Removing clear, thick sealant

In case no-one else has any suggestions, I find that those Benzyl Alcohol paint strippers soften up things like that - even when you might not want them to :-) I've used them on acrylic sealers when nothing else seems to work, but it also seems to soften up some of those ready-mixed plaster repair fillers, which can be annoying; but at least I know to be careful with it now. TBH, it's the only sort of stripper I'll buy from now on, since it's the only thing I ever found that works on emulsion, too. Takes hours to work, though. And it's supposed to be non-toxic (at least it is ATM) and it is low-vapour. Costs about £30 for a big plastic bottle, so might not be economic for a small job, but if you will be stripping paint in the future...

Dan S. MacAbre presented the following explanation :

I don't want the underlying paint surface to be damaged..

Ah. That would definitely be a problet :-)

And I have to add - I should have realised that.

Lidl had their very good label remover last week. It may not work in your app. but worth a try if you can still find it? It's safe on most surfaces.

If it's not rigid it's silicone, and can be removed with a blade.

NT

Benzyl alcohol is phenol aka carbolic. In the 30s it killed more people tha n all other household chemicals combined. Nontoxic seems more than optimist ic.

Emulsion can be turned to a loose gel by soaking in water for hours.

NT

I suppose everything will be toxic, eventually :-) It says non-toxic on the stuff I get, but I still checked on wiki, where it says 'low' toxicity. It also shows a slightly different molecular diagram to phenol, but they are so similar that I have no idea how significant the difference is. But it /smells/ nothing like phenol, which I would recognise anywhere.

I needed something to strip some messy walls. For something small, I'd have rubbed it off with acetone.

You may have to see if it also strips paint!

than all other household chemicals combined. Nontoxic seems more than opti mistic.

I see it is indeed not quite the same as phenol

NT

back of bottle

Unless it's acrylic ...

Have you tried hot air? Possibly with steel wool rather than a scraper.

Dave Plowman (News) pretended :

Thanks, that reminds me I have some stashed away somewhere in the workshop. Yes, the sealant seems very similar to that glue used on some labels, so worth a try.

The easiest way to soak emulsion is to coat it with a stiffish mix of wallpaper paste. It scrapes off pretty easily after an hour or so.

As I discovered to my cost when several coats of emulsion failed to cover some marks on a ceiling, and I decided to paper it instead ...

Harry Bloomfield submitted this idea :

Having tried it - it helped a little. It basically stopped it resticking, when it was rubbed off, though it didn't actually dissolve the sealant.

The most common sort of clear sealant is silicone, so "silicone eater" might help (but it might attack the underlying paint). I have seen clear sealants that could be dissolved by petroleum type solvents so might be worth trying white spirit, also alcohol or acetone (nail varnish remover). But I think that if label remover behaves as you have described it is probably silicone.

I've papered over emulsioned walls without problems.