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What's the Difference?: Solvent-Free Paint Strippers
comments (2) April 29th, 2009 in Blogs
Robyn Doyon-Aitken, producer
7 users recommend
Solvent-free strippers might not be as aggressive as solvent-based products, but they do work and are much safer.
Photo: Krysta S. Doerfler
by David Sorg
I’m currently removing eight layers of paint from a 110-year-old staircase. Because I can’t properly ventilate my workspace, I’ve decided to use a solvent-free, water-based stripper.
While solvent-based paint strippers perform exceptionally well, they typically contain methylene chloride, also known as dichloromethane. If it’s inhaled in large amounts, the chemical causes dizziness, nausea, and other health problems. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention classify methylene chloride as a potential carcinogen. I’d like my stairs stripped of paint, but not at the expense of my family’s health. Solvent-free strippers might not be as aggressive as solvent-based products, but they do work and are much safer.
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| Photo: David Sorg |
I gathered the five most readily available brands found online and at big-box stores. Each claims to be safe for indoor use and environmentally friendly. Equally important, they claim to remove layers and layers of paint. In each application, I followed the manufacturer’s directions precisely to see which stripper worked best. Two products, Motsenbocker’s Lift Off and Jasco Green Strip, didn’t perform as well as the others and were eliminated from the head-to-head comparison featured here.
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Smart Strip | |
Citristrip |
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| A true gel that performed well on both vertical and horizontal surfaces, this stripper dried out a bit more quickly than the other strippers, but could be resoftened with a spray bottle of water for more effective removal. When it comes to application, odor, and ease of removal, Ready-Strip ties with the top-performing Smart Strip. However, while it removed paint well, it didn’t take off as many layers of paint per application as Smart Strip. Ready-Strip would be a perfectly good option if you had to remove only a couple of layers of paint, but for my application, it fell a bit short. Cost: $32–$43 per gal.; www.ibacktonature.com/ |
With the consistency of frosting, Smart Strip is easily applied to vertical and horizontal surfaces. No one wants to partake in stripping paint longer than they have to, and Smart Strip flat out wins because it takes off more layers of paint per application than any other stripper tested. My stairs had layers of both latex and oil paint over a base coat of shellac. It took only two applications to remove most of the paint down to bare wood. Smart Strip is tough stuff. It can be a bit more expensive than the competitors, but then again, you have to use less of it to get the job done. Cost: $35–$55 per gal.; www.peelaway.com |
This stripper is really a thick liquid, not much like the gel advertised, so I found it to be a little awkward to use on vertical surfaces. Citristrip’s liquidity would be an asset when used on an ornate horizontal surface where it could run into tight crevices. It removed paint OK, but not as effectively as the other strippers. Citristrip has one major shortcoming, which will prevent me from using it again: a wicked odor that I found to be borderline intolerable, a major drawback for indoor use. Cost: $35–$42 per gal.; www.citristrip.com/ |
—David Sorg is a professional finisher in Denver. Photos: Krysta S. Doerfler, except where noted.
posted in: Blogs, restorations, painting, stairs
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Comments (2)
Ready-Strip takes off about four layers at a time which isn't bad. It smells slightly like a kitchen garbage that's beginning to go bad; opening the windows helps. It smells far better than burned paint caused be heat guns or cause headaches like methylene chloride The worst it will do is slightly dry out your hands.
Smart Strip is I think PEEL AWAY #6, which is able to handle about four layers per coat. Given the 20-25 layers of paint in my condo I'm looking to try PEEL AWAY 1 which is supposed to be able to strip up to 35 layers of paint.
One downside of water based strippers is sometimes the wood becomes soggy and tears easily when the scraper removes the dissolved paint.
Posted: 6:09 pm on September 12th
I'm very glad to see a review that put Citrustrip at the bottom of its list. Somehow, this awful [product keeps getting reviewed favroably, but I found it to be foul, smelly, difficult to clean up, nowhere near as effective as Peel Away, and probably even _less_ desirable than methylene chloride.
Tell Mr. Song to try out 3M's Safest Stripper. It's not the strongest, but is is very safe to use, and may be desirable in certain situations.
Posted: 3:07 pm on May 15th
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