Fun With Strippers

It's hard to believe that it's been a month since my last post; it feels like only a couple of weeks.

Work progresses on the 'library', though slower than I'd like. The walls and ceiling have all been plastered and sanded, which is a big job out of the way, but now I'm deep in the next step - stripping and sanding the woodwork. I was only slightly tempted to leave the wood painted for now, since it's a dingy shade of white that would really show its age and ugliness, even if we tried to paint the room to match. So far I've gotten most of the paint off the window frame and the closet door/cabinets, though I haven't touched the remaining (inner side of the entry) door.

To strip the paint, I've been using a heat gun along with Strip-X and Citristrip strippers. Both gels come from the same manufacturer, and seem to work equally well, with the Strip-X having a slight speed advantage that I find is usually outweighed by the citrus smell of Citristrip - at least inside the house. For the remaining door, I may try Peel Away Smart Strip and see if that speeds up the process at all.

When it comes to sanding, I've been using 120 grit sandpaper in a variety of manual devices, including fastening it in drywall sander or a small hand sander, wrapping it around a paint scraper, or just using it in my (gloved) hand. The results so far have been good, though getting the paint out of all the nail holes and decorative moulding has been a slow tedious process with the pointy bits of a painter's tool.

Here are some photos of the results so far:



Before



Stripper gel on the window frame



One stripped, two to go...

For some reason the door frame is very resistant...

Got the door stripped!

I'll post some pictures of the sanded work next.  Even considering how long each little bit takes, and my limited amount of time each day to work on it, I'm still hoping to have both doors and the window frame finished soon. Let's see how that goes...