Clearing the paint from wood furniture is never simple. Although the work is tedious, yet it can be done accomplished. You will have beautiful wood furniture to be proud of by using the correct tools and materials.
Tools and Materials Needed
- Heat Gun: A heat gun blows enough hot air to make paper immediately catch fire.
- Purchased Scrapers: Pick up a small variety of inexpensive metal and plastic scrapers.
- Scrapers: Just looking around the house, one can found familiar items like toothbrush, old credit cards, teaspoons, and etc.
- Paint Stripper: A caustic, solvent or biochemical stripper can be used. Lye is used as the main ingredient for caustic strippers and convert the paint into a thick, soapy film. Solvents are the most dangerous type to breathe and ingest but quite effective in loosening the bond between the paint and the wood. There are popular citrus-based products that can be purchased for biochemical strippers. Among the three, they are the safest to use and emit fewer noxious fumes but works the slowest and require more scraping.
- Lead Paint Test Kit: 3M LeadCheck and D-Lead are the only two available lead paint test kits that were approved to be used at home by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
- Safety Equipment: For personal safety, purchase thick rubber gloves especially for chemical use, respirator for breathing and safety glasses.
- Sandpaper: Coarse and fine grain sandpaper can be utilized.
Test Paint for Lead
The U.S. federal government banned the sale of lead-based paint on the consumer market back in 1978 as the lead chemical has been discovered to loads of health concerns, especially among children.
Chances are the greater it will have been coated with lead-based paint the older your painted wood furniture exist. You can test it yourself or send it off to a lab for professional testing by chipping off the correct amount of paint required by the kit.