A weekend of stripping

While, yes, in need of some extra money, no one here lacked clothing for this stripping and the only pink lights were from my computer monitor suffering pink death. This weekend I tried both lye stripping, and the super-heated sort which I built from Ocean Manor House's instructions.

The goal was to strip the cold concrete front porch, a slab built on blocks and infill. One morning, months ago, the sprinkler was tucked away behind the porch swing when its timer turned on and the porch was doused for nearly an hour. Lifting up the rubber-bottomed doormat a few days later, the thick paint underneath sheeted off. I tried a similar path with wet towels overlaid with garbage bags but it didn't seem to work as well. So I wanted to try lye after reading around the internet of its usefulness on painted brick.

The recipies I read were mostly the same; two parts water to one part lye, and add a solution of flour or cornstarch to thicken. The biggest thing for me to overcome were the warnings to stand back, it will splutter when mixed! Don't breathe the fumes! (which were pretty noxious) So I expected fireworks! The lye was from Lowes, in crystal form for drain-cleaning, not flakes. Amazingly, the only thing it did was melt the plastic container it was mixed in. Through several glass jars I tried again, and added flour or cornstarch. The directions never specified when to add, and my flour solidified into funnel cake and the cornstarch looked like spray foam. I left the liquid part on the porch overnight, and now it has hardened into crystals.

Although equally as ineffective on the cold porch floor, the heated paint remover worked wonders on the interior wood. I have a layer of gold milk-paint underneath everything, so the heater only stripped down to that layer (like most of the store-bought chemicals I tried) but that was fine since I was aiming to restore moulding details and fully close thickened doors, not turn it to varnished wood. It is a good thing too, since I scorched the pantry doors on my first two tries. The best time for me to scrape was when the paint turned into bubbly cooked marshmallow consistency, which would be just before the crunchy tan part happens.

I think I'll continue with the heater for the interior and might just go buy another rubber and jute doormat to use to strip the porch, one 2x3 square at a time. The lye is almost gone anyway. With all the trouble I had keeping cat tails and feet out of it, it's probably for the best.