Has anyone stripped their cornicing?

[greenbanana]

We've bought a house that has original cornicing in the hallway and downstairs front room. Victorian, simple cornicing without fancy bits. There is also a ceiling rose but I'm not convinced it's original.

The cornicing in particular has layers of paint (possibly 100 years worth!) that is obscuring the shape. I'm convinced it would look much better if we could strip it and repaint from scratch, but I don't know if that's a good idea. I vaguely remember an episode of grand designs when they used a special stripper to remove layers of paint from plasterwork. Has anyone done this? Did you do it yourself or get a specialist? We're pretty competent at diy and have stripped paint before just not on something potentially delicate.

Seeing as nobody has answered..... I did this but many many years ago. I used a caustic paste put on with either cling film or newspaper, I can't remember, but it oozed liquid as it worked.
It did work though.
This was for fiddly ornate cornice.
What is the point for plain cornice?
It will be hardly noticeable but make loads of mess. Not worth it IMHO.

I've also done mine with the caustic paste - peelaway or stripaway are the two (interchangeable) brands that I have used. They come with big sheets of paper.

I'd say it might be worth doing simpler bits if there are sharp edges that have become rounded and you think you will get detail back. It's nasty stuff though - you really don't want to be getting it on you. And you need to use anti-alkaline primer as a first coat, which isn't nice either.

I "sort of" did it. Or rather the insurance company paid to have somebody do it for me after we had a bit of a "plumbing incident" through our drawing room ceiling. We lost a fair bit of cornicing (so the firm came in to remould the missing bits and then needed to rip back to match).

We're listed, so we had to rescue.

These are the guys we used (about 15 years ago). They have a few ceiling roses on their site www.bathplasterwork.co.uk/about.html

From memory, they put a very thick paste on the cornicing and protected it with a thick "greaseproof" paper for about 24 hours (no dripping, but we were told to leave it alone).

I've used peelaway stripper before. It's both great and awful. It's the only thing that really worked on 100+ years of gloss paint, however when they say peelaway they mean 'scrape slimy lumps of painty goo whilst trying to avoid covering yourself in caustic crap then spend ages washing off the remaining painty residue' away.

I'm holding back from doing my cornicing as I know it will look an absolute bugger if I only half do it. Do you have a small area you could try on so that you can see if it makes a difference and if so if it's worth the effort.

'scrape slimy lumps of painty goo whilst trying to avoid covering yourself in caustic crap then spend ages washing off the remaining painty residue'

and, of course, remembering that this all need to be done while reaching up on a ladder.

One of those things that I'm glad I've done (past tense). Like my thesis.

Thanks for the replies! So sounds like something only worth doing if it will make a real difference.

We could try it in the hall first, where there is significantly less to do. I'm also going to take a closer look at the ceiling rose - if it is original (and there must have been one originally), it would definitely make the most difference to strip that. At the moment it just looks 'blobby' because the paint has rounded all the detail - for all I know the blobs could be flowers and leaves!

Some pictures...

Blobs could definitely be flowers! And I'd definitely try the hall first.

Wow that looks amazing! Right, am inspired, ceiling rose is definitely happening, it's a smallish area and will improve look of room the most. Will decide on cornicing after. Must remember to take before and after pics.

This sounds mad but I've read that porridge works and I'm tempted to try it!

ok I thought you were mad, but just googled it and you're right - people say you can use porridge! Only works if water based paint (I certainly think the top layer is emulsion). You're basically applying a damp poultice.

As this will be significantly less expensive and caustic than the stripper, I'm going to try porridge first. There is a small bit in the hall that looks like it has detail underneath, will use that as a test.

Will report back.

I used porridge! It did work, but only on the bits where the previous (bonkers) owners had used textured paint. It was extremely satisfying to pull off. Didn't work on what I thought was emulsion but must be some kind of plastic/oil based paint.

Also, don't put 4 pans' worth of porridge on your ceiling, then realise you've got a busy week at work. It grows interesting moulds.

I've tried a wee bit on a section of a ceiling rose I wondered about cling film staying stuck to it but so far so good The porridge was really thick and stuck no problem I'm not sure how long to leave it but I might give it a poke after 24 hours If it works it would certainly beat noxious fumes and neutralising afterwards so worth a try at least Will report back!

Porridge works. I left it for 36 hrs and could have done with a bit longer Not a pleasant job poking at it with a wooden Skewer then a dish washing brush but nothing caustic - just lots of bits coming down. Slow I would say but manageable I wouldn't like to take on a whole house

I too did a bit of mine with porridge. The really alarming part was when chunks of "stuff" came off the cornicing. I was afraid it was part of the cornicing itself but it was actually some kind of old render or plaster that was obscuring cornicing details. So if that happens to you don't panic!