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My daughter moved into an old home with all of the original dark woodwork, she decided at the time that she wanted to paint the woodwork white to go along with her decor. I tried in vain to talk her out of it, but lost the battle, she has now decided that she made a mistake, because her choice of decor has changed, and she has proceeded to strip off the paint. The process is being done without chemical, strictly man power and although most of it is off, there is still the problem of the top portion that she is unable to do easily. A local contractor told her to remove all of the old wood and replace it with new, I however think it would really take away from the house by using new woodwork. Is there a product that would remove the last bit of paint without making a huge mess? The room has just been painted and there is carpeting in the room. I know it sounds like the cart before the horse, but in our family that happens often. Thanks
Regardless of what you use there's potential for a mess, but if you use dropcloths or plastic over the carpet and tape off the painted areas (or are willing to do a little touchup painting at the end) I think it's manageable. There is a less drippy, less toxic chemical stripper made by 3M, I forget the exact brand name but I'm pretty sure it was 3M that made it so you might try that, it was gel-like so it stays where you put it to some degree rather than dripping all over everything and the fumes from it aren't nearly as bad as some strippers (although it still does drip a bit, so you'll still want to cover the carpet with plastic). Or you could sand, that'll save your paint and sawdust should be able to just be vacuumed up if it gets on the carpet by accident.
I assume there is varnish on that old woodwork. Any stripper will strip that as well as the bits of paint ~ then what.
The new paint is latex/acrylic? If it is, try Denatured alcohol. That will not harm Varnish but will loosen latex.
Protect the carpet.
Andy P
I figured the varnish was already gone on the parts of the wood that were already stripped so taking it off the rest would not be a problem. But if that's not the case then Andy's got a really good point!
You could also try using a heat gun. I've had pretty good success with mine getting layers of paint off first in a room I didn't want to take time stripping thru all the layers with Stripeez. If the varnish is removed, you simple sand and reapply.
Believe it or not II have used washing soda(arm&hammer) and water very successfully in removing the finish on the woodwork in my 100 yr. old home. No VOC's!
