Expert: Eileen Cronk - 3/21/2009

Question
What products do you find the least invasive, eco-friendly that really work when
you are stripping paint off of furniture?

Answer
Hi Deborah
Nice to hear from you.
Stripping old paint from furniture is one of the messiest, time consuming things there is.
In order to do this I need a stripper that works and works fast. Unfortunately I have not found one that does this along with being eco-friendly or is it really human friendly we want in the case of strippers? If there are any out there they have not made it to my neck of the woods yet.
A few years back I tried one such friendly product that the Home Depot sold. It was about 10 dollars more a gallon but promised great things....what a waste of money that was LOL. They don't carry it anymore either.
So I don't worry about that aspect of stripping.
I get the job done fast with lots of cross ventilation. I do not strip paint in months that I cannot work with shop windows and doors open. I dispose of all hazardous waste in proper containers that go to our hazardous waste depot.
One would think that removing paint without any chemical would be the ideal but its not either.
A heat gun for instance removes these layers of paint very well indeed but the fumes make you sick.
Some folks scrape old paint off with glass. The dust this creates makes you sick as it usually contains lead.
Bottom line is I don't feel there is a totally safe way to remove old paint. Just do the best you can to be safe.
Great question
Regards
Eileen