How would you remove paint from this windows sill? And other Home improvement questions..

skunkwerx

I need to get this: 

The same as this one I did earlier (and this one needs a recoat of varnish too as its been polished and cleaned over the years): 

By earlier I mean like 7 years ago.. 
It was a hell of a job. I bought a lil black and decker mouse sander thing, and I may as well have tried just scraping the paint off with my fingernails tbh. It took HOURS. 

I also bought some paint stripper gel and tried that and a scraper, but that was worse and hardly worked at all. 

So what would you buy to make a quick job of it? 

Just need to get it sanded back to bare wood then I’ll stain/varnish it like the other one. Make it rustic looking so holes etc are fine. 

As for the rest of the room.....

Finally getting around to completely overhauling the spare box room. Going to get a sparky in to bury the wiring for the second mains plug that was installed a decade ago but externally to the walls, and also have him replace the 3 sockets and light switch with nicer types, then have the walls themselves plastered, but first removing all the lining paper that was put on and painted over. 

The ceiling is artex and I hate it so that needs to get smoothed over.. and I was considering having spotlights installed in the ceiling at the same time.. 

The skirting boards are so shit too, literally just square planks of painted wood. 

The floor is cheap laminate, very old.

It’s a pretty tiny room.. 




I don’t plan on doing much myself tbh.. though maybe I will.. but I feel like if I get the electrics sorted and the cable buried, that will further fuck the walls up, and theyre bad anyway so will deffo need plastering, so I’ll have to get a bloke in for that.. 

But then if I rip the skirting board up, well I’m just thinking I wonder how much it would cost to just get someone to do the lot tbh. 

Theres loads of random things that annoy me in here atm.. 

Like this: 

Any reason a random length of wood is stuck in the corner like that? 

I feel like it might cost £2000 for someone to do all the work including the materials (floor, ceiling, walls, lights, sockets, skirting board etc). 

But I havent even got a single quote yet lol. Never had anything like this done myself.. 

olafgarten

The bit of wood in the corner might be a channel for a cable, we had one like that in our old house, I don't recall what the cable was for though. 

hywelg

Paint stripping get a  DeWalt hot air gun and a Bahco scraper. Dog bollocks. If need be Paint Panther to finish it nicely. 

Artex, overboard and skim. 

Tannin

Enamel and water-based quasi-enamel high-gloss paints (as used on window sills) tend to be very hard and the shiny finish offers no purchase to your tools. It's going to be a bugger no matter how you do it. Maybe Hywelg's method will be easier than anything I've tried. Hope so!

Dominic

Be careful cutting into the artex or disturbing it.........most Artex has a high Asbestos content
better to overboard and fit surface mounted lights

hywelg

These are the scrapers you need

https://www.google.com/search?q=bahco+scraper&client=ms-android-motorola-rvo3&prmd=sivn&sxsrf=ALeKk037H_LCjcaHfY-BDx8zChH1r2neKg:1620885245304&source=lnms&tbm=shop&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwih9JGK_MXwAhXIM-wKHWozDLAQ_AUoAXoECAIQAQ&biw=437&bih=855

Adey

Dominic said:

Be careful cutting into the artex or disturbing it.........most Artex has a high Asbestos content
better to overboard and fit surface mounted lights

Artex actually has a very low asbestos content, but if it is post 1990s unlikely to have any.

spark240

Window sill....electric plane for the most part.....take you about 5 mins to do most of it, then sander the edges...plus a plane is an ace tool to own !

ceiling.....cut all holes you need for new lights, then overboard and skim.....quickest and cleanest method, looks like you need some plaster doing anyhow ?

fastonebaz

When you've finished get a radiator cover to finish it off so you have so.ewhere to put a mug etc

 

HerbieTheRadDorklift

Is it glossed? Use a heat gun, scraper then sander

more

Paint striper should remove the paint.  You need to see the paint actually breaking down before you can scrape it off, so several coats of striper might be needed. I have tried every DIY  way of trying to replace Artex. It is a truly horrible experience and most Artex ceilings are hiding something. My advice is to employ a specialist to do it for you, even if you need to remortgage the house. It is easy to replace skirting. Pull off the old and screw on the new.  You do need to cut the skirting the correct length. there is a couple of ways of cutting the corners, have a look at youtube. You can drill straight through the skirting into the wall and push in a wall plug with the screw. I like to use cuter screws. They have a head that will cut into the wood, so just need to fill the over them. 

boogieman

Agree about a heatgun to strip the window sill. You’ll still need to sand it a bit afterwards but it’ll do all the grunt work for you. I’ve found paintstripper to be pretty useless nowadays since they’ve changed the formula to make it safer. It’s also a pretty messy process so you have to put down loads of dust sheets. 

Artex can just be skimmed straight over with finishing plaster, just needs a coat of PVA to seal it first. I had it done at our last place by a pro, cost around £200 all-in to do a large room. 

For skirting I’ve used the pre-painted mdf stuff from Wickes. Unlike some of their products it’s decent quality. It cuts easily without splintering and it’s easy to fix, I used grip fix with a couple of nails just to hold it in place while the grip fix goes off. 

hywelg

boogieman said:

Agree about a heatgun to strip the window sill. You’ll still need to sand it a bit afterwards but it’ll do all the grunt work for you. I’ve found paintstripper to be pretty useless nowadays since they’ve changed the formula to make it safer.

You need Paint Panther, its the same as the original Nitromors

77ric

I’d be cautious with the heat gun method, it is the method I would normally recommend as frankly nothing does it better, but while the paint won’t like the heat, your uPVC frames will also not be to keen on it either.

When we bought our house ten years ago a spent 3 days de-artexing out bedroom ceiling, was easy but time consuming. My method was to use a steam wallpaper stripper, and a wide semi flexible scrapper, and about 3 meters of duck tape. Use the steamer to soften the artex, and scrape away. The duck tape was to protect my knuckles from wearing away on the ceiling. 

In hindsight I should have go a pro in to skim it, there is a curve in the ceiling that would make over boarding it impossible. 

I also spent a week stripping 7 layers of blown vinyl wallpaper and a layer of woodchip off the kitchen walls, that was an absolute ball ache and the worst decorating job I ever had to do. I swear the kitchen was an inch bigger in all directions when I was done. 

boogieman

hywelg said:

boogieman said:

Agree about a heatgun to strip the window sill. You’ll still need to sand it a bit afterwards but it’ll do all the grunt work for you. I’ve found paintstripper to be pretty useless nowadays since they’ve changed the formula to make it safer.

You need Paint Panther, its the same as the original Nitromors

Must admit I’ve never heard of the stuff. Google says it hasn’t got methylene chloride in it, which is what made the original Nitromors so good (and what got the formula changed of course). It seems to get mixed reviews. 

poopot

Drop the ceiling, whack some new plasterboard up and get someone in to skim over it... 

whilst it’s open you can run cable...

it’s half a day for a plasterer to sort that if you do the donkey work.

Rocker

It might have been handier and quicker to 'lose' the board and cut a new one to fit.  A couple of saw cuts close to the middle and a whack or two (from below the board) with a hammer.  Finish the new board as you see fit.

skunkwerx

Cheers all, some things to think about! 

I’m scared the ceiling is asbestos ridden lol. No idea how old it is, but I’ve been here 25 years and it was here when I got here. 

I might get a quote for that and the plastering at the least. 

TheMadMick

skunkwerx said:

Cheers all, some things to think about! 

I’m scared the ceiling is asbestos ridden lol. No idea how old it is, but I’ve been here 25 years and it was here when I got here. 

I might get a quote for that and the plastering at the least. 

If you have asbestos, the secret is NOT to disturb it. Seal it with something (PVA is as good as anything) and plaster over that. That way any asbestos will not escape, It does mean you don't drill holes in the ceiling or the like to put in downlighters for example. If you want things like that then board and skim (I'd give the Artex a coat of PVA anyway if you're leaving it - it's cheap).

rlw

Sander.

chillidoggy

Nitromors paint stripper is utter shite these days.

Frost’s Strip Gel is good, just like Nitromors used to be. A Google should find it.