Fireplace Renovation .. How to remove stubborn soot and paint?

[edz007]

Hi all. Been a number of years since I was on this super forum. Now doing a second phase of reno on our house. The inside of my inglenook fireplace has the back of it caked with soot and the sides in old black paint. Ideally I want to bring back the brickwork rather than plaster. So far I've tried baking powder and water on the soot .. didn't touch it. On the black painted areas I've tried Nitromors but again no joy. Has anyone got any better solutions? TIA

 

[opps]

I don't know about the soot removal but the paint is probably an emulsion.

Nitromors used to use MC (methyl chloride) as the active ingredient. MC has now become a restricted product because of cancer concerns.

MC is not very good at softening waterbased paints. In reality, the newer Nitromors is not very good at removing anything. I made the mistake of paying about £15 (for about 250mm) to remove paint from a customer's door architrave. I binned the Nitromors and purchased some MC paint stripper. In theory, you should only be allowed to buy it in 5+L containers- I found someone selling smaller quantities.

Peel Away would be my recommendation, see the following. You trowel it on and then put a poly sheet over it to stop it drying out too quickly.

https://community.screwfix.com/threads/need-advice-to-remove-paint-from-external-brick.264793/

 

[StephenStephen]

I've not tried it, but have read from a reputable source that the best way to remove soot is with fresh cowsh#t - gotta be fresh apparently!

 

[opps]

I've not tried it, but have read from a reputable source that the best way to remove soot is with fresh cowsh#t - gotta be fresh apparently!

Yeah, I have seen that too. Wouldn't want to use it though...