Stripping Updates
A section of stripping completed on the 1894 wood kitchen wainscoting. The wood originally had an amber shellac finish. This was later covered with 2,854 coats of paint. Here, the paint is removed. The whole will now need to be sanded down to bare wood, and re-shellacked. Note the horizontal stripe. An 1894 shelf?
Few things creep me out more than built-up layers of crappy paint jobs. Oh, the horror. This is the sill of the east kitchen window.
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Wow. That post could have been from Bad Ross from the title😉.
Inch by inch nasty paint jobs be gone! How are you liking the infared stripper? Also what method have you found works best for paint removal from door hinges? I have Seven sets of door hinges of Eight and countless cabinet hinges to remove layers of paint from. Last weekend I did the first set, i did boiling hot water soak, then scrub and scrub x 2 rounds.
I’ve found the crock pot method to be very effective for stripping hardware.
I’ve heard this, but not sure I want to sacrifice a crockpot.
LS, just go buy a cheap one at a thrift store. Or, basic new ones at discount stores now aren’t that pricey, usually in the $20 range. It will save you hours of labor and so very worth it.
Exactly right. That’s how we did it. Used, functional, and ugly, so I didn’t feel bad about “abusing” it with paint removal duties.
Don’t think of it as a slow cooker, think of it a a tool purchase. Very effective.
Yes, I was skeptical until I tried it. It makes the work so easy!
I put a few drops of dishwashing soap in, but have not tried without to see if it makes a difference (I had read that from someone else, and just followed their recipe).
Agreed on the crock pot method! I got our “crack pot” from someone on Freecycle a long time ago. It’s missing a handle and the knob, but it’s big, and ratty, and perfect for stripping hardware. No sadness in putting it to work!
Are you getting the hang of your Cobra? I haven’t used mine since last fall but hope to get to stripping again soon. So much quicker than chemicals alone, and so much safer than a heat gun. A local old-house owner caught his dining room on fire this week while using a heat gun, thankfully the damage was confined to the wall; they said that it apparently ignited a mouse nest inside of the wall cavity.
I’d been thinking about getting one of these IR strippers for years. Seeing you get one and be so enthusiastic about the results, Ross, totally tipped the balance for me and I finally ordered one.
I’ve got maybe 1/5 the paint to strip that you do. I started with chemicals, but… stopped. So time consuming and messy. But the gloppy old paint mocks me constantly!
Guess I have a new project this weekend!
You will love it, Thad! It is so much faster, the only challenge can be getting the residue paint out of fine details, I use a dental pick.
That horizontal stripe really stands out to me and so, I must fixate. Whatever was placed there was certainly avoided by any subsequent layers of shellac. I’ve dealt with a somewhat similar issue & have to ask: could it have been a now-long-gone run of electrical conduit placed over the wainscoting? Nothing would surprise me in a house with over 100 years of human ingenuity, trying out new technological “improvements”, here & there.
Hi, Kim!
The house had not a single electrical outlet when it was new. For, no gadget or appliance then existed which required electricity.
My guess is that the stripe is likely where a shelf was. It will be interesting to see how far over it goes.
Could the stripe be from a long gone radiator?
Hi, Hezzie! I don’t see how a radiator would leave such a line on the wall.
Shame on you, Ross for posting click bait. I thought from the title that you were working on your house au naturale. Maybe your boys needed some fresh air. Now i’m chagrined! Ross, it isn’t April Fool’s day anymore!
On a more serious note, do you really need to sand down to bare wood? Is it possible a light sanding with fine sandpaper after using Wood Bleach might be all that is needed? When I restored the Chestnut trim in my house, in some rooms there was greyish haze or carbon like smudges. They responded very well to the wood bleach and there was very little roughness to deal with so a light sanding was all that was needed before re-applying shellac.
If it was originally shellacked, just some cleanup with denatured alcohol may be sufficient. Damaged areas such as nicks or scratches before it was painted may have paint left, but those are often impractical to sand out anyway. You can dig them out with a pick, or just blend them in with a dab of paint tinted close to the wood color and they’ll blend right in. Then new shellac, and it looks great again!
Thanks, Seth! Yes, it makes sense that denatured alcohol might do the trick! I’ll try that!
Regarding the bare stripe, is there any evidence of the attachment of a shelf?
When I first saw it and it’s relationship to the holes, I thought maybe a conduit or some other type of pipe running across the surface maybe prevented it from being shellacked. I also wondered if perhaps it was just above tabletop height, or the height of a shelf sitting on a radiator, and the bare strip was the result of repeated wiping with a cleaner like ammonia dissolving the shellac off, but it’s pretty uniform for that.
MJ, I have been looking for screw/nails holes. None so far. But I’ve not revealed much of the stripe yet.
It’s all quite interesting!
Is the stripe a potential sink or drainboard location?
Jakob, if so, the stripe would be at a slight angle.
Taking a totally wild guess–would it make sense for there to have been a built-in umbrella stand or something of that nature next to the door?