Woodwork - paint going 'rubbery' when sanded

[poppet345]

Hi, I am having a bit of a nightmare prepping the woodwork in my hallway and was wondering if anyone could help.

It's a 30s house with many layers of paint. The most recent layers have been very badly done and they used this awful stuff that isn't sanding off - it just turns into a rubbery mess. I don't know what sort of paint was used (bought the house recently).

Is there any quick way to get this off or is the heat gun / paint stripper the best option?

I have tried water based paint stripper downstairs and the stuff is useless. The heatgun is good but still loads of work and I'd probably rather replace all the wood than go through that again.

Can't seem to get images to upload - here's a pic.

https://imgur.com/AaA4Hcp

 

[sparkwright]

Does it start to peel as you sand?

 

[poppet345]

Does it start to peel as you sand?

Thank you for the reply. Yes, it does peel in places.

 

[opps]

It looks like it is waterbased gloss or eggshell.

99% of the time it is a PITA to sand. You often end up having to remove it before you can then flatten the old oil based paint

Meths or isopropyl alcohol will soften it enough to enable you to use wirewool or a webrax pad to remove it. I recently had to repaint MDF doors for a customer that had waterbased eggshell on them. I didn't have any alcohol to hand so I used cellulose based spray gun cleaner. The waterbased paint started to blister in seconds, leaving the old previous oil based paint intact.

On larger and flatter surfaces, I use carbide scrapers to remove the bulk. The alcohol works well but can be a bit messy. Other times I use a really rough grade sandpaper to "chew" the paint off. It will, as you have probably noticed, clog the sand paper though.

 

[sparkwright]

Since you have a whole hallway to do, it may be worth using an electric sander with rough sandpaper.

If that gets most or all of it off, you can then go over it with a finer sandpaper to get a decent smoother surface.

It's probably going to be a long old dusty job, but worth it in the end.

 

[poppet345]

Thank you both for your replies.

opps- The meths sounds promising so I will order some and give it a try.

sparkwright - I do have a good electric sander. It didn't really work with fine paper, but will try some rough to see how that goes.

Thanks again