Easiest way to strip paint?

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

We are going to be decorating soonish and need to strip off paint from woodwork and a radiator. My usual approach is just to paint over it, but I fear that this wont do this time.

Dh has what I think is a bonkers idea of sanding it all (off a door and skirting boards?????) I think chemicals are the way to go, but what about a heat gun. House is 1950s or 60s (can't remember which!), so there might be lead underneath.

Thanks!

take all your clothes off???

on a more serious note, I think you can hire a tool from tool shops which is like a giant hair dryer....it melts the paint and you scrape it off. hth

If you do sand it it doesn't have to be back to wood/metal, just enough to give a smooth finish.

We've used nitromors stripper in the past which works well, but is time consuming and quite expensive and have also done larger areas with a heat gun, but I kept burning patches. Ooops.

I have been known to decorate in my undies to save splashes on my clothes
I can't tell you why we need to removed the old paint other than it is rather likely to show through hundreds of layers of white. We ermmm, were quite adventurous in our decorating at one time!

Maybe we could use a heat gun for the door and nitromors for the more fiddly bits. With the heat gun how dangerous is it? We are rather accident prone!

Google kling strip. It's a water based paste which you trowel on, cover with clingfilm and leave for a day or two. Eats through the paint layers - especially gloss -and then you just sort of pull everything off and wash it down with water.

Wonderful stuff doesn't burn your skin or get up your nose and can be used on plaster moulding too.

Only caution is that it will leave wood wetter than a gel, so careful you don't dig into the grain and let it air for a bit before re-painting or varnishing.

That sounds brilliant Dame! Exactly the sort of thing we are looking for, thank you!

I'm a bit evangelical about it after years of choking on nitromors

Marking place. I've used nitromors lots but the fumes are horrendous and i once got a splash burn from it. I will be googling too.

The heat guns are fine, we used one for the first time recently to strip a 200 year old banister (with about 500 layers of paint) and an old door (with at least 12 layers of gloss, maybe more) and it took that off quite well.

Ohhhhh, thank you for the tip about Kling-Strip, will be investigating further, we are purchasing a property that needs all the woodwork stripping and re-painting, gulp!!!
Just wondering how to deal with the bits where skirting meets carpet... I am new to this DIY stuff, lol!

Dame did you need to neutralise the surface of the woodwork after using Kling-Strip & washing down before re-painting? Been having a google and have seen it mentioned and just wondering what your experience was? Thank you!

Do you really need to sand it off completely? I'd just wash it down with sugar soap (which will make in nice and rough so the new paint will stick), and then wash it thoroughly. No hard scrubbing with sandpaper.

LRD, is it possible to paint over very bright colours? Because if we can then I would be happy to do that!

Lola, normally we just get paint all over the carpet but we are getting a new carpet so we are pulling up the old one first.

If it's gloss paint (which I assume it is on radiators etc.), I don't see why not. It'd take a few coats. But I have painted over dark brown with white and it was fine, just took three good coats. Test a bit in a corner first?

Kling strip is neutralised with the water - it's nothing like the gel removers, more like putty and feels as inert.

I think some experimenting is in order!

Be wary of painting over existing paint, the house we are moving into has to have all to woodwork overhauled as the top cost of paint is chipping off existing layers very badly...perhaps it is just because the decorators were doing a cheap job and didn't sand it all to provide a key for the paint to adhere properly to IYKWIM?

We had that with one sort of paint lola, It seems as if it wasnt compatible with the paint we painted over. I'm only hoping that dh can remember which sort that was so we dont make the same mistake again!

Kling or ecostrip ... don't sand especially if you have children. Lead paint is horribly toxic and children are much more susceptible.

Home Strip also very good and neutralised with water. No fumes, not a problem if you get it on skin.

To dramatically change the colour of gloss paint you have to bring it up through several different colours. Ask in a trade paint shop and they'll tell you how. For example, I changed a door from black to red, going through grey.

I think my plan is, to try and strip it first and if its too much hassle and I lose the will to live then I'm going to paint over it.

radiators, more or less impossible. Rub then down with wire wool (not sandpaper) or buy new ones. They should be repainted in satinwood, not gloss and not emulsion. Rust patches should be brushed clean and treated with metal preservative primer first.

Woodwork, sand off or use a hot air gun if too thick and blobby.

I have wire wool so I can get started on that right away :) ( well not at 11 pm, but soon!)

And gloves.

Or bloodstains.