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Dip n Quick-Strip

Contact Details

Tel: Leeds: 01132 560797
or
Mobile: 07966 351 542

Advice on Paint and Varnish Stripping

Stripping Paint
For many people, this is a horrible job; and for the rest, they avoid it.
But it is a useful step in renovating doors and other woodwork. Too many layers of old paint obscure the detail in mouldings, and cracks in paint allow moisture to penetrate and cause hidden damage.

Warnings
Lead Paint
Beware of lead paint. Whereas the removal of paint containing lead should not normally affect adults, it does pose a risk to children. Lead is absorbed through the skin or by ingestion. Take these precautions.

Windows
Take care with hot air methods close to glass; even an electric hot air gun can crack glass.

Note that chemical strippers soften putty; this can be useful if you want to remove the glass, but be warned.

Methods for Stripping Paint
There are two methods of stripping paint - chemical and heat. Chemical paint stripper is effective, particularly for complex mouldings, but dangerous and messy. Hot air tools, either the modern hair-dryer type or the traditional blow-lamp, leave you with a pile of dry strips and pieces of paint, but they will crack adjacent glass, can burn the wood and are harder to use on fine detail.

Chemical strippers are usually solvent or alkali-based. Wood and plaster are best stripped with a solvent-based stripper, wire wool and stiff brushes. Alkali-based strippers can blacken hardwoods but work well on metal and stone.

Types of Paint
Emulsion Paint on Brick
Modern emulsion paints come off brick very well using a hot air gun and a paint scraper. Heat up a small area at a time and scrape. The paint does not bubble or burn, instead it softens. Once you have lifted a small area, you can get your scraper in and the paint comes off right down to the bottom layer in one go.

Gloss Paint on Indoor Walls
Try either a hot air gun or else a caustic poultice stripper, applied and covered with polythene. For suppliers, please search on 'stripper' in the Directory.

After a couple of days, a scraper will take off the stripper in a stiff, gungy layer. You then need to wash the residue off. If you put plenty of polythene down you should be able to catch most of the water.

Gloss Paint on Wood
A poultice stripper can be a very satisying method, but one application still tends to miss areas of paint. Follow it up with a liquid stripper or else a hot air gun.

Paint on Exterior Walls
If you want to remove paint from stone or brick, you are most likely to have success with a chemical stripper.

If the 'paint' is a multi-layer coating, perhaps with a texture, you are recommended to employ an expert company. They will try different chemicals to find the best one, and have the hot water washer to clean off the paint and stripper residue which is unpleasant to handle. We have pictures from a typical project.

If you have a small area of ordinary exterior paint, try a stripper from a DIY store.

See the section in Exterior Walls.

Paint on Tiles
Chemical strippers are usually the best approach. Unless the glaze is crazed, these should not penetrate the tile. Try a solution of Sodium Hydroxide (oven cleaner) or, as a more gentle alternative, a boiling solution of washing soda.

If the paint layer is thin, try 00 or 0 grade wire wool. Be as gentle as possible and test it on a very small area first.

Paint on Windows
To remove the paint on frames, don't flood the window with stripper as it will soften the putty. Use a little at a time on a cloth or paint brush and wash it off as soon as it has softened the paint. Be extra careful if the glass is painted ('stained') rather than self-coloured; if it is, keep the stripper away.
Below is some information based on our experience to help you decide if your pieces would benefit from our dipping process.


It works out economical to have paint stripped in this manner opposed to other methods such as gels, burning or physically scrapping off.


Once stripped of paint a piece of furniture will be completely transformed back to its original state and will take on a new identity, a new lease of life as though brand new. It is re-cycling at it?s very best.


What can be Dip stripped?


Pine - This strips well. Examples of commonly stripped items are doors, cupboards, chairs, chest of drawers, skirting boards, architraves, window frames and floorboards.


Oak - This strips readily, but tends to go dark, as if the piece was stained in dark oak when made. Oak may sometimes split when drying out.


Mahogany & Walnut - Again, these woods tend to darken up, and have similar characteristics to oak.


Satinwood - Commonly used for bedroom furniture, it strips readily and has a greyish tinge, sometimes exposing dark graining. It polishes up brilliantly and looks good with pine.


Furniture that was popular in the 1930/50?s contains a lot of thin plywood and, or, veneer. This is difficult to strip and may warp.


"What can't be Stripped?"


Mirrors - The reflective silver on the back also strips off and leaves you with a sheet of glass.


Relief mouldings - If made from plaster, alabaster or resin they will disintegrate.


Chipboard, hardboard and some plywood?s. These materials absorb water and will fall to pieces.


Veneered surfaces - The veneer has a tendency to lift off.

Problematic for Stripping


Polyuthane varnish, or paint, and spray-lacquered pieces may not strip satisfactorily or even at all. It is useful to let us test a small section first for example a drawer.


Modern doors, skirting etc (modern to us, is within the last twenty years). These doors may have been undercoated with a water based or acrylic paint onto bare wood. The topcoats of gloss paint will strip off but the undercoat will remain. Again it is useful to let us test a small section.


Some Useful Information


If you require the door furniture to be stripped e.g. hinges, locks and handles, leave them on! Iron, steel, copper and brass come up a treat. Alloy metals will not shine up although any rust will be removed.


Glass in doors is not a problem. It is possible in older furniture where the putty is brittle and loose that you may have to re-putty in places after stripping.

Rarely glass does crack with the expansion of the wood. With this in mind glass must be at your own risk.


Earlier furniture makers used animal by-product glue. This is not a waterproof, and it is likely that you may have to carry out some small repairs such as drawer joints.


Woodworm and other infestations will be killed off in the process, and are unlikely to return. However pieces that have been heavily infected with woodworm in the past will take longer to dry-out as the boreholes act like a sponge adsorbing more liquid.

Please feel free to ring for further information
Tel: Leeds: 01132 560797
or
Mobile: 07966 351 542