There's nothing like a good stripper. A soy based paint stripper, I mean. With any home renovation you have to deal with a lot of old paint and adhesive. I’ve decided to go with a product called SOY-Gel by a company called Franmar. They make lots of green, soy based removers and cleaners. Soy-Gel is made from 100% American grown soy beans! It’s biodegradable, non-caustic, and non-hazardous. Plus, there’s no harsh odor like with other paint removers, which makes these types of jobs so much more enjoyable and so much healthier. You’re just not filling the air (and your lungs) with all of those harsh chemicals.
A quick trip out to Amicus Green Building Center in Kensington, Maryland and I was in business. I purchased the gallon size to test on a small area of the fireplace and it worked great. No muss no fuss. So, off to the kitchen I went. I tore up the existing linoleum kitchen floor to discover not one, not two, but THREE layers of linoleum (see inset below). The linoleum came up with a lot of good old fashion elbow grease, but then there was the adhesive. I scraped off as much loose stuff as I could, then it was time for the stripper to take center stage (pun intended.) The SOY-Gel revealed the original golden color of the oak underneath. The only part I had trouble with was my own patience. You should let it sit for at least an hour. Let it do its job so you can do yours. As you can see from the pictures the difference is pretty incredible.
Mission accomplished on the kitchen floor, but there’s about 40 years of paint in this place, so I think I'll be using a lot of this stuff. Back to Amicus for the five gallon bucket.
A quick trip out to Amicus Green Building Center in Kensington, Maryland and I was in business. I purchased the gallon size to test on a small area of the fireplace and it worked great. No muss no fuss. So, off to the kitchen I went. I tore up the existing linoleum kitchen floor to discover not one, not two, but THREE layers of linoleum (see inset below). The linoleum came up with a lot of good old fashion elbow grease, but then there was the adhesive. I scraped off as much loose stuff as I could, then it was time for the stripper to take center stage (pun intended.) The SOY-Gel revealed the original golden color of the oak underneath. The only part I had trouble with was my own patience. You should let it sit for at least an hour. Let it do its job so you can do yours. As you can see from the pictures the difference is pretty incredible.
Mission accomplished on the kitchen floor, but there’s about 40 years of paint in this place, so I think I'll be using a lot of this stuff. Back to Amicus for the five gallon bucket.
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