I'm in the midst of stripping interior doors and woodwork and I have a question....on average - how long would you say it took you to strip a painted bedroom door - or kitchen cabinets? I've been working on one 7'6" door for almost 3 days. I'm finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel - but am wondering if it always takes this long or if there's a better way.

Stripping takes a lot of time.....what are you using to get the paint off? How many coats of paint are you battling?

What you're using has a lot to do with your progress. If you're using the (cheap) stuff found at Home Depot, then yes, you're in for some frustration.

I found much more success with a product called MasterStrip.

I'm using a stripper by Parks. It's a semi-paste (more like a light gel). It is suppose to cut through 3 layers of paint in 15-20 minutes. It seemed to work that fast on the top coat only. I've reapplied the gel to remove a couple other paint layers plus the varnish or lacquer. Now that the paint is gone the door has an uneven stained appearance.Do I need to use wood bleach or finely sand the wood to just even out the color - or do I need to get it down to a bare - unstained finish. I intend to stain the doors to match existing woodwork in the house. I've used a palm sander on it with 60 grit (too gritty?)to remove some fairly deep scratches on the panels. Should I use a palm sander or something else. I know stripping is alot of work - I just want to know that I'm not going about this the wrong way. Maybe I just need to learn to be patient!

I like to use a heat gun to remove the majority of paint. Then I use a chemical stripper. I use Zip Strip (or similar store brand). Its caustic, but it also works fast & clean and that is nice when working with lead paint.

We originally tried every liquid paint remover on the shelf. In fact, I think it is all still on a shelf in the garage somewhere. I felt like I could write an article for an home improvement magazine by the time we had tried it all. We ended up using a heat gun, at the suggestion of a contractor, to remove all of the paint off the woodwork in the house. I know many on this thread have used a variety of paint removal devices (some I didn't know of until we were done). The paint gun was less than $25. It took the paint off to the wood, sometimes in one pass. It dropped on the floor like potato chips and we swept it up or had plastic down and shook the plastic out over the dumpster. It still requires using what looks like dental picks to clean up stuff that is imbedded but this process worked well for us. In the time that we almost had a quarter of a window done with liquid we had the whole room done with the paint gun! We ended up buying two guns.

Use Peel Away 7- this stuff is pricey, about $65 for a gallon, but well worth it. Good for lead based paint too. Its commercial quality, google it, you can find lots of info on it.

Paint stripping is one thing that the 90/10 rule applies to. The first 90% takes 10% of your time and the last 10% takes 90% of your time. LOL...

What I have found in listening to people and my own experince is that it's not a one size fits all and what works for one person may or may not work well for another. Like you I have tried pretty much everything. Chemical strippers from the big box store, the new friendlier formulations from various sources and the internet, heat guns, and my latest tool the infrared paint stripper.

My best suggestion that I can give is cheat. You'll drive yourself mad is you go after every last single fleck of paint. I've spent hours cleaning corners and nooks thinking I've got it all. Next time I look at the thing, the paint stripping elves have come and put more flecks on my work.

I've used two tricks. One is to use artist oil paints and mix the colors to match the stain. Colors that work well in my case are Alizarin Crimson, Asphaltum, and Burnt Sienna. Using a small artist brush and mixing the paint, cover the specs in all the crannies and the spots you missed. Use different colors and mix until you can match the finish colors on your trim. If I can do it (having no artistic skills) anyone can. Unless you look real close, you will never notice them.

The second technique that I started using is to use a gel stain. I like using this on certain trim especially windows. The gel tends to cover up the little imperfections better that other stains. I don't like using it everywhere as it tends to cover the grain (my opinion) but on some trim work it works well.

Again, this works well for me. YMMV and others have other tricks that work for them.

The rule is you must post pictures if you post a paint stripping questions. LOL...

Here are mine.

Before


After


Diane