Talk me through stripping down gloss paint, please.....

[RevoltingPeasant]

I am about to begin a several weeks' long project of repainting much of the inside of our house. We bought last year and it is tired and needs freshening up, but we are having so much other work done on it that I can't afford professional plasterers and decorators - that will have to be next year!

So I need to strip off and redo the gloss paint on the door jambs as it is multiple chipping layers that just look like someone dumped white glue over them.

• white spirit to take it off?
• paint knife to actually remove it?
• do I then clean the white spirit off with soapy water and let dry?
• what if it doesn't all come off, do I need to strip it back to the wood?

Thanks in advance - this place is lovely but full of bad DIY and I don't want to make it worse!!

white spirit will not remove paint.

Paint strippers are now not much good as they have had the effective toxic chemicals taken out of them. There are various new inventions, I am not yet convinced they are any good on gloss.

A hot air gun and a collection of flat and hooked scrapers will do, you will have to sand smooth afterwards.

You will need the dust masks with a plastic valve on the snout, and no exposed skin or synthetic clothes.

If the surface is mostly smooth and flat, light sanding will take off the gloss enough to repaint.

An orbital sander is fine on flat surfaces, mouldings are done by hand.

A 50-year-old house may have lead paint.

Before spending a lot of effort on architrave, look at the price of new.

Thanks!! Yes I have just been looking at Homebase and a hot air gun seems like a good purchase generally.

Love painting so am sadly quite excited :)

Oh and it is 1930s but the paint is all 80s so no worries on lead, I presume.