Intergalactic_Captain
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DIY latex paint stripper ideas?
Long story short, I've moved to a new appartment - Locks have been replaced, now I'm working on painting. This wouldn't be a big deal, except that
all the holes the previous tenant made were patched with plaster and left unsanded... So I'm fixing what shouldn't need to be done in the first place
- Told the landlord flatout that I would be doing a lot of work and arranged putting it towards rent...
So as I'm going over everything with a fine-toothed comb, the realization that this is a 19th century home starts to sink in... A lot of the interior
molding and trim is original, albeit hidden behind two centuries of slap-patch painting between tenants... Last plast I lived was the same, and all
the refinishing was done with pure elbow grease - along with a cocktail of acetone and isopropanol, which didn't really do all that much - by the time
it soaked in, I realized it was easier to just use a scraper on the unsoftened paint and backfill any gouges...
What I want to do here is different - I'd like to strip the old paint (figure a dozen plus layers) off of the doors, doorframes, and window casements.
Then stain the woodwork to a nice, period, deep and charactered cherry/mahogony... Cheaply.... Therein lies the problem.... Yeah, KS3 is magic in
a bottle - but what I have is set aside for other purposes... Citristrip works, but its expensive as fuck...
So, anyone have any ideas? Just the living room is going to be around 100 hours of work, multiply that by 3 for the rest of the place... I know that
a heatgun will lift a few layers, and that lye will degrade latex... And I've accidentally discovered that hippie-style orange and lavender based
detergents will get through the most modern layers...
...With the goal of getting down to bare wood, without the use of DCM based strippers, does anyone have any practical suggestions? I don't need
anything instantaneous or non-toxic, just something that will work for what I want to do...
If you see me running, try to keep up.
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watson.fawkes
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Quote: Originally posted by Intergalactic_Captain  | Then stain the woodwork to a nice, period, deep and charactered cherry/mahogony... Cheaply....
[...]
With the goal of getting down to bare wood, without the use of DCM based strippers, does anyone have any practical suggestions? I don't need anything
instantaneous or non-toxic, just something that will work for what I want to do... |
Having done a bit of this
kind of project, I can assure you that there's no way of doing it cheaply, even if you had an adequate source of retail DCM stripper. The problem is
that to get the underlying wood to stainable condition takes a whole lot of effort and a whole lot of chemicals. Stainable condition means not
mechanically or thermally damaging the wood surface, and that's the hard part.
The gentlest way I've heard of was to remove the molding entirely and leave it in a dip tank until everything soaks off. But you need a dip tank of
the right dimensions, that is, at least as long as the molding, and you need adequate chemical to fill it. You've also got to get the molding off
without having the finish nails wreaking havoc.
Another approach is to remill the molding with an old-style molding plane. You might have to grind your own profile cutter for one, though.
If you're eliminating non-toxic, you probably need a dip tank if you intend for anybody to live in the place afterwards. You really don't want to be
around a year or two or more of solvent vapors seeping out of the walls. With this disclaimer, chloroform might make a decent substitute for DCM, and
it's more amenable to amateur synthesis.
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zed
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Acetone with no isopropyl. Maybe you can make an Acetone Based paste.
Also, old timers sometimes used lye as a paint-stripper. The other standard, is a heat gun and a scraper/puttyknife. Followed by hand sanding.
Otherwise, if your undercoating-paint adhesion is poor.....You might be able to use something like superglue or contact cement, in conjunction with a
backing. Glue fabric to your old paint, via a tough adhesive. Then, just "pull" the old paint off.
[Edited on 24-7-2013 by zed]
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Intergalactic_Captain
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So after thinking about what watson said and really looking over it all, I think I'm going to throw in the towel and forget the whole stripping idea.
Sticking with my plan of going one room at a time, after sanding/filling/sanding and repainting the living room, I can see the contrast and character
in the old trim - and against a new unspoiled backdrop I can see all the paint chips, screw holes, dents dings and dog bites/scratches in it...
And the beautiful, original, 200 year old hardwood floors - That's the true motivation here - the walls and trim are crap, but repainting from
"antique white" aka nicotine-stain yellow to a pure semigloss white really brought out the contrast - Old-school would be flat white, but to modern
eyes it would just look like drywall primer... So the idea of at least a wood-toned look might just work;
http://fabulousfinishes.wordpress.com/2009/08/28/transformin...
http://www.ourvictorianhouse.com/Door%20Restoration.htm
If I can make it work, the technique in the first link would be perfect - A bit one-dimensional, but not distinguishable from the real thing without
closer inspection, while that in the second look is a bit more realistic, but obviously externally textured and to a knowing eye glaringly fake...
...If this were a home I owned, I would definitely take the time and make it a labor of love - But in all odds, whenever I move out, it'll be painted
the customary new-rental white... However, as long as I'm here and fixing all the problems left by the previous tenants, I might as well make it look
good too... Thanks for the tips, and zed, I really do need an excuse to get a new heat gun - my last one exploded in a fireball of cheap chinese
craftsmanship  ...
If you see me running, try to keep up.
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watson.fawkes
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I have a variable temperature Steinel heat gun that I absolute adore. Variable heat output makes a heat gun far more useful than
otherwise, because you can tune the heat to the application. Otherwise it's frequently too hot or too cold. Particularly for remodeling, where you
don't want to burn the wood, but want to work quickly, they're invaluable.
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ElectroWin
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application of trisodium phosphate is the traditional prep before painting; i dont think it strips the paint, though it does roughen the surface to
help the primer bind.
coincidentally, this morning i wanted to remove the remaining dried white latex paint from an empty paint can that is on its way to become a piece of
thermal insulation (concentric steel cans, separated by air gap), and i tried treating it with NaOH solution, which i think softened it a little (some
of the cracks seemed to heal). but it did not dissolve the paint.
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