Best way to strip paint?

[grumbas]

What's the preferred method of stripping gloss paint of the PH masses?

I'm in the middle of a house refurb and have decided to bin the old skirtings/architraves as they've got god knows how many layers of paint on them, but that leaves me with the problem of how to tackle the door linings.

I had a quick go at one with a blowtorch earlier and it lifted the old gloss quickly and easily, but the old primer seems to be well and truly soaked in.

Suggestions?

[Silver993tt]

Get the doors dipped.

[ukwill]

homebase sell some eco-friendly gel that works quite well. i was surprised...

[grumbas]

Getting new doors

Horrible 80's fake veneer things at the moment...

[OldSkoolRS]

Be careful if there is any danger that the paint is old enough to contain lead. Burning it off will give off nasty fumes (even if there isn't any lead). I stripped a staircase in a previous house and used Nitromors; it was messy and still took ages. When I put the gas hob on to cook some tea, the flame went green so I can only wonder what fumes that was giving off as well....make sure you open the windows when stripping.

[King Herald]

grumbas said:

What's the preferred method of stripping gloss paint of the PH masses?

I'm in the middle of a house refurb and have decided to bin the old skirtings/architraves as they've got god knows how many layers of paint on them, but that leaves me with the problem of how to tackle the door linings.

I had a quick go at one with a blowtorch earlier and it lifted the old gloss quickly and easily, but the old primer seems to be well and truly soaked in.

Suggestions?

What's a door lining? The frame?

Are you going to simply repaint, or varnish?

My dad did the whole strip-to-wood thing with doors and stairs at one of their old houses, then varnished it all up, but after a year of hard work he and my mum realised it was a bleddy mess because there were so many different colours/types of wood involved and it just looked an eyesore. They painted over it in the end.

If you're just going to paint I'd say you could leave the old primer on, just sand it smooth and seal it, as it sounds like it is on pretty solid.

[onomatopoeia]

Nitromors does the job, I've used it on some old windowsills and so on. Evil stuff though.

[Dr_Gonzo]

onomatopoeia said:

Nitromors does the job, I've used it on some old windowsills and so on. Evil stuff though.

Agreed. I tried the eco friendly stuff and it was useless.

[SwanJack]

We did this in our old house and found that there was no easy way. In the end we just used a hot air gun and a shavehook. The stripping gel only seemed to take off one layer of paint and there was about four with a bottom layer of 1920's brown varnish. It took for ages. We didn't varnish the bare wood but used wax/shelaque.

[blinkythefish]

http://www.decoratingdirect.co.uk/viewprod/p/PALPA...

Peel Away.

It's highly concentrated caustic soda in a paste. You smear it on, cover it in paper, go and relax for a day, come back and the paper, paste and paint will come off in sheets....

It does work really well(much better than nitromors) and will easily deal with lots of layers. However, some notes of caution:

1. Don't get it on your hand - goes through skin like a hot knife through butter.
2. Don't leave it on too long or it'll dry out, and thats a bugger to get off.
3. Wash the wood down thoroughly after removal (ideally remove with a pressure washer, but this is not practical indoors). Then wash down with the neutralizer(which is just vinegar)

Edited by blinkythefish on Tuesday 29th September 13:59