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Best way to strip old wood work

14K views 85 replies 30 participants last post by  dan-o 
#1 · (Edited)
We have a big job comming that needs a lot of work to strip paint from old trim, stairway railling and doors (interior). I want to find out the best way to accomplish this. We will paint the entire house, but the stripping is T&M.
Thank you in advance,
Nick

 
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#3 ·
Dunbar Painting said:
Once stripped what will you do? Stain the wood work???

What if it is crap under the paint? (the reason it was painted in the first place)
We will put a clear and stain only if needed. I'm pretty sure It's not crap under it. We will do some test before stripping everything.
 
#5 ·
If the woodwork was clear coated in some way(shellac/varnish/polyurethane) prior to being painted you've got a "shot" at stripping and clear coating, but if the woodwork was primed and painted initially forget it. I doubt you will live long enough to get all the paint out of the pores/grain/detail of the wood sufficient enough to apply a clear coat or even a stain and clear coat and call it done.
I would make multiple samples for test purposes. Unless you know the paint history of the house extremely well, it's possible that what you find in one place will not be the same in another.
 
#14 ·
It would be cheaper for them if they ripped out the trim and replaced it, it would look better too!
Maybe they would let you do it off-site? It would be way easier
Then you wouldn't have to worry about messing up the walls and house and leaving patches of hair that you've ripped out in frustration lying around.
Granted they'd have to make sure they don't fall off the stairs with the spindles missing there goes some hair right there
 
#15 ·
So you do a couple of strategically located strips to gain material knowledge, and labor requirements. A controlled test will reveal if the homeowner would like you to continue, repaint it, or follow another option.

There's too many unknowns and areas to cover on this one, IMO, to plow head first without some preliminary tests.
 
#16 ·
ptbopainter said:
It would be cheaper for them if they ripped out the trim and replaced it, it would look better too!
Maybe they would let you do it off-site? It would be way easier
Then you wouldn't have to worry about messing up the walls and house and leaving patches of hair that you've ripped out in frustration lying around.
Granted they'd have to make sure they don't fall off the stairs with the spindles missing there goes some hair right there
Doors will probably done offsite
 
#18 ·
We have done a similar job about 10 years ago in Van. We used a variety of tools depending upon the profile of the substrate...chemical stripper, heat guns, infrared paint strippers, etc. We found that it took about 50% of our time to remove 95% of the paint, and another 50% to remove the paint from detailed areas (with dentist picks etc). I agree w CA...do some tests first so that you know, and the client knows...just what you will be getting in to. Good Luck!
 
#23 ·
You must know some really fast faux painters. All the ones I know show up at 9 leave at 2 and take an hour and a half lunch.it would take me 3 weeks at least to wood grain what is in the pictures,and I am fast.





Seriously, I'm surprised nobody mentioned Citristrip. It works really well if you let it sit as directed. You just have to make sure you rinse it well with mineral spirits.
 
#22 ·
If there are lots of layers of paint over some sort of clearcoat, it's worth a shot. We've done a fair bit of these, one of which was a whole-house remodel that involved removing most of the trim, stripping it "loose", and finishing it in place once it was re-installed. With a heavy buildup of paint, we found that heat was the way start: heat plates and heat guns. The heat plates are tough to find these days, so I'd look at the infrared strippers. With thick coats of paint, we can remove 95%+ of the paint, and only use the strippers on the clearcoat. That means a lot less work with dental picks when using the strippers. For the one-site work, we tend to use 3M's Safest Stripper. It's slow, but we cover it with plastic sheeting and give it time to work. The upside it that there are virtually no fumes and we can use light-weight nitrile gloves for protection.

Good luck, this could be an amazing project. Nice to know that stripping work can be done T & M. We got beat up pretty badly on the whole-house project that I mentioned above, but I think that was mostly on the 250+ turned spindles on the 6 porches. We would have been ahead of the game on that part to have new spindles turned.
 
#32 · (Edited)
Show me some love Gough! My keen powers of observation and guestimation got lucky. Unless they made lead based stain. Lol.

Forgive me for being captain obvious, but even if you strip the clear coat you are going to have a limed out wood base. All that stripping just to tone it out?

The wood is going to be sealed. I don't have tons of experience with anilines, but how does coverage work on sealed pores, especialy in detailed areas?
 
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