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HelloÂ
I have recently moved house and there is a lot of gloss white paint on the woodwork which I would like to remove.
Most of it is the original Victorian wood so I'd like to keep that without damaging it if possible. The doors can be removed and laid flat if I decide to use a chemical stripper but that's obviously not going to work on skirtings, window frames, etc
How have people done this in the past, what has worked well and what should I avoid? Chemical stripper? Heat gun? Sanding and painting over (i don't thinks it's a lead paint, probably early 90s) Lots of fiddly details in the mouldings unfortunately. Any tips much appreciatedÂ
ThanksÂ
I've done this.
If it's unlikely to be lead paint then I'd go with heat gun. If you haven't used one before it takes a little practise to get the right amount of heat without singing things, but once you get the hang of it you can go fairly fast. The paint bubbles up and scrapes off in large sheets (if you're lucky).
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Fill any holes, sand afterwards to get it smooth then repaint. If you want to get right down to nice wood for staining, varnishing etc, this won't be so easy!
Get a couple of different shaped scrapers to get into the fiddly bits. Careful here with the heat as the thinner wood and corners are of course easier to burn.
Thanks. No, not varnishing, just going for a nicer paint finish so doesn't have to be perfect.
Floors will be varnished, but they will be sanded. Supplementary question, anyone used marine deck caulk to fill the gaps between floorboards? Any good? Any better ideas?
You'll probably be wise to get some Peelaway if theres much detail. Having said that if you're just going to paint it again you could just sand it ( Good excuse to buy the expensive Festool Rotex 90) a henry is a cheap dust extractor option with a nice sander 🙂 Stips of timber with a polyurethane glue for gaps...OR ...yes caulk would work also. Most on here would gasp at the cost but a good quality paint after will save you hours, Little green eggshell (new formula) or Benjamin Moore Scuff x
Forgot to add that contoured profile sanding blocks are usefull, the hook and loop sort, with a roll of abranet abrasive
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When I had an old house (built 1830s, some parts built well and some not so well) I soon decided that it was best to look at a (for example) door frame and ask myself "keep the character and thick chipped paint or replace with new architrave?"
It ended up a mixture of both which made a good result. There was a timber supplier not far away that had a good selection of mouldings off the shelf which helped.