How to Remove Paint from Wood

LESLIE: Justin in Kentucky is on the line and is calling in about three wood decks around his money pit, which equals a whole heck of a lot of work.

Welcome, Justin.

JUSTIN: Hello. Me and my wife are wanting to remove the paint from our decks that are on their (inaudible at 0:22:07) right now and try to get the original wood’s look.

TOM: OK.

JUSTIN: But we have had problems with that. We’ve tried using a pressure washer and that has actually ate into the wood a couple times. And so, I then went to sanding and gave up on that pretty quick; that was taking quite a bit of time. And we have since painted over but now the paint is peeling off. The new paint is peeling off but the old paint is still right there. I was curious – have any recommendations on how to remove paint from wood?

LESLIE: Is it actually paint or is it more of a solid stain?

JUSTIN: It is a paint.

LESLIE: So it’s actually paint. I mean really, what you’re going to have to do to get the paint off of that is to use a stripping agent, like a chemical product that’s meant to be rolled on, sit there, eat away the paint, remove it from the surface and then you pressure-wash that away. I think the issue you’ve had with the pressure washer that’s given you some damage to the lumber itself is that maybe you were a little too aggressive with your pressure-washing technique. Because the pressure washer can damage and can splinter the surface, as you’ve found out.

So start with a good stripper. A lot of people make them: Behr, pretty much anybody. Go to the home center; you can find one. Flood, Behr, they all make good ones. Apply it the way that it says to be applied, let it sit there, pressure-wash it off. You may need to come in and sand a couple of problem areas where you can’t get that paint off.

And then rather than putting a paint on, I would go with a solid stain, only because a paint sits on top of the surface of the wood and a stain is going to sort of penetrate into the structure of the wood itself. And it’ll apply the color more deeper into the strips of lumber, so it’s going to stay there. So you’ll probably get better results.

But with a wood deck, you’re going to have to refinish it probably in three to five years, because that’s just how long it lasts.

JUSTIN: That helps. I will try that.

TOM: Alright, Justin. Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.