'ello all,

I'd like to strip the paint from the skirting boards - how to do so without damaging the paint on the wall or the wooden floor? Both heatgun and chemical paint stripper are likely to damage one or both of the floor/wall. Anyone done this before?

Could use an electric sander, though you would still have to be carefull. Not great if you have old style moulded skirtings like I do.

True, plenty of dust though and there are a few layers of paint...

Bit drastic but I guess you could take the boards off and replace with new ones slightly taller to hide any damage to the paint or wall paper (or space the old ones up a bit)

Main idea here is to keep the boards but show the grain - they're good wood under all that paint.

Thats what Im looking at doing

I been told its probably cheaper to replace the skiting boards than to bugger about trying to take them back down to bare wood

gonna give it a go tho

Steve

Take them off the walls then use a chemical strip. Yes, it is a major hassle, but results can be very good.

Or, get yourself one of those little palm held sanders to do the majority of the boards and protect the floor/walls with a thin sheet of tin or steel with a wood block glued to it as a handle. I.e. hold the sheet up to protect the area you are working on as you go.

Cheers

Ian

Ian, that's probably the best idea in the long term. At least then you don't have to fiddle about trying not to mess/destroy the floors and walls. Main effort will be in trying to get them off with minimal damage to the walls. Thanks all, looks like this is one of those when-on-leave-for-a-while projects.

you can burn the paint of with flame (ie: butane blow torch)as you was already thinking......i have done this many times on various jobs and never scorch the wood, or burn surounding areas (walls and floors) if you focus the flame it is usually enough heat to take the edges away...just dont hold it in on one area for too long as not to scorch the wood....this will take forever to sand away otherwise.
removing the skirts can end up costly....it may be bonded and do more surrounding damage or if the house is old you may take plaster with it (usually it is always loose behind skirts anyway)
and you dont need to heat the paint too much as many people do.........if you over heat it tends to smudge around...if you warm it enough (depending on thicknesses and layers, paint type etc)you can scrape it off quiet easy and if you use enough pressure with the shave hook you virtually need no sanding after.
just needs practise.
using chemicals......like rustins paint remover is more agro and mees than its worth....and results are probably the porest of all methods (only looks good if you can jet wash after)

Ed, I started trying to do the heatgun approach but found that the surrounding paint (on the wall) was also starting to bubble, hence the query here. Was also afraid of damaging the wooden foor. I've aAlso thought of putting a sheet of aluminium up against the wall to protect it but can't think of a good way to keep it up that won't involve bolting it to the wall.

My advice:

DO NOT REMOVE SKIRTING BOARDS UNLESS YOU'RE PREPARED TO RE-PLASTER A SIZEABLE CHUNK OF THE WALL.

We decided that we wanted plain wood with the grain showing, and decided that replacing the skirting board was easiest.

So we took the old stuff off.

And the plaster fell off.

Just be aware of what you could be getting yourself into here :)

Nick.

So much for that idea then...