On Tuesday, December 4, 2007 at 10:51:13 PM UTC, Bitstreams wrote:
The beams in my cottage have been "painted" with a dark brown
substance that looks like something from those stop smoking adverts
twenty years ago. It's not quite gloss paint (though it is glossy) -
where the Neanderthal who applied it has gone over white lighting
flex, it looks a bit like thickly spread marmite.
I'd like to remove it and get the beams looking a little healthier.
What can I try ?
Simon

We bought a 500 year old house with lovely beams that werent so lovely as they had been painted black. I tried all sorts of stuff on a small test area, stripper chemicals, sandpaper, sand blasting (with a power hose and sand bucket adapter thing) and none worked well or was sooooooo slow it was too frustrating. The €œpaint€� was bitumen an runny plaster (to fill the holes I think) and layers of different paint.

In the end, what worked best was a drill with a carbon or nylon stripping wheel. It took ages, was very messy but was the fastest and didnt harm the oak. I then had to get into the corners with a wire brush and sandpaper.

Good luck!