Stripping paint may not be a fun thing to do when home painting in Pleasanton, but dealing with noxious-smelling strippers makes the job even more arduous.
Nowadays, San Francisco Bay Area residents want safer, less back-breaking, and more eco-friendly ways to strip paints, acrylics, epoxies, urethanes, and enamels.
Eco-friendly paint strippers are typically water-based products made from 100% natural and biodegradable ingredients. They contain less or zero amounts of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Thus, they produce fewer fumes and do not emit noxious odors, making them safe for the family and the environment.
If you’re concerned about their effectiveness, eco-friendly paint strippers can strip paint as effectively as chemical-based ones. However, the application may be different, and they may work more slowly in removing paint since they use organic ingredients.
As for the pricing — in the case of commercially manufactured paint strippers, you can expect that they may cost a little more than conventional paint strippers, but it’s only a small price to pay for the additional benefits of safety and friendliness to the environment. But other solutions are cheap and can be found straight from your kitchen pantry!
Looking for eco-friendly paint strippers? The following lists some of the popular variants:
1) Soy
Soy-based paint strippers typically come in gel form. They contain methyl soyate, a methyl ester distilled from soybean oil, so you can be sure that these products are from 100% soybeans.
Soy-based paint strippers are low in VOCs and have a low inflammability. You can use soy-based paint strippers to remove paint or other coatings from any surface – wood, concrete, or metal. Since soy-based paint strippers don’t evaporate or drip, they remain on the paint surface several hours after application. The longer the soy-based stripper remains on the paint, the easier the removal will be.
2) Citrus
Citrus-based paint strippers contain natural and organic compounds called terpenes. Another type of terpene used in paint removal is turpentine, produced from pine resin.
Like their soy gel-based counterparts, citrus paint strippers may also work slowly in stripping off paint. It’s best to leave the product for several hours after applying it to a painted surface. While they have low VOCs and harmful fumes, citrus paint strippers give off a pleasant orange scent.
NOTE: soy-based gel and citrus paint strippers are biodegradable, but it doesn’t mean that they’re completely safe. They still contain some harmful chemicals, that’s why they should be disposed of properly.
3) Baking soda and boiling water
Baking soda has proven to be versatile not just for cooking but also for various household uses.
Please note that this solution only works when you’re trying to remove paint from metal surfaces. If you have to remove paint from metal parts (such as metal grills) or any other pieces of metal hardware that were splattered with paint, this solution has proven to be effective in stripping it off. The heat from the boiling water helps expand the metal and the paint at different rates, causing the bond between them to break.
Removing paint may not be a fun thing to do when home painting in Pleasanton, but it is necessary for specific situations, such as correcting a poorly done past paint job. Fortunately, these eco-friendly paint strippers will make the job less burdensome. Just apply the paint stripper to any surface from which you want to remove the paint. Then, leave it for several hours until the old paint looks ready to be stripped off – no need to scrub, sand, or scrape. Plus, you won’t have to inhale noxious fumes because these stripping solutions are safe for humans and friendly for the environment.