What's good for removing silicone sealant...

[woodglass]

What's good for removing silicone sealant from shower panels, trays, etc...

[PM]

You can get "silicone sealant eater" that is specifically for this. Never used it myself though.

[Christian McArdle]

You can get solvent, although it is expensive and not very effective and is best used to get the last bits off after mechanical removal of the bulk (i.e. using Stanley knife).

Christian.

[The Natural Philosopher]

If its set, a scalpel.

[airsmoothed]

Aplogies for slight thread hi-jack but I have a very similar problem; I'm trying to remove a shower screen from a tiled wall. It looks like the original owner applied a nice thick bead of silicone sealant to the wall and then butted the extrusion which forms the frame of the shower screen up to it, then screwed the frame to the wall. I've removed all the screws and the frame is still very, very firmly attached to the wall. I've tried applying the proper remover, and acetone, to the visible edge of the sealant, but it's doing diddly. The only other option I can think of are applying moderate heat to the area ( i.e. hair dryer) and trying to shove a wallpaper stripper between the frame and the tiles.

Anyone got any other bright ideas, or shall i just burn the house down & start from scratch..:-///

[mark_bluemel]

...

I seem to recall that the approach for this is to try to cut the sealant with wire, pretty much like using a cheesewire (memories of my dad's grocer's shop).

[TMC]

Never had to do this myself but if I had to I think that I would try the draper bonded windscreen removal tool

Tony

[TMC]

worked for me

Tony

[airsmoothed]

Thanks for the quick replies folks, I'll give these ideas a go shortly.

[Ian_m]

You can get silicone sealant remover that breaks the bond between the silicone and other surface. B&Q do it, I have only used the stuff from RS.

You cut off as much silicone as possible, leaving a thin film, apply remover, leave for couple of hours and the thin remaining film of silicone just wipes off. Water neutralises the remover so clean up with soapy water and dry before replacing silicone.