Whats best for the beams

[Pesho77]

Hi all,
Ive recently bought an old house, there are a few exposed beams, most of these have been painted, so I'm wondering what is the best thing I can do for the beams, I'm thinking of painting them for now (with ronseal woodland trust paint) until I fully renovate (one room at at time lol), the current colour (painted) isn't that different from the unpainted colour.

I'm thinking of using Kling-Strip or Solvistrip to remove the paint.

Any advice would be very welcome

TIA
Pesh

 

[LadyArowana]

Another bump up for a new member. Welcome Pesho, there have been lots of discussions on this sort of topic, so the search function here will be ypur friend. Oh and we all like pictures, so if you have any of the items you are asking about it's always appreciated.

 

[xanthe]

A bit confused why you would paint them if you ultimately intend to strip them?

 

[noj]

From the Ronseal blurb

Ronseal Woodland Trust Colours locks colour into your wood

Not sure how - but it's not something I'd think of painting on if I intended to remove it later!

 

[Mickey]

Hi,

I'd klingstrip off the paint and then treat them with liquid Beeswax, Liberon do a version of this...which I used on my beams, doesn't overly darken the wood and leaves good natural finish.

Mickey

 

[Pesho77]

The point in painting now is to make the beams look nice now, it may be some years before I can get back around to stripping the paint off.

Pesh

Thanks for the advice so far

 

[Penners]

Painting them now seems to me to be giving yourself additional work and expense when you ultimately come to strip them.

Paint stripping chemicals will sometimes remove several layers of paint in one go, but by no means always. So adding another layer would seem counter-productive.

Personally, I would use Klingstrip for stripping them.

 

[skier-hughes]

Klingstrip is excellent, as is their Vacwash!!

 

[Penners]

Klingstrip is excellent, as is their Vacwash!!

But you need to know where you can pick up a Vacwash at a good price!!

 

[CliffordPope]

"the current colour (painted) isn't that different from the unpainted colour."

So why do you want to paint them again, if they are already approximately the colour you want when eventually stripped?

 

[Pesho77]

The beams have been painted red (badly) then painted over with an old oak (badly) so I'm trying to neaten them up for now, I appreciate the extra work to strip the 3rd coat of paint off, but I cant be afraid of a bit of hard work in a house like this.

Pesh

 

[xanthe]

Having spent the last 2 days merrily kling-stripping, I would just do that instead of painting as it's probably easier. The stuff is like magic!

 

[El Greyo]

Given the enthusiasm for Klingstrip here, I wonder if I'm using it wrong as I really don't like it.

What I have done is:

• Apply a few mm thick layer of klingstrip, cover with clingfilm and left for 8 hours or so.
  Scrape off klingstrip and as much paint as possible.
  Wash and scrub
  Wash and scrub
  Keep washing and scrubbing
  Until eventually the water is clear and all paint and stripper is removed.

Now I found it would take hours of washing and scrubbing which produced a lot of waste water and mess. I ended up doing only a 3 foot section at a time as it would take most of an evening to get it clean. The mess meant it can only be used where I'm not worried about staining anything around it. It did remove a lot of paint - but usually required multiple applications.

The second problem I have with it is that, as it is strongly alkaline, I found it reacted with acid woods such as oak and chestnut and would darken the wood.

So I stopped using it long ago. I now use Home Strip Paint and Varnish remover which is very good on some paints but less so on others. It usually requires more applications than Klingstrip but is a lot less messy and overall I find it less time-consuming.

Seeing that Klingstrip is so popular, anyone got any tips for better use?

 

[skier-hughes]

I'm not sure what colour my aged oak was underneath the beams, so I can't say whether it has darkened it or not.
The more paint the more klingtrip to put on.
I use a vacwash connected to a power washer and wet dry vacuum.
http://www.stripperspaintremovers.com/products.htm
Not cheap, but a brilliant piece of kit. A few goes over with this and then a brush over with some neutraliser N-20 works wonders.

 

[malcolm]

Peelaway 7 is similar to Klingstrip but doesn't discolour the wood. The Klingstrip instructions suggest neutralising with vinegar shortly after removal will prevent discolouring. In my trials I preferred Peelaway which worked well if left on for 2 or 3 days.

 

[noj]

Not cheap, but a brilliant piece of kit.

How good would it be internally on an otherwise inhabited space?

I've done a few rooms with the manual scrub, rinse, scrub, rinse ad infinitum and would now consider it a very cheap option if it's efficient...

 

[El Greyo]

I use a vacwash connected to a power washer and wet dry vacuum.
http://www.stripperspaintremovers.com/products.htm
Not cheap, but a brilliant piece of kit. A few goes over with this and then a brush over with some neutraliser N-20 works wonders.

Ah thanks - that could well make life a lot easier and while it is expensive (including having to get a pressure washer - I do already have a wet-dry vacuum), as noj says, it could be relatively cheap compared to the vast amounts of time spent scrubbing and washing.

I neutralised with vinegar but we definitely got some darkening which I would prefer not to have - as we used different paint removal methods on different beams, we could see it's effects. There was one oak beam with particularly stubborn paint that we used quite a few layers of klingstrip on that is now way darker than another near it that we used the Home Strip stuff on.

 

[skier-hughes]

I did the kitchen first, ground floor, tiled floor, easy to mop up mess it made, as I learned to use it. Actually I just used it to suck up the spillages.
Realising it made a mess I then did the room above the kitchen before we built the kitchen.
Being more careful I didn't make as much mess as I thought I might.

The picture I've posted is an upstairs bedroom, we still have the lounge fully furnished with tv etc, and it also goes over the hall with piano etc.
I removed the pictures from the walls and some of the other non-replaceable items.
I hung a cheap tarp from the ceiling in landing.
I put cheap tarps down on floor on landing and bedroom and a whole load of old towels.
We had a few drips below which went into a strategically placed bucket.

The water is squirted out at high pressure from within the end square of the vacwash, the vac then sucks it into the vacuum, brushes around the square on the vacwash stop you from makiing too much mess.

The problems are, beams that are irregular shapes have holes going right through them or are narrower than the vacwash lead to overspray, but you soon get used to it and how best to manage, ie turning the nozzle inside so the water is sprayed vertically rather than horizontally within the box.

A hot powerwasher is best, but I find the cold is great.

Downside is getting rid of the water from the vacuum when doing upper floors, but I empty into buckets and carry these downstairs.

You can come and look at it if you are close But I've not finished with it yet, so it's staying here!!!!