What's your favorite paint stripper?

[Kathy]

I've been working on stripping the two layers of paint off the woodwork in my upstairs, but still have a lot to go. I've used Safestripper and the kind with the awful fumes. Both seem to work fine, but leave an awful mess.

I've seen many post suggesting that Peelaway was a good product, but seems terribly expensive. Is it worth the money? Also someone mentioned something about Rock Miracle, or something like that. Any suggestions as to the best one to use? I also have a number of doors that I would like to try and strip also.

kmdipaolo@hotmail.com

[BEM]

My favorite has been Strip-eze. Unfortunately it does contain methylene chloride (a carcinogen) but I have found that it works really well.

Put it on, let it sit, scrape the residue off with a putty knife and wipe the stuff on newspaper. Then take denatured alcohol and wipe down the residue left on the wood using paper towels. I've not had much of an issue with the wood grain being raised with this method.

If the wood had a poly coat on it before it was painted that will help the paint to be stripped clean. Otherwise the paint may get into the pores of the wood and be hard to totally remove. Watch out for lead in paint-you don't want to sand that or the wood because lead from the paint can "leach" into the wood.

You can do the doors outside (out of the sun). Use a respirator with filters for chemicals if you work indoors and ventilate.

My Peel Away experience - ugh! I sent away for something called soy gel but haven't used it yet. I have used 5F5 but didn't like it as much as the Strip-eze. Safer Stripper-not as effective as Strip-eze.

Oh, don't leave the newspaper with the stripper and paint around outside. I did one time. Yellow jackets went into the newspaper after the stripper, got wrapped up in it and when my partner went to throw it out was swarmed and stung many, many, many times.

envirocheck@netzero.net

[Bill Marshall]

I would like to know if anyone has had experience with a product I saw on TV called Ready Strip. Thanx.

benthoop@access-4-free.com

[Evelyn]

We have tried Ready Strip. It worked pretty good and the really best thing was that it is very low odor. We will definately continue to use it.

proudgrandma1121@aol.com

[Catina]

Like BEM, I used Strip-Eze and it worked well. The fumes were not great but as long as the room I was working in was really well ventilated I was okay. I liked Citrus Strip also. The disadvantage was sometimes I had to put on more coats of it than the Strip-Eze. The advantage was I just had to deal with a pervasive orange smell instead of chemical odors.

cmavodones@yahoo.com

[EnTheos2]

Citristrip is my choice. I bit more expensive but worth it to me.

fsa00313@mail.wvnet.edu

[Lew]

I've tried Ready Strip also. I think it worked well too. I still needed several applications to remove all the 6 or so layers. The paint did come off in fairly large strips as advertised. The main draw back for me was the amount of time you have to leave it on before scraping it off. Basically, if you apply it in the morning you can scrape it off in the afternoon. I usually ended up scraping it off the next day, since by the time the paint was ready to be removed I had found something else to do for that day. Other than the expensive price and long wait, it is a nice, effective product to work with.

lthomasino@sbcglobal.net

[Sam]

Where can you purchase Strip Ease? I have been looking for it everywhere as it was recommended to me. Is there a place to order it online?? Thanks!

mackleygirl@hotmail.com

[DIANE]

I'VE TRIED MANY, MANY KINDS OF STRIPPERS - I'M STRIPPING WOODWORK IN A 1853 HOUSE. FOR MORE MODERN COATINGS, I LIKE CITRI-STRIP. BUT FOR VERY OLD COATINGS (INCLUDING MILK PAINT)I FOUND THAT A DAYCO PRODUCT CALLED MARINE-STRIP IS UNBEATABLE!

GOOG LUCK.

DNALLEN1@AOL.COM

[Evelyn]

The longer wait with Ready Strip worked to our advantage since we only have evenings to work on our house. So many products must be removed within a certain length of time, not so with Ready Strip .

proudgrandma1121@aol.com