What is the Best Paint Stripping Product?

Caustic Soda
Caustic Soda is commonly used as a paint stripping product.

When it comes to the painting process, preparation is very important. In the art of painting, the surface underneath the paint coat determines your painting results. For this reason, a cracked or peeled surface tends to show up in the new paint coat. To avoid this from occurring, you are expected to strip off the old paint coat before applying a new one. You can only achieve this if you consult the best paint stripping professional. The professional paint stripper gives you the best painting experience. This means going for the right paint stripping product. For you to decide on the best product, you should consider the following factors:

1. The Type of Paint Stripper you Want

Normally, there are three categories of paint strippers that you can opt for. They include caustic, solvent, and plant-derived paint strippers. If you are looking for the best and fastest paint stripper, the caustic paint products are the best. They contain lye, an active element for stripping. Lye contains either caustic soda or caustic potash needed for stripping. The lye product gets to loosen the paint coat and thus effective for removing the old paint cover.

2. The Method of Removing the Coat

After identifying the paint stripping type that you want, it’s also important to identify what method you can employ to make the stripping process easy. For instance, you can decide to use heat method, sanding or power washing. Heat method is the commonest of the three. In fact, you can combine the caustic soda method with heat treatment to achieve a fast and quality paint stripping result.

3. Package Information

If you opt for ready-made stripping products, it’s important to read and understand the information on the package labels. Vital information on precaution, preparation, and method of application is important. This will help you achieve the best paint stripping service as you also do it safely. Whichever stripping product you use, it’s vital that you take safety measures. This means wearing safety gears to protect your eyes, skin, hands, and feet. You are also expected to maintain a well-ventilated environment as you wait for the paint stripper to work.

Conclusion

Generally, the process of achieving a good paint stripping process is easy, provided that you know how to go about it. Consulting a paint stripping profession is vital to achieving the best painting results. Eventually, you stand to achieve the best stripping effects if you get to use the best paint stripping product.

Alternate Paint Stripping Methods

Paint Stripping with a Scraper
A Scraper Stripping Paint of Wall

There has been an ongoing effort to spruce up newly bought home, which has involved stripping the paints from our banisters. The methods of stripping the paint depend on the surface of the material, and the type of paint that was used. Various methods are commonly known, and people select them according to preference, financial capabilities, etc.

Despite all, it is found essential to do paint stripping of old paint, because if you fail this step, the new court is likely to bubble and peel off more quickly. For best results, top coats of paint require undercoat and primer attached to the siding correctly. Paint peeling involves various methods of which some are dangerous and hard, but working to achieve their purpose. Some of the paint stripping ideas to improve your home are:

Scraping

This remains the best choice for stripping paint despite being tiresome. There is a sharp, rigid putty knife or blade that is designed just for paint scraping. They are popular, and most people prefer them. This is because you’ll minimise dust, and have better controls than if you used some other methods that will reap of dust which might contain toxins that aren’t health friendly.

This method is more suitable and easier if you’ve got very loose or alligatored paint. It will leave your home looking marvellous and splendid. All you need is to have a sharpener or even a white stone, which keeps the scraper sharpened during your activity, for best results.

Infrared heat paint removal method

This is the modern method of paint removal from wooden surfaces. This method is cheaper, neater, safer, and environmentally friendly. It makes a great alternative to techniques such as chemical and mechanical paint stripping. This technique quickly loosens all type of paint.

It works by penetrating the infrared rays, which eventually warm the substrate below the paint, thus loosening paint’s grip on the surface, and this makes it easy to scrape it off. This method eventually leaves a porous surface with a tooth to grip onto the primer and new paint for longer.

Dustless Blasting

This is an environmentally friendly method. It uses recycled glass, mixed with water to strip the paint off, leaving a natural and paint active surface behind. It is faster, greener and cleaner method of removing paints compared to the traditional soda, or even the sandblasting method. It does not cause any heat on a surface, while the water reduces friction, which helps solve the warping problem.

Use of Soy gel paint strippers.

This stripper works effectively to strip off paints from your house walls, sidings, sidewalks, gables, and patios. It is non-toxic, low in fume emission, and still, makes a great replacement to some of the harmful paint strippers. It is entirely organic and can be applied using a regular paint brush, and stays for hours without evaporating while you attend to other tasks.

All you do after working with the gel is to scrape off the paint and residue with a wet nylon brush and finally rinse with water. It leaves your house entirely looking neat as you make further arrangements to apply a new paint.

Non Toxic Paint Stripping Alternatives

A look at non toxic paint stripping solutions

Non Toxic Paint Stripping image by JPC-PROD (via Shutterstock).
If life gives you lemons, baking soda is a good non toxic paint stripper for stripping away paint off steel surfaces. For example, Crittall window frames. Image by JPC-PROD (via Shutterstock).

For the time being at least, the United Kingdom is a Methylene Chloride free zone as far as paint stripper is concerned. Whether or not DCMs will remain a banned chemical post-Brexit remains to be seen. Apart from that, it is worthy to look at the non toxic alternatives. Today’s NitroMors formula, for example, lacks the toxic DCMs which some people say has reduced its effectiveness.

Even with non toxic paint stripping agents, you still need to keep your home or workshop well ventilated. Which is common sense of course.

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Asbestos and Paint Stripping

Asbestos Hiko Photography

How paint stripping on asbestos surfaces works

Asbestos Hiko Photography

Asbestos is deadly. Till the 1970s, it was regarded as a wonder material due to its fireproof properties. It was a popular choice for insulation material, roofs, and ceilings. Prior to 1984, it was used in popcorn ceilings and artex (that hideous swirl pattern you see on walls, which was exotic for a time). In the UK, there are 5,000 deaths a year from mesothelioma, caused by its exposure.

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A Licence to Strip Paint

Dreamworld Entrance

Queensland Federal Government to implement safety measures for amusement parks, which include paint stripping and safety work

Dreamworld Entrance

An industrial manslaughter law is set to be introduced by the Queensland Federal Government. There will be emphasis on improving safety at amusement parks, following a tragedy at the Dreamworld amusement park last year. Therefore, owners of amusement parks will be compelled to undertake safety work, including paint stripping.

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Speedheater Cobra: for Wood Stripping Tool?

Is the Speedheater Cobra a game changer for chemical-free wood stripping?

Speedheater Cobra post image by Padmayogini (via Shutterstock).
A beautifully stripped row of houses in Whitstable, Kent. A job within the capabilities of the Speedheater Cobra? Image by Padmayogini (via Shutterstock).

On both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, there is one tool that has taken the wood stripping world by storm. So much so that it has been flying off the shelves. Eco-Strip’s Speedheater Cobra is that very tool. The electric paint stripper offers a non-toxic method of wood stripping. It can strip off lead paint without the fumes.

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Paint Stripper and Vehicle Vandalism

Premium Doors and Furniture looks at why paint stripper is commonly used to vandalise cars

Paint stripper car image by Slippazz (via Shutterstock).
Stripped to the chrome: a paint stripped car which has clearly seen better days. Image by Slippazz (via Shutterstock).

Besides water and pigeon faeces, there is one agent that wreaks havoc on your vehicle. It is the stuff we use for our doors and windows. That of paint stripper. In the last year or so, we at Premium Doors and Furniture have noticed how many cars have been vandalised. When used in the right hands, paint stripping chemicals can be used to change the paintwork of your vehicle. By vandals, it is used to spoil the paintwork of vehicles they may target.

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Door Dipping: Hot or Cold?

An absolute beginner’s guide to door dipping: the difference between hot and cold dipping varieties

Door dipping stripping alternative image by Lolostock (via Shutterstock).
Door dipping is an alternative to door stripping methods, as seen with this door, stripped in a conventional way. Image by Lolostock (via Shutterstock).

How many dips have you come across in your lifetime? Choc Dips (those snacks with a chocolate dip and some phallic biscuits)? Double dips? Pond dipping? Or door dipping? If you’ve heard of hot or cold door dipping, well done to you. You obviously read this blog and have paid close attention to our posts.

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Dichloromethane and the Ozone Layer

How dichloromethane is stymieing efforts to restore the ozone layer

Dichloromethane and the Ozone Layer image by PunyaFamily (via Shutterstock).
The Earth’s ozone layer: though CFCs have been banned, DCMs (dichloromethanes) are stymieing its recovery. Image by PunyaFamily (via Shutterstock).

Back in 1985, we first knew about the hole in our ozone layer which protects us from the sun’s UV rays. With a hole in the ozone layer, this enables the sun’s ultra violet light to penetrate our atmosphere. CFCs were blamed for the ozone layer’s hole so, come the late 1980s, they were banned from spray-on deodorants and refrigerators. This year, a recent study by Lancaster University, it was found that dichloromethane was having a similar effect to the ozone layer’s hole.

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