Gettinng rid of old varnish

[GMM]

Spent most of Saturday and a good bit of Sunday morning trying to strip some architrave. I normally wouldn't bother but this stuff is original and about 8 inches wide so would be hard to replace.

Anyway, being mindful of what (lead paint etc) might lurk beneath old layers, I've kept a close eye on what I'm dealing with. It seems that it was stripped then varnished and has just one (fairly recent) paint layer over the top of that. The paint comes off easily with a heat gun but the varnish forms a sticky goo, which then sets once it's cool.

Is it just a matter of elbow grease/careful heating and scraping, etc to get this off, or is there a more clever approach I should be taking? I know paint strippers are a waste of time for paint, but I can't help thinking there may be a useful solvent for this.

Any suggestions out there?

[fred]

In article , GMM writes

Let me guess, early 1900s build :-)

My approach is to use a heatgun to get through the layers and then use stripper and wire wool to clean up the residue. Go easy on the heat to avoid scorching the detailing. If there's residue in fine angular detail then sand it out using medium grade paper on a rigid former that will follow the profile[1], again to avoid losing detail. The paper will gum up quickly so you'll need to change it or move it around on the block frequently.

It is laborious but worth it.

[1] I've used little 3" offcuts of sash window parting bead or batten rod, and they seem a good fit for sharps & curves.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Snag is the paint stripper that once would have worked ok is no longer available as a DIY product. Things like Nitromors changed overnight from being very good to useless.

I've a feeling the decent stuff can still be bought - but can't remember how.

[Andrew Mawson]

That's Shellac - just think of the millions of beetles that went into making it :)

When I had a Victorian house similarly lacquered I found that the best way to strip it was to roll it off with a stiff genuine bristle floor scrubbing brush. Warm it with the heat gun, then pressing firmly start the first bit rolling up. Go slowly and ONLY in one direction, keep applying heat, and if you are careful it will roll up and come out of the deepest mouldings. Too much heat and it goes gooey - too little heat and it is too stiff to roll. On no account try using a modern plastic bristled brush - I'm sure that you can see why !

AWEM

[harryagain]

The tool you need for scraping is called a shave hook. Eg

Better for scraping soft gooe away.

[Gib Bogle]

How does meths go on it?

[stuart noble]

As Dave says, proper paint strippers have disappeared, and heating old varnishes just turns them to gunk, which is even more difficult to remove. What I would try first is a sharp 50 mm chisel dragged across the surface at an angle of 45 degs or so. If you're no good at sharpening chisels get your local glazier to cut you some pieces of 6mm glass approx 100mm x 50mm. This gives you 8 sharp edges per piece. If the offending substance is at all brittle, most of it will come off this way in flakes. Hard work but fast, and you just hoover up when you're done.

[stuart noble]

Sorry, bad advice from me there. The scraping technique is no good on architrave due to the profile. Why did I think you said "skirting"? Only one glass of red too! If your finish is soluble in meths, you may be able to remove the bulk with steel wool, but the solvent goes off so quickly you need to get the gunk off before it hardens again. If you're going for a bare wood finish, take it off the wall and have it dip-stripped professionally. Costs peanuts and looks better than any d-i-y.

[GMM]

Always good to know that someone has shared the pain in advance (!)

The heat gun/shavehook approach has taken off 99% of the paint, now it's a matter of dealing with this gunge. It's hard to sand by hand when it's solid, and too gooey when it's softened. Power sanding will take it off, but I'm wary of getting too carried away with something on a drill as I'll probably bugger up the profiles. My attempts with, as you suggest, formers have been pretty unsuccessful so far, mostly just wearing the sandpaper away in no time. Maybe I'm going at it too hard.

If it wasn't so big, and oak, I'd probably just go and get a similar profile cut. Seems somehow inappropriate to bin >100 year old sound oak, though, just to save effort.

[GMM]

Finding a useful paint stripper would be a good business prospect: I'm sure we would all buy something if it actually worked! I sort of understand the idea behind banning methylene chloride strippers as it's pretty nasty stuff. (I wonder how many people have taken to burning off lead paint as a result?) What I don't understand is how anyone can sell the stuff available now as paint stripper, since that's what it doesn't do. The last time I tried some, I left it on for a few hours an it didn't even take the shine off the paint: I may as well have given it a wipe with a wet sponge.

[GMM]

I ...sort of...gave that a try, but got vetoed by SWMBO when she saw me disappearing with the only bristle brush I could find. Apparently it's too good for scrubbing with (hmmm). Will have to buy one....

[GMM]

Well, I wouldn't try this job without one but this stuff is a bit special: Easy enough to melt and scrape but it then sticks to everything, including the shavehook and the bit you just did, then cools in no time and sets - solid.

[GMM]

Actually, in this profile, there's one squared groove, which stripped out nicely with a 1/2 inch chisel but the rest is ogee-like (but more so than modern ogee profiles).

I'm only going to paint it and it's already off the wall: I took it off because I was re-framing the door. Of course, since the 'traditional' way to fix it was with bloody great cut nails into the brick, getting it off did a little bit of damage (despite having driven them through) so I had to strip to repair before I put it back.

I did have a moment, when I found it was oak, when I thought bare wood would look good, but that soon passed when I realised that I would have to deal with the other 5 doors that open off the hallway in the same way for them to match. Bugger that! Presumably that's how it all was originally though.

Any more of that red going spare? ;-)

[GMM]

Excellent suggestion - if only I could find the meths! It was on the shelf, but maybe I drank it all.

Presumably alcohols should dissolve the shellac-y stuff. Certainly, white spirit, turpentine substitute and petrol don't touch it, but I'd expect that now it's been pointed out that it's likely to be shellac.

[Andrew Mawson]

Be a man - assert yourself :)

AWEM

[alan]

This week I've been using an eco friendly paint stripper on some stone paint. The instructions said apply, leave for an hour then strip. Apply another coat for multiple paint layers.

After waiting an hour - nothing would shift.

I applied another thick coat of stripper, covered it with cling film (to stop it drying out) and left it for around 20 hours. Result: the top coat of paint just about came off.

I applied another coat, cling film and waited a further 24 hours. This time the majority of the paint could be removed but it was hard work. The paint was soft but still extremely sticky. There is still a very thin layer of paint requiring another coat of stripper.

In a few small sections where the stripper had dried the paint was still firmly stuck down and unmovable with a scrapper or with an old sharpened chisel.

The tub has a list of lies: pleasant to use effective technically advanced goes twice as far as other strippers (not if so many applications are required) works in 15 minutes to 1 hour.

Has anyone got a recipe for a DIY paint stripper that actually works?

[Gib Bogle]

Just keep drinking the meths, and after a while you will not see anything wrong with the architrave.

[stuart noble]

Anything that's soluble in meths is also soluble in alkali. A simple recipe if you have the material lying flat is to mix a 10% caustic solution in a plastic bucket. Add to that as many Andrex type toilet rolls as you need to absorb all the free liquid. Toss this on as thick as you can and cover with plastic bags or whatever. The coating should dissolve and be absorbed into the tissue. Works best outdoors during a heatwave :-) Sort of works on vertical surfaces too but you're fighting gravity the whole time Or use the bath as a caustic tank for a couple of hours. Nylon washing up brushes are useful. The gotcha is that caustic darkens hardwoods, but this is easily reversed with hydrogen peroxide (part B of any 2 part woodworking bleach).

[stuart noble]

That red was an Aldi £3 job. I think brain cells are probably soluble in it :-)

[stuart noble]

IME the only way to deal with that stuff is to soften it with meths, then wipe vigorously with coarse wire wool. You can buy huge bales of it from plumbers merchants, and you certainly need a lot. It absorbs the gunk nicely but can only be used once