How to Strip Old Paint & Stain
- 1). Spread out your dropcloths on your garage floor, or on your lawn. Set your sawhorses on top of your plastic dropcloths, and space them apart far enough apart to hold your project, or furniture.
- 2). Saturate the surface of the wood with your paint/stain stripper. Allow the stripper to sit on the wood for the required time. The time requirement is written on the label of your stripper. When the paint/stain stripper has set for the required time, the paint or stain will begin to bubble up, and lift off the surface.
- 3). Scrape the lifted paint or stain off the surface with a plastic putty knife. Scrape off your putty knife into your plastic bucket. Continue scraping off the lifted paint or stain until you have removed all of it.
- 4). Saturate the wood with paint/stain stripper a second time. Repeat steps 3 and 4 to remove paint or stain that did not lift off with the first application. Allow the wood to dry.
- 5). Roll up your plastic dropcloths and place them in a heavy trash bag along with your bucket. Take your trash bag to your local waste facility for hazardous materials.
- 6). Sand the surface with 100-grit sandpaper. Sand only with the grain of the wood. Sanding will help remove final traces of paint or stain. Sand a second time with 220-grit sandpaper to create a smooth surface for new paint or stain.
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