Removeing paint to varnish

[kevjns]

Hi all

Few years ago i decided to strip all my varnished skirt boards door frames etc back to pine and paint them white.Now i have grown to hate them and what to varnish them again.

I have started to remove the paint today and already done nearly one door fame (have 5 to do). My question is after i have the paint off its leaving risidual white on the wood grain.I have tried sanding and its taking an hour or so to do an area size of £5 note to get it to a clean pine finish.

What is the best method to remove this and the best grit paper or tool.Did think a blet sander but its a 1 bedroom flat so the dust and noise will be unreal lol.

I don't want to use nitromors as i cant work with them type chemicals. ive realised it would be easier to just replace the skirting boards and door trims i can remove to quicken the job


thanks in advance chaps

 

[TheDec]

Try a hot air gun this will remove the paint, and any residue trapped within the grain can be removed with 80 grit paper.

Dec.

 

[opps]

I agree with thedec

On the skirtings the heat gun should be pretty fast, unless you have carpet etc down that cannot be pulled back. In that case I would use a random orbital sander (with 80grit paper) plus a delta sander for the corners. ideally these will be connected to a dust extractor. With a dust extractor there will be very little dust in the air but it will be noisy. the better random orbitals will have a guard to protect the flooring- eg the festool rotex.

A belt sander will clog too quickly and you will have to work in one direction only with most of them because of the motor position. there is also the risk of digging in.

replacing door architraves is much cheaper and quicker than skirtings would be. If you do decide to replace the skirtings then consider a slightly taller one so that you can "hide" the plaster that you will invariably upset above the skirting.

The problem with replacing the architraves only is that it might be a different pine and they will need to be the same width because they meet the skirting at the bottom. that said, if they have curved profiles they will take longer to strip than the skirting.

I appreciate that you might be intolerant of the fumes from nitromors etc. There are "eco friiendly" paint removers but I am too cynical to try them.

eg

http://www.ecosolutions.co.uk/tradestrip.html

You could at a push consider faux graining but this is a skilled job.

Good luck