Month: April 2019

When stripping paint, there are many common terms will prove helpful.

Abrasion: This is the act of removing an old surface by rubbing, typically with something like sandpaper or steel wool.

Bleeding: This occurs when the undercoat stains and is visible through the topcoat.

Build: Refers to the thickness of paint film.

Catalyst: This will speed up a chemical reaction; usually used when mixing substances.

Checking: This is the type of failure that occurs when the paint surface has many small cracks.

Coating: The decorative layer used to finish a piece of furniture.

Coverage: The area (often per gallon) that paint will completely cover the underlying surface.

Cracking: When the paint breaks and the surface beneath is exposed by lines and small gaps.

Crawling: When varnish forms in small beads on a surface due to poor adhesion.

Durability: This is a paint’s ability to weather elements that would remove it like the weather or abrasion.

Emulsion Paint: This is paint that uses an emulsifier to suspend the particles in either oil or water.

Enamel: A wide category of paints that dry with a hard finish.

Epoxy: A finish that adheres very strongly to a surface and as a result, it is very resistant to abrasion and chemical removal.

Erosion: The wear caused by continuous exposure to the weather.

Fading: When colour is lost over time due to exposure to light, weather or heat.

Finish Coat: The final coat of paint applied to finish the surface.

Flaking: When small fragments of dry paint detach from the underlying surface. Usually accompanied by cracking or blistering.

Galvanised: A zinc coating applied to iron or steel in order to prevent rust.

Hardness: This is the ability of paint to resist damage from a dent, scratch or marring.

Lacquer: A coating made from a fast-drying clear pigment that functions through solvent evaporation.

Marine varnish: a varnish that has been developed for immersion in water or exposure to a wet atmosphere.

Masking: To cover an area not intended to be painted with material like masking tape.

Metallics: Types of paint that have metal flakes included in the mixture.

Paint Remover: A chemical that causes paint or varnish to become soft so that it can be scraped away.

Pot Life: The time after mixing during which a two-part paint can be applied.

Primer: Also known as the ‘undercoat’, helps attach the topcoat to what is underneath.

Removers: Mixtures and substances that can be used to soften old paint or varnish so that it can be removed.

Sealer: A think coat of a substance that is applied in order to prevent paint from bleeding through to later layers.

Strip: To remove an old finish with a remover.

Turpentine: A colourless liquid that is used to thin oil-based paints and varnishes.

Weathering: The effects and damage exposure to weather has on paint.

The quickest way to give your home a make over and enhance its aesthetics is to apply a coat of paint. But you cannot simply slap another layer of paint onto an existing one. The more layers you apply, the thicker and messier it will look.

If you want to give your painted home a much better finish, you’ll have to strip off the old layers of paint. Wooden surfaces with old layers of gloss paint will require stripping off the old layers of paint so that the doors can close properly and the true lines of mouldings do not get buried underneath the layers of paint.

Stripping Off Paint

Stripping off layers of old paint takes ages if you attempt to do it yourself. It is fine if the wall is in good condition but if the wall is damp for example, you’ll have to eliminate that problem first. There are also several ways of stripping paint.

Chemical strippers work perfectly, but there are those which don’t work quite as well and if you use general purpose strippers, they may not be very effective. Those designed to remove specific products such as water-based or solvent based paints tend to be the most effective.

Methods of stripping Paint

There isn’t a perfect method for stripping paint, it literally depends on the object to be stripped, the type of paint and how much you are willing to spend. Chemical strippers are effective, and depending on the type of chemical used, they work by weakening the adhesion of the paint or breaking down the paint.

Heat guns are inexpensive and they work very well with glossy paints. The high temperature they produce enables the paint to melt off the surface. Hand scrapers are suitable for small paint removal jobs and they are useful for removing paint from surfaces where the paint is already peeling or flaking away.

Other Methods

Sanding works for all types of wood, but they are not suitable for metal or masonry. They can also be used to remove left-over paint after using a heat gun.

Mechanical sanding requires the use of a power tool. They are more efficient than hand sanding but they can generate a lot of dust, so they are not suitable for removing lead paint.

Professional paint strippers might use an infrared heater mounted on a track. It is similar to a heat gun, but it works at lower temperatures, which is why it is regarded as the most gentle method of paint stripping.

Using Professionals

But how will you figure out all these details on your own? You need a highly professional home paint stripping service like Premium Door Stripping to help you successfully navigate through the whole process.

We provide a range of services including furniture and door stripping within Berkshire, UK. Regardless of the type of paint you need to strip, our team is always available to do an excellent job.

All paints are made using similar ingredients. For instance, the additives, solvents, resins, and pigments are usually quite similar in most paints. However, paints made for interior surfaces usually have a few differences compared to paints made for exterior surfaces.

The Major Difference

One difference between interior and exterior paints is that exterior paints often contain more solvent. However, the major difference is found in the resins and additives. To understand why this is necessary, it is important to have a basic understanding of paint chemistry.

Why this Matters

Exterior paint needs to withstand the corrosive UV rays of the sun and other weather elements. This includes changing temperatures and wind action. To withstand the elements exterior paint usually has flexible resins that help it to keep looking good even when the surface below is expanding due to temperature changes. The paint on the exterior will also contain additives that prevent fading and stop mildew from forming.

The paint in the interior is not exposed to the elements too much. As a result, it is made of rigid resins. These rigid resins ensure that interior paint is less prone to damage from scuffing. Besides that, the rigidity makes it easier to clean surfaces with interior paint.

Using Exterior Paint Indoors

Some people mistakenly believe that since interior paint is able to withstand more damage, it will perform well indoors too. However, this is not the case, exterior paint is more prone to scuffing, and it scratches with ease. Besides that, it is designed with more VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds).

This continues even after it is done curing. This makes it a health hazard if used indoors. The mildewcides used in exterior paint can also have an unpleasant odour when used indoors. In some cases, they trigger allergies in kids and the elderlies.

It is also worth noting that you need to use the right safety equipment even when dealing with interior paints. Besides that, you must ensure the room is well ventilated when applying the paint.

The indoor surface, as well as the outdoor surface, should be cleaned of dust removed before a paint job. For indoor surfaces, you can always add a glossy finish to ensure that the paint resists scrubbing more.

Always Use the Right Paint

No matter how much of a strong wall you might have, ensure that you use the right paint for each job. Besides that, ensure that you mix the paint as recommended, no matter what you have done in the past.

The formulations take months or years of research and testing to create in order to ensure they last as long as possible. Not following the recommendations will only cause you more grief down the road since you will have to redo the job.

Summary

There are paints rated for both indoor and outdoor use. These paints are usually quite versatile, but you have to make some trade-offs. If you do not want to keep buying different cans of paints for different surfaces, you can opt for these paints.

Stripping a door of old paint has been common practice since somewhere in the early 1980s. The idea with door stripping is to remove the built-up players of paint to expose the good-quality timber underneath so that it can be repaired, varnished or even repainted.

There is the added bonus of getting rid of old, thick coats of paint that would chip easily. Fortunately, this method of getting rid of old paint boasts a high rate of success while remaining cheap. Still, there are some things which need to be kept in mind.

Many doors have been in constant use since the ’80s and have been painted and repainted many times. Over the years, paint composition has varied quite dramatically and now they are typically based on water and cellulose where they were not before.

Modern water-based paints can be difficult to remove, mostly due to the fact that the chemical solution used is heavily diluted in water. Cellulose can be similarly challenging since it will actually sink a few millimetres into the wood and stripping it away can end up lifting the grain.

The good news is that the door will be okay even if this does happen. It is just a matter of preparing enough in advance.

When it comes to colour-based stains they can be almost impossible to remove. This is particularly true in the case of mahogany since like cellulose-based paint, the stain will have sunk into the wood. Once stripping this kind of finish has begun it cannot be stopped.

Sometimes, it can be difficult to tell what exactly is required since it can impossible to discern how many coats of paint and what other treatments have been applied to a door.

This often occurs when someone moves into a new property. When this is the case, there is not much that can be done except to take a chance and start with the less extreme methods.

If it happens to be made from oak or mahogany, there is a different door stripping method that has to be performed by hand. Unfortunately, because of the time and chemicals involved, it is often more expensive.

The good news is that the extra cost results in an even better finish that maintains these woods’ high value.

Then, very little extra preparation is required. The darker woods will also usually become lighter, allowing them to fit more easily with modern decorating styles.