We would like to strip off the paint on the wood trim inside our home and we purchased a Silent Paint Remover, which worked with somewhat mixed results. The major problem is, the previous owners have painted over the lead paint w/a latex paint (an UGLY dark turquoise - which is partly the impetus for our "project") and under the latex paint is old varnish or shellac (not sure which - probably shellac if we had to guess - the house is nearly 150 years old). Our other concern is since it's heating the different types of paint to different levels, we wind up scraping a lot of it after removing the lion's share and we're afraid we're causing a lot of lead particles to be released into the air and on surfaces, etc. (We have no children, but are thinking of trying to start a family sometime next year - yet another reason to remove the lead paint - and based upon that plan, we don't want to build up the lead levels in our bodies either.)
Anyway, we were looking on-line at the many chemical (and supposedly non-toxic) strippers - figuring it would at least encapsulate the lead paint more than scraping it dry. Has anyone tried any of the following?
Removall 310 Peel-Away Soy-Gel
Or anything else you could recommend? Again, this is our INTERIOR pine trim (and LOTS of it - the whole 3-story house in fact - windows and all!) - and we would like to get to the bare wood so we can stain it to match the staircase. I must say the Silent Paint Remover *does* get to the bare wood, but it also requires scraping off the shellac or varnish once it's cooled and doesn't get into the corners/edges very well, so those will have to be sanded if we continue w/this method - creating a LOT of lead dust. It seemed like an economical solution at the time - w/a one-time investment instead of a lot of chemicals that had to be purchased, but we're thinking it may not have been the wisest choice for our health.
Thank you in advance for your responses - any and all suggestions would be appreciated! Nicole