Stripping paint from floors

[YellowRose]

I'm in the process of chemically stripping paint from some plank flooring in my 1800's farmhouse. I bought some stuff at Home Depot. It's working very well on the top layers, but the bottom layer is this medium brown color and the stripper doesn't work well on it. When I do manage to get some of it stripped, it comes up like sludge..not like the other paint. Any idea what this stuff could be?

I'm anxious to finish this up to have the floor sanded and see what I have.

[oldhouse]

I'll avoid answering your question, but I'll ask you one: If you are intending to have the floors sanded, why go through the (considerable) trouble of stripping the old paint? Just let the floor sanders get rid of the paint.

Ken

[YellowRose]

We went to rent a sander and the tool rental place insisted it would not be good to sand floors wiht several layers of paint. He said I'd go through mass amounts of sandpaper. Also, if it's lead based it would be scattered via dust throughout my house. So, I'm stripping it to take it back to what it was originally. I suspect it's a pine floor. That's what is in other parts of my house and I had that refinished and it came out beautifuly.