stripping paint from door frames

[bbcrock]

I bought Kleen Strip "sprayable" paint stripper, but found 6 layers of paint and varnish were just too much to do easily. I gave it 4 coats over about a 90 minute period with lots of scraping and I still don't have it clean down to the wood.

Are there any products recommented for horizontal door trim with paint made prior to 1958 (ie lead)? I've heard there's a sort of gel one can buy now.

As it was, I wore the gloves, mask, goggles, had fans running, etc.

The shame is the varnish/shellac was STUNNING in a sort of rich oxblood brown / cany apple sort of look. Can that be repeated with modern materials?

Did I just ask a two-part question?

Don

[Joseph Meehan]

There are all kinds of products around. I have heard of one that comes with a material like canvas with it. It is soaked and laid on the work where it is left to do it's job then removed. It may have had a moisture resistance backing to keep it from drying out as it did the job.

The real truth of the matter is that some jobs are just very difficult to do and take a lot of hand work.

[Old_Boat]

If you aren't in a hurry, there is a product called Redi-Strip that works very well, is water based, and does not smell at all. It is however, very slow. If it dries out, you can just spray water on it to reactivate it.

LJ

[Kyle Boatright]

Have you tried a heat gun? I've had good results using one of them to help soften the paint before scraping.

[Ken]

I second the heat gun approach, that's what I do to get most of the paint off, and then move on to the chemical stripper. One advantage is that it gets off almost all the paint in the first pass, even if there are a dozen layers of paint. A second advantage is that it tends to leave the film of varnish (if there is one there) on the wood that keeps from driving the paint into the wood, as what happens when you use chemical stripper right fromt he start.

They say that it is bad to use a heat gun on lead based paint because it makes fumes that will put the lead into the air and then when you breathe it goes into your lungs and your bloodstream, and cause all sort of bad things to happen. My totally unexpert judgement says that since I'm and adult (not a child susceptible to lead), and that I'm doing this as a homeowner on my own house (not a professional that does it every day for a living), then the negative effect on my body is limited. I strip 3 or 4 windows or door jambs a year, so it's not like I'm doing it all the time. And of course I have the whole area taped off with plastic sheets, and fans running full blast removing the contaminated air from inside the house to the outdoors.

Ken

[Baron]

The product that Joseph Meehan is probably referring to is called "Peel-Away". It comes in different types. They all use a cheesecloth type cover that keeps the stripper wet and then enables you to peel off the finish. It is handy when stripping lead paint since the material is left encapsulated. It is tedious to use, however.

Of course, the finish that you see with the clear coat can be duplicated but you have to know how to do it. After stripping, the wood will have lost its patina but it can be finished in a way that will make it look just like the patina is still present.

As previously stated, architectural stripping is never pleasant. It involves a lot of preparation.

Good Luck.

[RicodJour]

"They" are right.

Lead accumulates in the body over time. If you're intent on checking out, there are faster ways to do it.

That's a good start, but if you're not wearing a respirator rated for lead removal, you're doing yourself a disservice. The respirators are cheap.

R

[RicodJour]

The fabric makes the paint removal a lot less tedious. You brush on the remover, lay the fabric on and press it into the remover. Then you go away for a day or two. When you strip off the fabric, almost all of the paint, even many layers worth, come with it. There is a bit of cleanup required in the nooks and crannies, but it's a lot less work than scraping.

If there's lead paint present, it's really the only way to go.

R