Gel-stripper for paint? - Landlord Forum thread

Gel-stripper for paint? by Anonymous on July 14, 2012 @16:44

As we're getting one of our SFH ready to rent out, we noticed a chunk of paint peeled off the 3" wide wooden exterior jamb that surrounds the front door. It's a piece a bit larger than a silver dollar. If we took a small thin blade, we could easily slip it under the paint and pop off more of that coat of paint. It's not adhering at all, and will become worse over time.

The door frame/jamb is painted white, but I don't think whoever did it used the correct paint. The same thing is happening on one of the interior doors to the bedroom addition. It seems like maybe they put oil based paint over water based, or vice versa?

The paint beneath both the outside door jamb, and the interior door itself is green, although the house originally had white from what I understand from the original owner, and then green, and then, lastly, white paint.

The room addition was in the mid to late 1980s, so it's not likely to have lead paint. Since the room addition door shows green paint under the white paint, I'm guessing that the (green, then white) door jamb on the front was also painted when the room was added.

I've used a gel stripper before, with special gloves, brush, newspaper, disposed of the paint properly, but that was about 20 years ago. From what I recall, gel stripping was easy to do, it only strips one layer at a time, so I'm thinking if there is lead paint underneath, it will be under the green layer, which we are not stripping off.

Does anyone have any recommendations or cautions for stripping the paint off the door to the room addition, and for stripping the paint off the front exterior door jamb? Thank you.

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Re: Gel-stripper for paint? by Wilton on July 14, 2012 @20:07	[ Reply ]

The Neighbors love when I get strippers to paint for me. Seriously, I wouldn't use gel strippers or naval jelly unless it was an oil based paint on metal railing. If it is on wood doors or mouldings, I'd sand it down. If you're worried about lead, I'd wear a mask or buy new doors. Good luck.

Re: Gel-stripper for paint?