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Researchers from Sweden and US have successfully developed the Transparent Wood as an eco-friendly alternative.

The treated material which looks like clear plastic, has all the same insulating and environment friendly qualities as regular wood but lets through much more light.

Researchers working on the product believe it could one day be used in construction and design as an alternative to plastic or glass, but there’s a long way to go before it makes it to your living room.

A group of scientists from the University of Maryland worked on this composite material. To create it, materials scientist Dr. Liangbing Hu boils the wood in a bath of chemicals, stripping away any lignin, which gives the wood colour.

As the New York Times reports, this leaves behind the basic cell structure of the wood. Next, he pours clear epoxy over the block, encasing and protecting it.

Dr. Hu has authored a paper on his team’s achievement, which has been published in the Advanced Materials journal. Speaking to the Times, he said: “This can really open applications that potentially replace glass and some optical material.”

Transparent wood is also being developed on the other side of the world, at Sweden’s KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.

Like Dr. Hu, Professor Lars Berglund uses chemicals to remove the wood’s lignin and replaces it with a polymer, creating fine strips of wood which are 85 per cent transparent, according to FastCo Design.

Berglund hopes the material will one day be used in eco-friendly solar cells, as a readily available and renewable alternative to glass.

The material does have its limitations, however. Currently, the blocks which can be produced are very small – the largest pieces made by Dr Hu have only been around one centimetre thick and a few inches wide, while Berglund’s sheets are generally paper-thin.

There’s also concerns about how affordable and efficient the brand-new technique could be made.

However, new technologies are always expensive at the start, and as research continues, the scientists hope the production process will become more scalable and affordable.

Solvent paint remover takes off all kinds of finishes, even contemporary ones. They are usually very gentle on the wood and won’t damage it, which is why they’re used in the antique trade. There’s no discolouring and solvents get the wood cleaner, deeper down into the grain. On the downside, you tend to use more of it so it can end up more expensive than a caustic stripper. Solvents can also cause burns, smell awful and must only be used in a very well-ventilated space. Last of all, you might have to work a bit harder to remove heavy paint build-ups than with a caustic paint stripper.

• More expensive and messy to use
• Not so good at removing heavy paint
• No damage or staining
• A clean, finer finish
• Perfect is you want the natural look
• The best product for stripping old, damaged items like beams

Caustic paint removers take off most finishes and are particularly good at getting rid of thick layers of paint and varnish. They give off fewer fumes than solvent-based paint strippers, are cheaper and tend to work faster. On the other hand caustic products usually contain a very strong alkaline which may react with chemicals in the wood resulting in staining or scorching of the wood. This is more common with dense woods such as mahogony and some types of oak, especially old oak. Caustic substances also cause burns if you get them on your skin.

• Perfect for removing heavy paint build-ups
• Great for complicated mouldings
• Best reserved for stripping pine doors that will be repainted or stained
• Works best of all on plaster, stone and metal (May not be suitable for aluminium)

What’s the best paint stripper for wood? You can always test drive a few different products to see which best suits the job and matches your capabilities. Just carry out testing in inconspicuous areas and keep your test areas small.

Does the paint you’re stripping contain lead?

Most paints manufactured before 1960 contain lead, so if you’re stripping something older than that it’s wise to check. You can pick up a lead testing kit at your local decorating centre or DIY store.

If you find lead the British Coatings Federation have produced a leaflet about how to deal with it, which you can read here: “Old Lead Painted Surfaces – A Guide on Repainting and Removal for DIY and Professional Painters and Decorators”.

How do chemical paint strippers work?

Chemical paint stripping and varnish stripping products partially dissolve the paint or varnish. You can buy paste and gel paint stripping products, handy because they’re so thick that they stick to vertical surfaces, perfect if the item you want to strip can’t be moved.

4 steps to stripping paint from wood

1. Obviously every product is slightly different. But as a general rule your first step is to apply a thick layer of stripper with an old paintbrush you can throw away afterwards. Make sure you force the product into any carved, intricate areas. Don’t paint it on like emulsion, dollop it on generously then work it into the surface
2. Step away! Different products work over different timescales. Leave it alone until the product has done its thing, according to the instructions
3. Once the paint has softened, scrape it off with a metal scraper. You can use steel wool to get rid of stubborn areas of paint or varnish, and old toothbrushes and wire brushes are also useful
4. If there’s still some paint left, reapply the stripper and go through the process again until it’s all gone.  Then, if the instructions tell you to, wash the piece to neutralise the chemicals

Paint removal from wood – safety recommendations

• Wear old clothes
• Chemical paint strippers give off fumes, some of which are toxic. If the instructions say you should only use it outdoors, obey them!
• Whatever product you use it makes sense to wear gloves and a face mask
• To avoid causing damage to the surrounding area, lay old newspaper, a tarp or drop sheet underneath the item you’re working on
• Never leave the lid off – you don’t want fumes evaporating into your workspace

paint remover and varnish remover products

We highly recommend Panther Paint and Varnish Remover, one of the best wood strippers on the market for day to day paint and varnish removal on flat surfaces. It’s great for removing varnish from wood, and paint. It’s a remarkable product, highly effective and incredibly fast, removing as many as six layers in just five minutes. It’s a gel, sticking conveniently to vertical surfaces.  And it’s ideal for removing water, oil and solvent-based paints, varnishes and lacquers.

We also love Peelaway One and Peelaway Seven, both used to restore antiques and decorative items like carved fireplaces, coving and ceiling roses. They work by dissolving the paint and pulling it out of the nooks and crannies.

Peelaway 1 is better suited to paint aged 30 years and older, the old-style metal and lead based types.  Peelaway 7 works better on modern paints dating from the last 30 years or so. For some projects you might need to bring both into play, using Peelaway 7 on the newer layers and Peelaway 1 on the deeper layers. Like many paint remover products it’s caustic, so always try a test patch first.

Here’s a link to an old blog post in which we give the Peelaway paint remover a rigorous trial.

Beautiful, clean, stripped wood… revealed. What’s next?

You’ve stripped it. Now it’s time to choose your wood finish. We have a huge selection of amazing products designed to breathe new beauty into your wood, whether it’s a gorgeous old floor, a splendid piece of antique or vintage furniture, a pine door or rococo picture frame.

Here are some ideas to help you get creative with your good-as-new wood:

• Polish it to a stunning mirror-like sheen with a deep-nourishing wax product
• Colour it with a vast choice of superb wood stain shades
• Oil it
• Preserve it
• Lacquer it
• Dye it
• Re-paint it
• paint and distress it for a cool shabby chic look

Any questions? We’re always delighted to help. Just get in touch. Otherwise, we wish you the best of luck with your next wood stripping project.

How To Do Safe Paint Stripping?

A major concern when renovating our home was the removal of old paint on doors, windows, skirting boards, staircase and fireplaces. We had many layers of old paint on basically every surface in the house! Because the house was built so long ago, and because any previous updating work was probably done in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, we can be fairly certain that all of the paint is lead based.

Toxic Chemicals in Paints

A lot of people may not really believe that lead in paint is especially toxic or harmful as you would probably have to eat the paint to ingest any lead. But do you really want to take the risk? If we have children in the house in years to come why would we want to take the risk of them becoming ill? Chemicals in lead in paint are also potentially harmful to pregnant women – again why take the risk if it can be safely removed?

DIY-VOC

Over the years, due to regulations, paint strippers have become less toxic, removing some solvents and lowering toxicity. But of all of the paint strippers I looked at in builders merchants and DIY stores I was only able to find one other (DIY store own-branded) paint stripper that contained anything less than high VOC (volatile organic compounds) content. As regulations have changed, manufacturers have often simply removed one banned solvent, or substance, and replaced it with another that was probably just as bad and was probably banned at a later date.

I won’t claim to know all of the science and technical information involved in the dangers of lead paint but I know that I have the chance to be rid of these dangers now, whilst the house is being renovated. I would encourage anyone else, who is also renovating, and reading this blog, to give serious consideration to taking steps to remove any (even potentially) lead-based paint from their homes.

We decided that it would be best to remove all of the old lead paint, if possible, and re-paint with non-toxic paints. But it was always going to be a difficult task. As we’re trying to create an eco-friendly home, free from VOCs, we didn’t want to use any aggressive paint removal products as most of the off-the-shelf paint removal products are themselves very high in VOCs so using them would be counterproductive.

We wanted a paint remover that was solvent-free, non-hazardous and suitable for DIY use. It needed to be suitable for indoor use as we’re stripping lots of surfaces such as door frames or skirting boards that will remain in-situ. Also, as some of the work was done over winter it would have been cold outside. Whatever you’re doing, who wants to be outside or have the windows open if it’s cold or raining? So it had to be suitable for indoor use, without a nasty, toxic smell.

When you read on a label “use only in a well-ventilated area” what do you think? I think that if the manufacturers don’t believe that I should be able to breathe in the fumes of their product, then it can’t be safe can it? There must be a better, safer and more environmentally friendly answer. I simply refuse to use toxic products if at all possible. A little research of all of the different products that I could find resulted in nothing suitable until I found Eco Solutions Home Strip. Straight away I knew that I had found a safer, more eco-friendly alternative. It’s just down to how much time do you have? Are you willing to potentially pay more for eco-friendly products? Are you prepared to work a little harder if necessary? Hopefully, if you’re reading this I’m making this decision easier for you.

Eco-Products Home Strip removes lead-based paints, oil-based paints, solvent-based paints, water-based paints and emulsions as well as varnishes, waxes, fire-resistant paints and rust-preventative surface coatings. It’s suitable for use on many surfaces including hard and soft woods, marble, stone, brick, concrete, plaster, ceramic tiles, UPVC, GRP, aluminium, brass and other soft metals.

The VOC content is 0.000004% so you can work with it for as long as you like without ever fearing that you’re going to do yourself any harm and you needn’t have the windows open. Do you really want to burn your skin or breathe in hazardous fumes? I don’t. Certainly, we all get lazy and sometimes we forget to wear gloves or a face mask, but you should always work from the outset with a genuine good intention to work as safely as possible.

When removing lead paint, it is important not to simply try to sand it off by hand using sandpaper or by using an electric sanding tool as this creates dust with lead in it and this can be inhaled. In order to safely remove lead-based paint, you should keep it wet. Home Strip is similar in consistency to a gel. Once it has been spread onto the surface it keeps the paint wet. In order to ensure this, you can wrap the object being stripped in cling film – although this can be more difficult for things like door frames for example.

Home Strip eats away at the layers of paint and all of the lead content is encapsulated in the gel. It is then important to dispose of the waste correctly, at a local refuse centre that are able to handle lead paint products. You could safely wash Home Strip down the drain as it’s water-based, but the problem with this is that the lead-based paint that you have stripped is still toxic if released into the drains, so it should be disposed of carefully.

In my experience using Home Strip does require a little more time and effort than using a more aggressive, less eco-friendly product, but I was willing to take the extra time and put in the extra effort knowing that the result would be more environmentally friendly. I didn’t want to simply resort to using the easiest, most aggressive product that I could find to get the job done as quickly as possible – to the detriment of indoor air quality and the wider environment.

Home Strip did a quality, eco-friendly, job and did so without filling my home with toxic smells. I would happily use Home Strip in the same room as children, or in a room where I intended to sleep that same night, with the windows closed. I wouldn’t do this with other products. I felt no need to open a window or to ventilate the house whilst using Home Strip. It was almost totally odourless, in fact, what faint odour it did have I actually thought was quite pleasant and whilst the instructions did suggest using gloves I didn’t feel any real need to do so. I wouldn’t even consider using other paint stripping products without some sort of face mask, a fully ventilated room and gloves. We recently had some work done where a very commonly used adhesive was used and the whole first floor of the house smelled awful for several days, to the point where we didn’t want to be in the house. Home Strip does not create any toxic or unpleasant odour.

For a successful repainting project, it’s important to start with the removal of old paint that has peeled, chipped, or bubbled. However, in the past, products designed to strip paint have tended to contain a potent chemical cocktail that was dangerous to both human beings and the environment. Fortunately, there are alternative methods available these days. Some are based on modern technology and others on good old fashioned elbow grease.

General Tips

1. Be patient. Expect that paint removal with the help of elbow grease and/or non-toxic products is likely to involve increased physical effort and take longer to work. The good news, according t professional painting contractors, is that although safer paint strippers work more slowly, they do remove more paint in a single application.
2. Wear safety gear. Protect your eyes, nose, and hands from flying paint dust or chips by donning goggles, a breathing mask, and heavy work gloves.
3. Protect the surrounding area when working outdoors. Paint removers that are safer for human beings may still be harmful to your flowers and shrubs.

Elbow Grease Methods

1. Scrub small spots with a Magic Eraser. A lightly dampened Magic Eraser is excellent for easily removing small drips and spills caused by latex paint. Just be sure to test it first on an inconspicuous area, as it can dull surface finishes. Magic Erasers and similar sponge-type products are made of open-cell melamine foam. While they feel soft to the touch, they actually work to clean up via their abrasive action. (And that rumor about Magic Erasers containing formaldehyde? Snopes debunked it years ago. As with sandpaper, just don’t try to use them on your skin.)
2. Use a paint scraper. Pressure Wash your surface first, followed by scraping large areas of peeling paint with a putty knife. Bring out the paint scraper once you are no longer getting successful results with the putty knife. Draw the paint scraper down gently in a vertical motion. Complete the task by sanding with fine sandpaper.

Sand. Strip paint by starting with coarse sandpaper (24-grit) and gradually progressing to extra fine 100- or 120-grit, as needed. Use an electric sander for large expanses. Hand

Commercial Paint Removers and Strippers

1. Look for products free of potentially harmful chemicals. Avoid methylene chloride, formic acid, carbonic acid, xylene, and toluene.
2. Read labels carefully. Make sure that the paint remover which you are considering is suitable for your intended use.
3. Try a soy- or citrus-based gel product. These paint removers are biodegradable but they still pack a powerful punch. (They smell better than the toxic varieties, as well.) The products can be rolled, brushed or sprayed on and after they’ve performed their task, scraped or pressure washed off.
4. Loosen paint with infrared heat. Loosening with an infrared heat device, followed by scraping, can be used to remove paint, glue, or varnish. The substance must be heat-sensitive (unlike, for example, milk-based paint, epoxy, or shellac) for treatment to be effective. In some cases, application of organic linseed oil the preceding day will prepare the paint adequately. The appliance is expensive to purchase but also available for rental. (Some DIYers claim that a blow dryer can be substituted to give a similar, but cheaper method of paint stripping.) The surface will be ready for repainting immediately.

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