My Daughter has just bought an old house with oak beams that have been
coated in thick black paint/varnish.
Is there any way that they can be stripped back to the original wood
surface in situ without wrecking the surrounding ceiling?

On Fri, 26 Mar 2010 10:23:43 -0700 (PDT), chudford
gently dipped his quill in the best Quink
that money could buy:

My Daughter has just bought an old house with oak beams that have been
coated in thick black paint/varnish.
Is there any way that they can be stripped back to the original wood
surface in situ without wrecking the surrounding ceiling?

You will get plenty of advice on uk d-i-y, but another good scource is
http://periodproperty.co.uk/forum/viewforum.php?f=1


Mike P the 1st

On 26 Mar, 17:23, chudford wrote:

Is there any way that they can be stripped back to the original wood
surface in situ without wrecking the surrounding ceiling?

Start simple - try samples with Nitromors, or with heat stripping. You
might be lucky and it might just work.

Best thing I've used for this is a Makita brush sander (like a 6" wide
rotary drum brush, made of sandpaper). 500 quid, but yoiu can hire
them.

Much depends on what they're covered with. Bituminous stuff is
horrible and I'd think seriously about either leaving them alone, or
having a gritblaster come in and do them for me.

chudford wrote:
My Daughter has just bought an old house with oak beams that have been
coated in thick black paint/varnish.
Is there any way that they can be stripped back to the original wood
surface in situ without wrecking the surrounding ceiling?

Worth checking by hand sanding whether the coating goes to a powder or
gums up and sticks to the abrasive.

This kind of thing would be fast, and get you right to the edge, but
they do throw crap everywhere.

http://www.tooled-up.com/Product.asp?PID=128130

Chemical removers might work but getting them to stick to overhead
surfaces might be a problem. Caustic types are effective on oil or
spirit based coatings, but won't touch synthetic varnishes like
polyurethane. They also seriously darken oak, but this can be easily
reversed with peroxide.

On Fri, 26 Mar 2010 17:56:04 +0000, Mike P the 1st
wrote:

On Fri, 26 Mar 2010 10:23:43 -0700 (PDT), chudford
gently dipped his quill in the best Quink
that money could buy:

My Daughter has just bought an old house with oak beams that have been
coated in thick black paint/varnish.
Is there any way that they can be stripped back to the original wood
surface in situ without wrecking the surrounding ceiling?

You will get plenty of advice on uk d-i-y, but another good scource is
http://periodproperty.co.uk/forum/viewforum.php?f=1


Mike P the 1st

Normally done by some sort of sandblasting. Very laborious but
effective. It can be a diy job. The real work is cleaning up after.

wrote:
On Fri, 26 Mar 2010 17:56:04 +0000, Mike P the 1st
wrote:

On Fri, 26 Mar 2010 10:23:43 -0700 (PDT), chudford
gently dipped his quill in the best Quink
that money could buy:

My Daughter has just bought an old house with oak beams that have
been coated in thick black paint/varnish.
Is there any way that they can be stripped back to the original wood
surface in situ without wrecking the surrounding ceiling?

You will get plenty of advice on uk d-i-y, but another good scource
is http://periodproperty.co.uk/forum/viewforum.php?f=1


Mike P the 1st

Normally done by some sort of sandblasting. Very laborious but
effective. It can be a diy job. The real work is cleaning up after.

Way to go. I've seen it done, great results, buy as Mike says its very
messy.... very!


--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk

chudford wrote:
My Daughter has just bought an old house with oak beams that have been
coated in thick black paint/varnish.
Is there any way that they can be stripped back to the original wood
surface in situ without wrecking the surrounding ceiling?
caeful sandblasting with calcium carbonate
Not sand.

And, if possible mask up the ceiling with something fairly tough.


They can blast down to about 2-3inches resolution, maybe better if they
take the time., so that's how far the damage will extend, and it tends
to be mild pitting not total destruction. Even if the masking gets
ripped, its better than nothing.

wrote:


Normally done by some sort of sandblasting. Very laborious but
effective. It can be a diy job. The real work is cleaning up after.

Completely shags the beams, it's the chosen method of morons.

chudford wrote:

My Daughter has just bought an old house with oak beams that have been
coated in thick black paint/varnish.
Is there any way that they can be stripped back to the original wood
surface in situ without wrecking the surrounding ceiling?

It depends.

Builders will insist in sand-blasting beams to remove the old paint.
This is fine if you want to ruin everything inside the house and to
ensure that one will be eating sand in every meal for the next thirty
years.

I've found that gently wire brushing by hand produces the best results
but it is tedious work and will take several weeks to do.

Any mechanical means will cause damage to the beams and that seems a
shame.

Steve Firth wrote:
wrote:

Normally done by some sort of sandblasting. Very laborious but
effective. It can be a diy job. The real work is cleaning up after.

Completely shags the beams, it's the chosen method of morons.

As already pointed out, sand is not the only thing that can be blasted.
Nutshells can apparently create a baby's bum finish on woodwork.
Wire brushing by hand is the worst of both worlds- takes an age, and
looks crap when you've finished

John Rumm wrote:
chudford wrote:
My Daughter has just bought an old house with oak beams that have been
coated in thick black paint/varnish.
Is there any way that they can be stripped back to the original wood
surface in situ without wrecking the surrounding ceiling?

These can make a decent job of it:

http://www.makitauk.com/index.php?ca...pen=93&page=36

http://www.mtmc.co.uk/product.asp?co...2&P_ ID=39589


They have a drum shaped brush (IIRC there used to be a range of them
depending on how aggressive you want to be)

http://www.tool-net.co.uk/p-333727


But how close to the ceiling could you get? I imagine they're built like
a planer, which would leave the most difficult bit untouched.

Steve Firth wrote:
wrote:


Normally done by some sort of sandblasting. Very laborious but
effective. It can be a diy job. The real work is cleaning up after.

Completely shags the beams, it's the chosen method of morons.

And why would it do that oh wise one?


--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk

On Sat, 27 Mar 2010 18:08:49 -0000, "The Medway Handyman"
gently dipped his quill in the
best Quink that money could buy:

Steve Firth wrote:
wrote:


Normally done by some sort of sandblasting. Very laborious but
effective. It can be a diy job. The real work is cleaning up after.

Completely shags the beams, it's the chosen method of morons.

And why would it do that oh wise one?

I was told that the finish will look sandblasted and that the beams
rain sand for a long time after.

Mike P the 1st

Mike P the 1st wrote:
On Sat, 27 Mar 2010 18:08:49 -0000, "The Medway Handyman"
gently dipped his quill in the
best Quink that money could buy:

Steve Firth wrote:
wrote:

Normally done by some sort of sandblasting. Very laborious but
effective. It can be a diy job. The real work is cleaning up after.
Completely shags the beams, it's the chosen method of morons.
And why would it do that oh wise one?

I was told that the finish will look sandblasted

As might be expected if you blast it with sand :-)
However, there are many other types of blast media - baking soda, walnut
shells, corn cob, and a whole range of plastic beads.
How many of these are practical in your living room I'm not sure, but
blasting is not a method to be dismissed based on its traditional
association with sand.


and that the beams
rain sand for a long time after.

Mike P the 1st

stuart noble wrote:

I was told that the finish will look sandblasted

As might be expected if you blast it with sand :-)
However, there are many other types of blast media - baking soda, walnut
shells, corn cob, and a whole range of plastic beads.
How many of these are practical in your living room I'm not sure, but
blasting is not a method to be dismissed based on its traditional
association with sand.

No, it's a method to be dismissed because it's ****e. And produces a lot
of ****e which hangs around your house forever. Every sandblasted finish
I have seen proudly touted by one builder after another has been
dreadful, no matter how they whittle on about walnut shells etc. The
method involves the least work for them, that's why they like it. It
ruins the appearance of the beams, and it's a great way to create a
house that rains grit on the occupants. Builders never, ever clean up
properly.

The wire brushing technique that I recommended is slower (just) but
produces a good finish provided that one uses a hand brush, not an angle
grinder.

chudford wrote:
My Daughter has just bought an old house with oak beams that have been
coated in thick black paint/varnish.
Is there any way that they can be stripped back to the original wood
surface in situ without wrecking the surrounding ceiling?

Depends on how thick and hard the paint is. I had thick distemper, paper
adhesive and other paints on several large oak beams. I used a scraper.
The best one I found was a large wood chisel used as a scraper, held at
about 75 degrees to the surface and pulled so that the bevel was on the
trailing side. Yes, it was hard work but the finish showed good grain
and was slightly polished. You can apply pressure in the right places
and tilt the scraper to follow the surface where needed. I used an old
1.5" chisel, but a 1" would be OK.


Peter Scott

Steve Firth wrote:
chudford wrote:

My Daughter has just bought an old house with oak beams that have been
coated in thick black paint/varnish.
Is there any way that they can be stripped back to the original wood
surface in situ without wrecking the surrounding ceiling?

It depends.

Builders will insist in sand-blasting beams to remove the old paint.
This is fine if you want to ruin everything inside the house and to
ensure that one will be eating sand in every meal for the next thirty
years.


Dont exaggerate. It only took about 5 hoovers a week apart to get all
the calcium carbonate out of te riooms.


I've found that gently wire brushing by hand produces the best results
but it is tedious work and will take several weeks to do.

Any mechanical means

Including wire brushing

will cause damage to the beams and that seems a
shame.

Its an unavoidable fact. You cannot get all the stuff OUT of the grain
without ripping it off, and some wood always comes too. The post
carbonate blast here was pretty decent: Yes, it raised the grain, but a
light sand was all it took to get a reasonable finish back.

Steve Firth wrote:
wrote:

Normally done by some sort of sandblasting. Very laborious but
effective. It can be a diy job. The real work is cleaning up after.

Completely shags the beams, it's the chosen method of morons.

As usual the only moron here is Firthfart.

Some of us of course have actually done, it and can speak from
experience rather than ignorance.

Mike P the 1st wrote:
On Sat, 27 Mar 2010 18:08:49 -0000, "The Medway Handyman"
gently dipped his quill in the
best Quink that money could buy:

Steve Firth wrote:
wrote:

Normally done by some sort of sandblasting. Very laborious but
effective. It can be a diy job. The real work is cleaning up after.
Completely shags the beams, it's the chosen method of morons.
And why would it do that oh wise one?

I was told that the finish will look sandblasted and that the beams
rain sand for a long time after.


So dont use sand and mask the cracks to the ceiling void.


Mike P the 1st

Steve Firth wrote:
stuart noble wrote:

I was told that the finish will look sandblasted
As might be expected if you blast it with sand :-)
However, there are many other types of blast media - baking soda, walnut
shells, corn cob, and a whole range of plastic beads.
How many of these are practical in your living room I'm not sure, but
blasting is not a method to be dismissed based on its traditional
association with sand.

No, it's a method to be dismissed because it's ****e. And produces a lot
of ****e which hangs around your house forever. Every sandblasted finish
I have seen proudly touted by one builder after another has been
dreadful, no matter how they whittle on about walnut shells etc. The
method involves the least work for them, that's why they like it. It
ruins the appearance of the beams, and it's a great way to create a
house that rains grit on the occupants. Builders never, ever clean up
properly.


true, but my contract with the blasters never included the clean up, and
they said that there will be dust we miss. That was fine., because we
expected that, and vacuumed a few times to remove it.

No builder was involved
The wire brushing technique that I recommended is slower (just) but
produces a good finish provided that one uses a hand brush, not an angle
grinder.

Er no, I used that as well, and the finish was much rougher than the
carbonate blasting.

Peter Scott wrote:
chudford wrote:
My Daughter has just bought an old house with oak beams that have been
coated in thick black paint/varnish.
Is there any way that they can be stripped back to the original wood
surface in situ without wrecking the surrounding ceiling?

Depends on how thick and hard the paint is. I had thick distemper, paper
adhesive and other paints on several large oak beams. I used a scraper.
The best one I found was a large wood chisel used as a scraper, held at
about 75 degrees to the surface and pulled so that the bevel was on the
trailing side. Yes, it was hard work but the finish showed good grain
and was slightly polished. You can apply pressure in the right places
and tilt the scraper to follow the surface where needed. I used an old
1.5" chisel, but a 1" would be OK.



That works on planed timber, but its useless of really old stuff done
with e.g. an adze.

It isn't anywhere near smooth to start with, so there is nothing to
scrape down TO.

Peter Scott

Steve Firth wrote:
stuart noble wrote:

I was told that the finish will look sandblasted
As might be expected if you blast it with sand :-)
However, there are many other types of blast media - baking soda, walnut
shells, corn cob, and a whole range of plastic beads.
How many of these are practical in your living room I'm not sure, but
blasting is not a method to be dismissed based on its traditional
association with sand.

No, it's a method to be dismissed because it's ****e.

That's that sorted then

stuart noble wrote:

Steve Firth wrote:
stuart noble wrote:

I was told that the finish will look sandblasted
As might be expected if you blast it with sand :-)
However, there are many other types of blast media - baking soda, walnut
shells, corn cob, and a whole range of plastic beads.
How many of these are practical in your living room I'm not sure, but
blasting is not a method to be dismissed based on its traditional
association with sand.

No, it's a method to be dismissed because it's ****e. And produces a lot
of ****e which hangs around your house forever. Every sandblasted finish
I have seen proudly touted by one builder after another has been
dreadful, no matter how they whittle on about walnut shells etc. The
method involves the least work for them, that's why they like it. It
ruins the appearance of the beams, and it's a great way to create a
house that rains grit on the occupants. Builders never, ever clean up
properly.

The wire brushing technique that I recommended is slower (just) but
produces a good finish provided that one uses a hand brush, not an angle
grinder.

That's

Heck, you can make anyone's post loo stupid by making unmarked edits.
Are you Drivel?

Last night I admired some sandblasted beams
in the HolyBush Inn, Glasbury, Haye on Wye,

origi8nally they were balck painted,
now a light colour.

Barbara said it cost her just £40 for a man to do it,
having covered everything in plastic.

And no, it wasnt dripping sand
(but not carpets beneath, and a busy pub with muddy garden outside
so maybe she wouldnt notice

[g]


Steve Firth wrote:
stuart noble wrote:

I was told that the finish will look sandblasted
As might be expected if you blast it with sand :-)
However, there are many other types of blast media - baking soda, walnut
shells, corn cob, and a whole range of plastic beads.
How many of these are practical in your living room I'm not sure, but
blasting is not a method to be dismissed based on its traditional
association with sand.

No, it's a method to be dismissed because it's ****e. And produces a lot
of ****e which hangs around your house forever. Every sandblasted finish
I have seen proudly touted by one builder after another has been
dreadful, no matter how they whittle on about walnut shells etc. The
method involves the least work for them, that's why they like it. It
ruins the appearance of the beams, and it's a great way to create a
house that rains grit on the occupants. Builders never, ever clean up
properly.

The wire brushing technique that I recommended is slower (just) but
produces a good finish provided that one uses a hand brush, not an angle
grinder.

Steve Firth wrote:
stuart noble wrote:

Steve Firth wrote:
stuart noble wrote:

I was told that the finish will look sandblasted
As might be expected if you blast it with sand :-)
However, there are many other types of blast media - baking soda, walnut
shells, corn cob, and a whole range of plastic beads.
How many of these are practical in your living room I'm not sure, but
blasting is not a method to be dismissed based on its traditional
association with sand.
No, it's a method to be dismissed because it's ****e. And produces a lot
of ****e which hangs around your house forever. Every sandblasted finish
I have seen proudly touted by one builder after another has been
dreadful, no matter how they whittle on about walnut shells etc. The
method involves the least work for them, that's why they like it. It
ruins the appearance of the beams, and it's a great way to create a
house that rains grit on the occupants. Builders never, ever clean up
properly.

The wire brushing technique that I recommended is slower (just) but
produces a good finish provided that one uses a hand brush, not an angle
grinder.

That's

Heck, you can make anyone's post loo stupid by making unmarked edits.

If the cap fits, don't pull it over your eyebrows.
I have enough experience with wood finishing not to dismiss any
particular method of abrasion. "Builders" are probably not the best
people to be carrying out what is, after all, a specialised job.

On Friday, March 26, 2010 at 5:23:43 PM UTC, chudford wrote:
My Daughter has just bought an old house with oak beams that have been
coated in thick black paint/varnish.
Is there any way that they can be stripped back to the original wood
surface in situ without wrecking the surrounding ceiling?

If you don't want the mess of stripping or sand blasting, try this company: www.pillarpost.co

On Friday, March 26, 2010 at 5:23:43 PM UTC, chudford wrote:
My Daughter has just bought an old house with oak beams that have been
coated in thick black paint/varnish.
Is there any way that they can be stripped back to the original wood
surface in situ without wrecking the surrounding ceiling?

If you don't want the mess of stripping or sand blasting, try this company: www.pillarpost.co

wrote:
On Friday, March 26, 2010 at 5:23:43 PM UTC, chudford wrote:
My Daughter has just bought an old house with oak beams that have been
coated in thick black paint/varnish.
Is there any way that they can be stripped back to the original wood
surface in situ without wrecking the surrounding ceiling?

If you don't want the mess of stripping or sand blasting, try this company...


I suspect you're six years too late with your spam.

Tim

--
Trolls and troll feeders go in my killfile

On 07/07/16 13:20, wrote:
On Friday, March 26, 2010 at 5:23:43 PM UTC, chudford wrote:
My Daughter has just bought an old house with oak beams that have been
coated in thick black paint/varnish.
Is there any way that they can be stripped back to the original wood
surface in situ without wrecking the surrounding ceiling?

If you don't want the mess of stripping or sand blasting, try this company: www.pillarpost.co

bead blasting. Mask between though


--
Future generations will wonder in bemused amazement that the early
twenty-first centurys developed world went into hysterical panic over a
globally average temperature increase of a few tenths of a degree, and,
on the basis of gross exaggerations of highly uncertain computer
projections combined into implausible chains of inference, proceeded to
contemplate a rollback of the industrial age.

Richard Lindzen

The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 07/07/16 13:20, wrote:
On Friday, March 26, 2010 at 5:23:43 PM UTC, chudford wrote:
My Daughter has just bought an old house with oak beams that have been
coated in thick black paint/varnish.
Is there any way that they can be stripped back to the original wood
surface in situ without wrecking the surrounding ceiling?

If you don't want the mess of stripping or sand blasting, try this
company: www.pillarpost.co

bead blasting. Mask between though


Dry ice blasting is the way to go - very impressive results

replying to chudford, Morkle wrote:
If you don't want the mess of stripping or sand blasting, try this company:
www.pillarpost.co

--
posted from
http://www.homeownershub.com/uk-diy/...ms-622549-.htm

On 07/07/2016 17:13, Bob Minchin wrote:
Dry ice blasting is the way to go - very impressive results

How much mess does it make? We've got oak beams some kind soul painted
black.

Andy

replying to The Natural Philosopher, martaheine wrote:
With the trend and craze, we tend to go with the flow and after a few days
decided to change it into an entirely new look. SO when an oak beam that has
been painted or varnished is need of total makeover, it is still possible to
be transformed into it's natural state before. You can safely remove the paint
from the wood through the use of heat gun, chemical strippers or the method of
dipping using a chemical procedure. Another option is using mechanical sanding
and even sandblasting methods.


--
for full context, visit https://www.homeownershub.com/uk-diy...ms-622549-.htm

On 12/12/2017 02:14, martaheine wrote:



replying to The Natural Philosopher 7 years later martaheine wrote....


Please see
http://wiki.diyfaq.org.uk/index.php/Home_owners_hub



--
mailto : news {at} admac {dot} myzen {dot} co {dot} uk

On 12/12/2017 02:14, martaheine wrote:
replying to The Natural Philosopher, martaheine wrote:
With the trend and craze, we tend to go with the flow and after a few days
decided to change it into an entirely new look. SO when an oak beam that
has
been painted or varnished is need of total makeover, it is still
possible to
be transformed into it's natural state before. You can safely remove the
paint
from the wood through the use of heat gun, chemical strippers or the
method of
dipping using a chemical procedure. Another option is using mechanical
sanding
and even sandblasting methods.

Ignoring the 7 years (which is nothing to these beams) I'd be fascinated
to know how I am going to dip the structural timbers of my house in any
sort of chemical.

Andy

On Friday, March 26, 2010 at 5:23:43 PM UTC, chudford wrote:
My Daughter has just bought an old house with oak beams that have been
coated in thick black paint/varnish.
Is there any way that they can be stripped back to the original wood
surface in situ without wrecking the surrounding ceiling?

Firstly, consider not stripping. The black is part and parcel of the history of the house. If she is determined to impose her stamp on the beams then there are products with gels that will strip off paint but they are particularly unpleasant to operate and you simply protect the adjacent ceiling with duct tape or the like.
I used https://www.stripperspaintremovers.com/ the one was 4-F for stone but gear up with all the safety stuff
Chris G

On Friday, March 26, 2010 at 5:23:43 PM UTC, chudford wrote:
My Daughter has just bought an old house with oak beams that have been
coated in thick black paint/varnish.
Is there any way that they can be stripped back to the original wood
surface in situ without wrecking the surrounding ceiling?

PS never use sanding or abrasion techniques - you will remove any remaining patina left after modest chemical action to remove surface layers of paint
Chris G

On Friday, 15 December 2017 20:53:26 UTC, Vir Campestris wrote:
On 12/12/2017 02:14, martaheine wrote:
replying to The Natural Philosopher, martaheine wrote:

With the trend and craze, we tend to go with the flow and after a few days
decided to change it into an entirely new look. SO when an oak beam that
has
been painted or varnished is need of total makeover, it is still
possible to
be transformed into it's natural state before. You can safely remove the
paint
from the wood through the use of heat gun, chemical strippers or the
method of
dipping using a chemical procedure. Another option is using mechanical
sanding
and even sandblasting methods.

Ignoring the 7 years (which is nothing to these beams) I'd be fascinated
to know how I am going to dip the structural timbers of my house in any
sort of chemical.

Andy

Lol. What a hoot

On 15/12/2017 22:33, wrote:
Firstly, consider not stripping. The black is part and parcel of the history of the house.

The black in our house post-dates the installation of electric wiring
and central heating. (it's brown under switches etc).

That's not very historical.

Andy