Paint strippers are a big help for home improvement projects, particularly if you need to apply a fresh coat of paint on huge spaces such as your walls. With a paint stripper, you will not need to sand off the old paint from your walls.
This actually cuts your labor n half not to mention save you a lot of time. When properly used, you’ll have your old paint peeled off soon enough to get you started on your re-painting project.
How to Use a Paint Stripper
Safety Measures
First, you need to have certain precautionary measures in place prior to using this type of paint remover. Since this product uses strong chemicals, you will need to use it as safely as possible to avoid being harmed in any way by the chemicals.
1. Protective wear. It is important that the paint remover will not come into contact to any body part particularly your eyes. This being said, it is important to wear protective gear before using the product.
You can wear goggles over your eyes, use the appropriate gloves to protect your hands and cover-up your body as much as you can with protective clothing.
2. Ventilation. If you will be using the paint remover indoors, make sure that the room is properly ventilated so you won’t inhale the fumes from the chemicals.
3. Keep away from heat sources. Some paint removers are flammable which make them very dangerous to use around any source of heat such as your stove, heaters, and other appliances.
Stripping Method
1. Make sure that you read the label and the instructions carefully. It is imperative that you follow the instructions down to the last detail to avoid any harm coming to you.
2. Apply a generous amount of paint remover on the surface according to instructions. Since there are different forms of strippers, you will need to follow directions for the type of stripper that you are using.
Gel and liquid strippers generally work the same way while paste strippers require a little bit more time to settle. You will also need to keep the paste moist which means that you may have to cover your surface with a plastic material after your have applied your paste stripper.
3. Let your liquid or gel stripper sit for at least ten minutes and then check if the paint can be easily peeled off with the use of a paint scraper. If you see the surface where you peeled off the paint has no remnants of the old paint then your surface is ready for scraping.
If you see a bit of paint on the surface still sticking after you have tested with a scraper, you may need to apply more of the stripper.
For a paste paint stripper, you will need to wait longer, usually a couple of hours depending on the instructions provided by the manufacturer.
After you have removed your old paint, wash down the surface with water or as recommended by the manufacturer and then you can begin the process of repainting your surface.
