Monday, July 28, 2008

Cara's Door

Cara and I used paint remover on her door today.

Detail of the wood beneath. I think it is Hemlock, but I am not sure. Hemlock and Southern Yellow Pine were used a lot in this area at the time our house was built. If you can tell me what kind of wood that is, post a comment here.


Door hardware. I stripped the knobs today, but the escutcheons are exceptionally tough.

Detail of knobs. They appear to be brass or something like it.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Front-door-stripping is nearing the top of my to-do list, and while I'm excited to see the result, I'm less enthusiastic about the work. What kind of stripper did you use on the door? If that picture is the first pass with a scraper, whatever you used did a fantastic job!

Paul said...

The product we used is Klean-Strip Premium Sprayable Stripper. It comes with a spray bottle that clogged or stopped working after a few sprays.

Still, it works well. I did the first panel (at the bottom of the picture) at my lunch break today. I worked a little too fast, it was a dry day, and I did it in direct sunlight so that may have had some retarding effect.

When my daughter got home she helped and we slowed down a little and did it in the shade. She and I would pour some on, then go away and do something else for 10-15 minutes. We managed to remove three or more layers of paint - probably some varnish at the bottom - in one pass of a knife. We got better at it as we moved to the top of the door.

Beware this stuff - use it outdoors, wear gloves and protective clothes, and wash yourself off IMMEDIATELY if you get it on you. It burns!!

Anonymous said...

Try putting the hardware in a ratty old crock pot for a few hours... The paint comes off much easier than messing with paint stripper (and you save a few extra brain cells!)

Paul said...

Tara, I am interested in this method - an old crock pot and WHAT? do you make your own pickle or cleaner? Do you actually turn the crock pot on? I have a spare one....

Rick said...
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