realise that keeping it moist is the key. I naively followed the instructions, which said to put it on, leave for 10 minutes, put on a second coat and leave for 'up to 40 minutes'. I'd been leaving it for the full 40 minutes, thinking that would give it more time to work - but in fact as I have the windows open and it's a warm day, it's drying out too quickly.

Today OH attacked the bit I'd done with a wire-brush attachment on an electric drill, and it's come up lovely. I've moved on to another part of the fireplace with the yellow Nitromors, but I'm starting to scrape after about 10 minutes (while it's still damp), rather than waiting the full 40, and it's working a bit better.

I don't mind it taking a while so long as I know it'll work eventually!!

I will be devoting tomorrow to it, and hope that it will be pretty much finished by tomorrow night.

BlueC

I have experimented far more than I would have liked with paint strippers because as you have found out the stuff you can buy in the shops is useless these days.

The best options I have found are Kling Strip or Peel Away 1. These are both VERY similar products, but Kling Strip is about 1/8 of the price so it's obvious which one to buy.

If you don't like the caustic nature of the above two, then the next best is Peel Away 7 which is pretty harmless stuff but it is very expensive and nowhere near as effective on the type of surface you are using it on. It can be better on other surfaces.

If you use Kling Strip, I would advise that if you can do so then remove the fireplace and take it outside. Smother it in about 3-5mm of Kling Strip, then cover with the plastic that they also sell. Leave it for 2-3 days. Then remove the plastic and blast off the kling strip using a pressure washer. It will come up like new. It is amazing. If there is any paint left, then just re-apply and do the process again.

If you can't take it outside then the whole process can be done inside, but instead of using a pressure washer you'll have to remove the stuff by hand which is pretty messy.

Wear appropriate gloves, goggles, etc. It is not stuff you want on your skin or in your eyes.

Hope this helps.

Edit: just to add, making your own stripper using caustic soda and wallpaper paste is also effective, and very cheap. But it will take your skin off if you're not careful.

robatwork

Just to add, when i used the Kling Strip I put it on thickly in the evening, covered in cling film so it stayed damp, and left overnight at least.

Very satisfying peeling it away the next day!

trailingspouse

I was up at 6 this morning - and I think I can confidently sat that watching paint strip isn't nearly as exciting as watching paint dry... I've used up all my yellow Nitromors, and still have about 1/2 the fireplace still to do.

Caustic soda and wallpaper paste sounds intriguing - my OH is a chemist by training, and he'd already suggested caustic soda to me. I'd chickened out of using it, but mixing with the paste should make it easier to control.

We're not able to remove the fireplace, but it certainly sounds like it would be easier if we could!

Part of the problem is the sheer number of layers of paint - working from the outside in, we have a grubby cream, then florescent pink (I kid you not), then white gloss, then a sort of dark magnolia, then silver. The magnolia layer really doesn't want to shift.

We're off to B&Q to buy some more attachments for the drill so that we can get into all the awkward bits and finish them off.

Many thanks for all the suggestions.