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How to Strip....Woodwork

© John J. Pascarella

There are several ways to strip. Some are hard and time consuming, while others are much easier and quicker. But the question remains...why strip at all? There is nothing wrong with painted woodwork, in fact many styles and periods of homes cry out for painted woodwork. But if you want the natural look of wood or your woodwork is intricately detailed, yet buried under many layers of paint, then strip you must.

Sanding your woodwork down to the bare wood is probibly the hardest method of stripping there is. Think about it for a bit and at the end of this month's article, we'll see if you came up with the reason why.

Strippers come in three basic catagories: quick, medium-fast and slow acting. As a rule, the faster the stripper, the more hazardous it is.

If at all possible, strip your woodwork outdoors. This requires you to remove the woodwork, a potentially damaging job that can easily ruin whole sections of trim. For example, in one of my bedrooms, the trim around the door is basic, 3/4" boards, 4" wide. There is a decorative trim piece nailed to the face of the board which gives it a highly detailed look. But this added trim is very thin at one edge. If I were to pry this trim off, I would break most of it. This trim I would probibly strip in place. It could aoso be removed by taking a nail set and carefully drive the finish nails holding the trim in place all the way through the trim. Once all the nails are driven through, the trim should come right off with minimal effort...paint layers being the only thing holding it in place. If you must strip indoors, pick a day when you can open windows for ventilation, in addition to wearing an organic vapor respirator.

You will also need rubber gloves, old work clothes, masking tape, gogges, an old paintbrush, and plenty of newspaper. To remove the stripper, a putty knife, different size pointed sticks, scrub pads, a plastic scrub brush, plastic garbage bags or sheeting, some string and wood shavings are all helpful. If any extra precautions are needed, they will be mentioned under the specific type of stripper.

Quick Acting Strippers These type of strippers contain methylene chloride as the active ingredient. Methylene chloride strippers work from the bottom up, causing the paint to let go of the wood and comes up in sheets. It takes as little as 10 minutes for these strippers to work, but some finishes may need up to an hour. Be sure to use an organic vapor respirator and have plenty of extra cartridges available. Rubber gloves are not effective with these types of strippers because methylene chloride will go right through them. You will need chemical-resistant gloves.