How To Clean Old Paint Off Wood Trim

Everyone knows that the simplest way to rejuvenate a tired surface is to put on a fresh coat of paint. Eventually, nevertheless, all new paint becomes old pigment. Whether it cracks and blisters or only forms a lumpy blanket of pigments and binders, it begs to come off. The ideal manner to starting time over is to strip furniture of the old stuff and begin with a infant-smooth, bare wood surface.

What is the all-time way to remove paint from forest?

Three mutual means to strip paint from wood are heating, chemical stripping, or sanding. At that place are a handful of different products to choose from for each of these methods. To help y'all make up one's mind what arroyo to have, we've laid out options below. And, we've shared stride past stride instructions to guide you through each stage of the process.

Steps on How to Remove Paint From Woods

1. Find Out If the Wood Is Worth Exposing

Scrape paint to see if wood is worth exposing.

"If y'all're hoping to expose woodwork and terminate it with a clear coat instead of pigment, y'all demand to determine whether it was originally varnished or painted," says painting contractor and TOH contributor Rich O'Neil.

He recommends finding a hidden spot, such every bit inside a drawer or closet, and using a scraper to shave a examination patch through the various paint layers. If the bottom layer is paint, it's a adept sign that the forest is unworthy of stain. "If it'southward worth exposing, it was originally varnished," O'Neil says.

2. Decide if Whether to DIY or Bring in a Professional

Person Stripping Paint Off Of Wood Furniture

Information technology's always better to determine beforehand that a job is too large, complicated, or dangerous to tackle yourself. In that case, you accept a couple of options.

Send it out

If the pieces you lot want to strip are easily removable (such as doors, windows, or furniture) and feature intricate detailing (like mantel-pieces or stair parts), consider sending them out to a professional with a dip tank; pros apply these special vats to soak entire pieces in liquid paint removers for faster, more thorough results.

Rent in

If you have a house's worth of trim or siding that must exist stripped bare quickly, or if you have lead-laden paint and can't remove it safely, bring in a qualified pro to do it on-site. Visit the EPA's website for certified atomic number 82-removal experts.

3. Select The Right Tools and Approach for the Projection

Heaters

Heaters use loftier temperatures to soften varnishes or multiple layers of paint and so that the gunk tin can hands be removed with a scraper. They minimize grit and can lift years of paint.

Downsides: Fumes and the gamble of charred woods.

Chemical Strippers

Chemical strippers are liquids, gels, or pastes that dissolve paint. No grit. No paint chips. They're ideal for fine details, awkward shapes, and hitting spots y'all may accept missed with a heat gun.

Cons: They tin can be messy, evil-smelling, and wearisome.

Sanders

Sanders, including power sanding disks and clapboard sanders, grind away pigment. They're great for large, flat outside surfaces only, unless hooked up to a vacuum to capture dust, ill-advised for indoor work and annihilation with pb-based paint.

4. Weigh Your Paint Stripping Production Options

Keep in mind safety, ease of use, and price when making your decision.

3 Tools to Melt Away Paint

i. Heat Guns

Using heat gun and scraper to help melt paint.

Heat is a tried-and-truthful method for softening thick layers of paint on flat surfaces or in tight spaces. The play tricks is to find the correct temperature; likewise low and the task takes forever, too high and you could create harmful vapors, char the wood—or even gear up the business firm on burn down.

Heat guns look like high-powered pilus dryers and nail hot, concentrated air through a nozzle to loosen pigment. Most models take loftier and low settings, simply burns and fires can result fifty-fifty on the everyman setting if you allow the gun rest in one place for too long.

2. Infrared Devices

Infrared Device Used To Strip Away Paint.

Infrared devices apply infrared rays to oestrus upwardly and loosen the bond between paint and its substrate without generating noise or dust. They piece of work quickly; a thirty-second smash can soften decades of paint.

They also proceed pigment temperatures below 500°F, well under the point at which wood ignites. The heat draws moisture from the wood, improving its ability to hold new paint. Merely these tools are bulky (see instance, above) and difficult to use in tight spaces.

3. Steam Strippers

Steam strippers use water vapor to soften paint without heating information technology above 212 degrees F, eliminating fire risks. And the condensation minimizes dust and fumes. On the downside, the process can generate a lot of wet and saturate wood.

Tip: The Best Technique for Handling Estrus

Heat stripping is like a tango between the hand holding the heater and the one with the scraper. Hover the device over the surface. When the paint bubbling, slowly move the heater along and try to develop a rhythm and so that yous're scraping and heating in unison. Keep a metal paint tray handy for when yous accept a suspension and need to set up the device down.

3 Safer Options for Removing Paint With Gels and Pastes

If you're going to use a chemical stripper, know that anything that eats paint is unsafe and that doing the task without methylene chloride (encounter in a higher place) volition be safer but slower. These wood stripping products comprise less toxic, less noxious ingredients and remove both latex and oil paints.

one. SmartStrip

SmartStrip: A paste with a frosting-like consistency that can be brushed, rolled, or sprayed on. Clings well to vertical surfaces.

Agile ingredient: Benzyl alcohol

Force: One coat removes upwardly to fifteen layers of pigment.

Dwell fourth dimension: iii to 24 hours

Removal: Scrape off the pigment, scrub off the residuum with a wet nylon brush, and rinse with water.

Cost: virtually $65 per gallon

2. Skin Away

Skin Away1: This paste works with a paper cover to control evaporation. Platonic for lead paint and masonry, only tin can stain piece of furniture woods.

Active ingredient: Lye

Strength: Up to 30 layers of paint can come off as hands as stripping sheets off a bed.

Dwell time: 12 to 24 hours

Removal: Skin off the paper and scrub the surface with a moisture brush; allow dry thoroughly, then apply a neutralizing solution.

Toll: about $45 per 1¼ gallons

three. Citristrip

Citristrip: This wood stripper is an orange gel, all-time on furniture details and apartment surfaces since information technology is thin.

Active ingredient: North-Methyl-ii-pyrrolidone (NMP)

Strength: A ⅛-inch coat removes up to vii layers of paint.

Dwell time: 30 minutes to 24 hours

Removal: Scrape off the paint with a plastic scraper, and utilise an abrasive pad and mineral spirits to remove any lingering residue.

Price: almost $20 per half gallon

Tip: DCM is The Paint Solvent All-time Left Alone

Years ago, if you lot needed a fast-interim chemical paint stripper, you chose a production that contained a seriously noxious chemical called methylene chloride (also chosen dichloromethane, or DCM), cranked up the fan, and got the chore done quickly. By and large speaking, the faster a chemical eats through paint and finish, the more toxic it is, and DCM is fast—paint starts to bubble in minutes.

Merely this pigment stripper is also dangerous. Prolonged exposure to DCM, through the lungs or pare, has been linked to liver impairment, cancer, and even expiry. The vapors tin overwhelm air-purifying respirators, and just a few whiffs tin can go out y'all wheezing and featherbrained.

Europe banned it for residential use in 2010. While DCM-containing paint strippers are all the same widely sold in the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has tied the ingredient to 13 deaths in 10 states. Our advice: Check your labels and steer clear.

Paint Scrapers 101

Hand using paint scraper to remove paint.

No paint-stripping endeavor is consummate without an arsenal of scrapers to usher abroad softened paint.

A five-in-ane paint scraper—besides known as the "painter's tool" because the curved edge can be used to clean a paint roller—is the become-to tool for removing virtually types of pigment.
Metal pull scrapers come up with replaceable blade profiles to match the surface y'all demand to strip, offering more control than push scrapers in tight spots or on fine details.
When your pigment scraping results start to expect sloppy, rotate the head on the metal scraper until you run out of fresh edges. After that, replace or resharpen the blades.

Pro Advice on Paint Scrapers

Carbide blades hold an edge much longer than steel, merely resharpening requires a diamond stone and some skill.
Steel blades dull quickly simply tin can easily be resharpened with a mill file, a pocket stone, or even a piece of medium-grit sandpaper.
When using push scrapers, choose plastic over metallic, to avoid gouging; this is peculiarly of import with chemical strippers, which can soften wood.

3 Easy Ways to Examination Paint for Atomic number 82

Nearly ninety percent of homes built earlier 1940 take some paint laden with this toxic metal. Although its employ went into steep pass up after 1950, lead-based paint wasn't banned in the U.S. until 1978. Here's how to detect it.

DIY Exam: Use a utility knife to make a V-shaped cutting through all the layers of paint, then castor the groove with a LeadCheck swab. A bright red color indicates atomic number 82 is present.
Lab exam: Scrape a table-spoon of chips into a pocketbook and transport them to a lab for testing. It tin accept up to two weeks to become the results, but they're more reliable than a swab and typically cost less than $30 (prolabinc.com).
Call a pro: For a few hundred dollars, a licensed pb inspector will conduct an 10-ray fluorescence examination to identify the amount of lead present in all the painted surfaces in your home.

Become The Lead Out—Safely

Lead is nasty. Exposure tin raise your blood pressure, stress your nervous system, and damage your retentiveness, among other risks. It's particularly toxic to children, whose developing brains are more sensitive to its effects. If you want to remove lead-based paint yourself, in add-on to the dress and prep steps (side by side), follow these precautions:

Apply only rut or chemicals to avoid kick upwards lead-laced chips and dust
If y'all must sand, use equipment fitted with a shroud and a HEPA vacuum zipper.
Wet-sand stripped surfaces to minimize dust.
If working outdoors, cover the ground with 6-mil plastic, extending the sheeting 10 anxiety across the work expanse.
Place debris in contractor numberless; seal with duct record.
Observe more useful tips at www2.epa.gov/lead.

Ready to Strip Indoors in three Steps

Bucket of tools ready to strip paint indoors.

Skip canvas drop cloths in favor of half-dozen-mil plastic sheeting, which won't trap fine grit or let chemicals seep through. Extend the sheeting at least 6 feet beyond the work area and overlap and tape the edges. To help avoid slips and blot spills, cover the plastic with a layer of newspaper or contractor's newspaper.
Remove or comprehend items y'all do non program to strip. If using chemicals, mask hinges and other hardware you tin't remove with solvent-resistant painter's tape, like ScotchBlue. If working with estrus, protect adjacent surfaces with aluminum-foil record or a metallic pigment shield.
Use 6-mil plastic sheeting and duct tape to seal off the workspace from the remainder of the business firm.

Dust command:

If working indoors, comprehend air vents in your workspace to go along dust and debris from circulating throughout the firm.

How to Clothes When Stripping Pigment

Gear for handling fumes, paint chips, and caustic solvents

Put on clear wraparound rubber glasses to baby-sit against splashes, dust, and flying droppings.
Use a respirator with a chemical cartridge for indoor work with paint strippers.
Wear disposable coveralls or old pants and a long-sleeve shirt to protect your skin.
With chemical strippers, wear green nitrile or blackness butyl rubber gloves equally recommended on the manufacturer's MSDS. Opt for construction-grade gloves for scraping and heat stripping.
Wear disposable booties, and comprise dust and clay by taking them off whenever you leave the piece of work area.

Apply a respirator with a P100 particulate filter when sanding or dry out-scraping.

Tools for Item Stripping Piece of work

Teaspoon To Scrape Paint From Concave Staircase Moldings

Some simple tools can help you remove paint from wood rails and other intricate details.

Dental picks make information technology piece of cake to dig out the remaining specks of debris that hide in nooks and crannies.
Sanding cords work similar dental floss to remove remainder from crevices in turned columns and spindles.
Former credit cards or souvenir cards tin exist repurposed as custom scrapers by cutting them to friction match the surface y'all need to strip.
Teaspoons and tablespoons are handy for scraping paint from concave or convex moldings.

The Correct Way to Clean Upwards a Paint Stripping Job

Employ water to mist the debris on layers of paper and plastic drop cloths underfoot earlier carefully folding them, muddy side inward. Tape all edges shut or seal in heavy-duty trash bags for disposal.
Vacuum the entire work area with a vacuum equipped with a HEPA filter to pick up any grit and debris.
Wipe surfaces with a damp textile or sponge and a household detergent; empty the dirty rinse h2o into a container, never a sink, bathtub, or toilet. Check with your town nigh hazardous-waste collection programs.
Give the surfaces and any uncarpeted floors a final wipedown with a clean, damp cloth.

Source: https://www.thisoldhouse.com/woodworking/21018208/how-to-strip-paint-from-wood

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