Who has stripped paint off a cast iron fire surround?

[HonestyBox]

My local reclamation place does this to their period fireplace and they come out looking gorgeous. I have 3 fireplaces to do and I don't want to take them out to have them dipped. Has anyone done their own and how did it go? Did you get all of the paint off? Any advice for me?

I did one years ago - never got all the paint off because it was quite an intricate frou-frou Victorian number. Much better to wait until you need to redecorate then take the whole thing out and have it blasted (I don't think they dip fireplaces) and then polished. It's what I've done since and they look amazing afterwards.

Ah, I thought that might be the case. I have only decorated one of the rooms, how much hassle is it to have them taken out?

In our case quite a lot because we had new slate hearths and surrounds fitted but, if you look at the sides of the surround, there should be big screws. Undo those and then, if the fireplaces haven't been cemented in, they should pull out quite easily but it is really messy so put down loads of sheets and wear very old clothes. If it has been concreted in then you might as well try the DIY route and maybe buy specialist tools to see if you can make a better job of it than I did...

DP & I stripped a cast iron fireplace which had layers of paint on. Took ages but it looks lovely.

He used Nitromors paint stripper to remove the layers of paint, then I used a Dremel multi-tool with wire brushes to get the remnants of paint from the detailing. I went through about 15 wire brushes before getting all the paint out of the nooks & crannies.
Then I polished it with black grate polish.

It's an arse of a job to restore a fireplace, so if it's feasible to remove the fireplace to get it professionally cleaned I'd do so.

Blow torch ala the Salvager :o

Thanks for the replies, lots of good advice here. I might get the salvage bloke round to have a look. Do you think I can put paint stripper on the slate hearth as it has some kind of paint splashed on it?

We took our out and had it blasted, it looked lovely. But you could probably do it with Nitromors unless it's very fancy detail...

Like Eaglebird, I stripped our cast iron fireplace in situ with Nitromors.It was a git of a job - lots of brushing with an iron bush and wirewool -but it is totally possible and we were really pleased with the result.

I would do it again if/when we move to another house. However, PLEASE remember to use safety goggles, gloves, and cover all skin because Nitromors burns and it really hurts!

I've done 3 with Nitromors & wire brush, etc. It does take ages but I didn't want to take them out to get them done as walls are bad enough as it is....

I always seemed to want to this sort of thing as part of the nesting instinct - prob not v good for the babies!

I've done 2 with Nitramors. It was quite satisfying, digging soft toffee like layers of old paint out of nooks and crannies and finding lovely shapes and intricate detail underneath.

As you get down to the actual bare iron, you can see it rusting before your eyes, but don't worry... it goes a lovely black with grate polish, which you then buff and buff again to bring out the detail.

Why don't you want to take them out?

I had mine dipped and then plastered back in. It was well worth it.