Paint stripping - recommendations please.

[CrunchyFrog]

I want an easy, not dreadfully messy way of removing 748329473894 layers of badly applied cheap gloss paint.

I'm thinking of just replacing skirting boards (because of the faff) but I also have tongue and groove in the bathroom and panelling in the hallway.

Help me please! Best product/ method?

I'd say heat gun for gloss.

I am currently doing a staircase coated with the most hideous dark reddy-brown varnish. A heat gun makes that go sticky so I've resorted to using Kling Strip which dissolves it. Unfortunately, it also takes a LOT of washing to get all the residue away. I'll be going for the heat gun for skirtings/door frames if I ever get the bannisters done

what is Kling Strip is it a liquid like nitromors? any good? I am stripping a door and it is proving to be a real pita with all the panel edges etc etc

There was a thread on this about a month ago. I'll see if I can find it, cos I too need to strip!

Kling Strip is about the same consistency of ready-mixed polyfilla so thicker than Nitromors & you apply it with a trowel or filling knife rather than a brush in a layer about 1/2 a cm thick. You then have to cover it with cling film or polythene to stop it drying out.

I have to do some paint stripping myself and I discovered a great tip on one of the moneysavingexpert forums that you can use thick porridge in exactly the same way as Klng Strip. Make it up thickly, trowel it on, cover with cling film. I haven't tried it myself yet, but it's certainly worth a go!

Excuse me if I am dumb here, but do you mean real porridge?

the words "you cannot be serious" come to mind

Yes, that is what they seemed to mean on the moneysaving expert forum. A number of people were discussing it. I didn't make it up, why would I? It is certainly worth a go if cash is tight and you don't have huge amounts of paint to remove. Nitromorse (and similar) is not a substance I can use at the moment in any case, as I am pregnant.

link, please?

I don't have a link still as I was looking this up days ago, but you can google it very easily.

forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=198091

There you go.

the porridge people reporting success mentioned complex plaster cornices.

I will guess that these are in rather old houses, probably with Lime plaster, and with at least the first hundred years of coats in whitewash or distemper. You can strip these with hot water, so I can believe that keeping them damp for a long time would make them lose their grip.

I'd be amazed and excited to see it work on gloss paint or modern emulsion

p.s.

Another common way to remove whitewash or distemper is to paint over it with emulsion, when it usually comes off in flakes and patches and sticks to your roller.

However this is a very expensive and tiresome method which I don't recommend at all. Porridge sounds much more fun.