Hello! <br>I have a question for you all. <br>My husband and I just bought a quasi-remodeled Bungalow in North Carolina. The kitchen walls are covered with bead-board, which I love the texture of, but it has been painted over and painted over a million times and it just looks icky! <br> <br>I want to paint again because I want to change the color, but I would love to start with clean surface and get rid of the paint peeled look. Can you strip walls? What do you you use for bead-board? Can you get it fairly clean? Is it a nightmare of a job? <br> <br>Please let me know your thoughts and advice. <br>Thanks! <br>Kelty

Welcome Kelty! <br> <br>And welcome to the Joys of Paint Stripping 101 [img]/ubbthreads/images/icons/wink.gif[/img] ! <br> <br>I think everyone here wishes there were some sure fire, tidy, quick, easy, gone in one pass no matter how many layers of paint, method to stripping paint - unfortunately that isn't the case. <br> <br>If you keep that in mind, stripping paint is well worth the time, mess, and effort. If you take a peek in the archives and type in "paint stripping" you can see all the previous chatter on the subject with some beautiful examples of the before's and after's. <br> <br>I personally went through the "strip session from hell" in my kitchen - but I'm talking 16 layers on walls and all the cabinets both inside and out. And would I do it again even though I was only repainting and not exposing something glorious?? In a New York minute! <br> <br>It takes patience but start slow and in no time you'll be as much of a pro at stripping as the rest of us. First question - yes, you can strip walls, and for beadboard...hmmm.. I'm guessing a heatgun equipped with variable temperature settings would do the job, and a dental pick for those annoying grooves in the beadboard. I find that many of the chemical strippers if not caustic, are really expensive, and even more messy so the heat gun is my preferred method of attack. <br> <br>What ever method your decide to use I'm sure you'll be glad you did it. <br> <br>Barbara

I was lucky with my beadboard in the kitchen. The original 1913 owner was a painter and used shellac on the doug fir. Subsequent paint jobs just went straight over the shellac. So when I hit it with the heat gun, the multi layers of paint easily came off in sheets. Then I used a paint stripper but not the water based ones. The water wash raises the wood grain, so the mineral spirit wash works fine. And I recycle as much of the mineral spirit as I can by putting it in a jar and letting the sediment settle out. <br> <br>I've recently purchased a Speedheater. They're expensive but don't raise the temperature nearly as much and don't give anywhere near the gas that the heat gun does. But it won't work very well in corners. So now I use a combination of Speedheater for the bulk of the work, heat gun for the fine work and corners, then the paintstipper for residue, and finish with the orbital sander.

I've spent 2.5 years (yes I believe it's that amount of actual time in a 5 year paint project) stripping the beadboard in the overhang of my house exterior and have become pretty proficient at it. I use a 1.25 inch FLEXIBLE putty knife and make my first pass with it and the heat gun over the wide part of the board and then go back with the edge of the knife to do the two grooves on the backside of the board. <br> <br>Another thought: Our local historic preservation group did a house salvage two weeks ago and we took all the beadboard wainscotting off the back utility room. The "front" had lots of coats of paint, including both "pepto bismal" pink and mint green. BUT the other side, the "back," was unotuched of course. If the beadboard is original it will be quite thick and with some luck you may be able to REMOVE all the beadboard and flip it over and reinstall it. I think you'd probably only want to do this if there is molding at the top and bottom so you can get easy access. You'll need to waste a board at some point to get in to the boards, and you want to pry from the "tongue" end of the board and work slowly and carefully so as not to break the "groove" end off as you go. This is especially true if you plan to flip the boards over. I don't know that I'd want to go to all the work of removing and flipping over unless the wood was clear grade and you planned to stain and varnish afterward. The other caution is that if it is the old thick stuff, you will probably have a hard time finding suitable replacements for those you damage, especially if it is the full height of the wall. <br> <br>-Mike

Thank you all for your suggestions. This is very helpful! All of you mentioned heat guns and I had never thought of that before. <br> <br>Question: Is a heat gun something you can get a Lowes or Home Depot? Where to you recommend going? What kind of cost are we talking to purchase one? How will a heat gun affect the new cabinets that are already up. <br> <br>Thanks y'all for all your help!!

Lowe's and HD should both have them and as for cost - it's been a while - $30-$75??? something like that, and it will become your best friend. You can scorch the wood if the heat gun is pointed in one place too long but that's where the adjustable temp feature comes in. You want it just hot enough to soften the paint without releasing a lot of fumes - most older paints contain lead and you don't want to breath too much of that. If you handle it as suggested in some previous posts (check Archives) its not as scary as it sounds. With all the lead paint I've stripped over the years you'd think I would set off a metal detector [img]/ubbthreads/images/icons/wink.gif[/img] but with a little caution you should have no problems. <br> <br>Barbara

I've heard a product called Peel Away works wonders. They have a web site at www.peelaway.com, and it can be found at Sherwin-Williams stores. I'm going to try it on my brick fireplace this spring.

Good advice Barbara. <br> <br>I've done many, many hours of stripping with a heat gun and I always, ventilate the room really well and wear a respirator mask (about $25 at Home depot). Anyone else working nearby should also wear one. <br> <br>You can scorch the wood if you're not careful, but the scorch marks should come right off when you sand the wood prior to finishing. The paint will get really hot (that's the point, right) and give off fumes, so you may want to disable any nearby smoke detectors. <br> <br>Oh, and I bought my heat gun at the local Ace hardware for about $10 - $15 and it works great. <br> <br>Paul

And wear thick leather gloves. The hot paint chips will burn you, and make sure you get a respirator rated for at least volatile organic compounds (VOCs) or chemical compounds. Do not use a flimsy mask intended for dust or particulate matter, otherwise you might pass out and do a bit of brain damage in the process.

<nag mode on> <br> <br>I would recommend the respirators that are rated for fumes and vapors and not the cheaper ones. These will have a purple and yellow label on the filters. It's important to get a respirator that has the proper rating for the work that you are doing and make sure that it is adjusted for a correct fit. <br> <br></nag> <br> <br>Diane <br>

Thank you all for the advice! this is all new to me and its great to hear advice from the pros!

This is a great thread. Btw, i checked the site, thanks!