Advice Please!

[Sheila]

We have now decided to decorate the bathroom. We live in a 1929 house, and the bathroom has the original white oblong tiles, which are under the wood rail, that I stripped with nitromores years ago. These tiles have been painted over, over the years, and we have approx 5 layers of paint we wish to strip off. Is Nitromores or similar the best way to go? We have been two days, and not cleared one half wall yet, I am even trying to pick it off with a needle.....the first two layers come off ok that way,with Homebase paint stripper. I'm just wondering if a bit of heat might do the trick, not blow lamp, but hot hairdryer? All sensible suggestions welcome, and NO, we don't want to re tile!

[Bob Minchin]

Nitromors should get most things off but I'm not sure if it was not one of the products that had some newly banned substance in it(??) and so newly bought stuff might not be as effective. I would not advise heat and nitromors!

If you are just scraping, then gentle heat should help but the problem is you will have to warm up the tiles and the wall to a certain extent. Maybe leaving a fan heater blowing on the lower part of the wall and the rising hot air would soften (ish) a section. Worth a try.

You might find a scraper that uses a stanley knife blade will cut under the paint and skid on the tile surface.

I expect the paint will have soaked into the grouting so you will need to rake this out and re-grout.

HTH

Bob

[Cash]

Sheila,

Check that the remaining layers are not a water based paint (or suchlike), as Nitromors (or similar) will have no effect on that - and neither will heat.

Presuming at this stage that the paint is water based: If the tile surfaces are 'hard enough', you could try using a 'soft' brass wire brush (or even and ordinary one) on the paint to see if that will shift it - or possible something like a Brillo pad with plenty of soap and water to reduce the likelihood of scratches.

And the very best of luck on this type of work as it can be a right pig to sort out.

Cash

[John Whitworth]

With careful use, that sounds like a good plan, as long as the old tiles have not crazed at all. I had to use stanley blades to get the previous owner's glue excesses off of our bathroom tiles, though they were only about

6 years old at the time.

JW

[Chewbacca]

A bit off topic, but to remove old tile adhesive from the backs of tiles that have come off the wall I just leave in a bucket of water for 24hrs. The old stuff just falls off. Then leave to dry for a couple of days and stick em back on.

[Paul Edwards]

Try a wallpaper stripper.

It always seems to loosen any old paint when I have been stripping wallpaper from a wall.

The heat should soften the paint and allow you to scrape it off especially if it is water based.

Paul