beams

[Anonymous]

we've just moved to a house whose previous owner buried most beams behind chipboard.
Unfortunately he has left 2 sides of 2 beams visible and he has stained them a dark colour. Otherwise the beams are untreated.
Any suggestions for getting rid of the staining?

 

[Anonymous]

It all depends whether they are actually stained, or whether they've been painted.
Try having a chat with Strippers of Sudbury (link below). They make a number of different types of stripper for different types of paint, etc. You can buy test pots of their various materials, to see which one will work.



http://www.stripperspaintremovers.com

 

[Anonymous]

hi
thanks for putting me on to sudbury
while not a perfect result - no doubt my fault - the result was good enough to be fine for the casual observer
celia

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Celia
I'm insterested to know what was "not perfect" about the results. Did it not remove the stuff fully? Have you discussed the results with Strippers?
David

 

[Anonymous]

The beam only in part had disgusting dark brown 30 year old varnish. The former owner had attached stays for a false ceiling along the middle of the beam; at one end he had boxed it in, somewhere else it had some render attached. There were also about a dozen rectangles of the varnish stain higher up. He had stained all other visible bits - underneath, a crescent the length of the bottom half on two sides, most of the way along; the top half was hidden behind chipboard and untouched. Because it is 150 year old oak, there are lots of cracks and irregularities. Also as it is on the upstairs floor, which was only intended to provide sleeping quarters for seasonal workers and storage, it is not as well finished as downstairs, where the family lived.
So as you can see, we doubted we would get a perfect finish. You can see the lines where the varnish finshes if you look, but you do need to look hard. I followed the instructions carefully, although it may have been slightly on the cool side for the best effect. I gave a second coat to some bits and a rub with wire wool soaked in the paint remover, which improved in some places but had no effect whatsoever in others.
So you see it helped a lot because we thought we might have to stain the whole lot with dark varnish. We have not discussed further with Paintstrippers as we feel it would be impossible to get a perfect job, considering what we started with.
What do you think?
Celia

 

[Anonymous]

In the absence of any definite information about what the remaining finish is, on the beam, I can only suggest that you keep trying various paint removers until you find one that works.
Alternatively, you might find that one or two more applications of the one(s) you have already used will finish the job. As you observed, the cold doesn't help some of these to work to their best ability (a bit like me!).