And more stripping

Another weekend of more stripping paint from the molding along with cleaning up the calcimine from the ceiling. The paint stripping is done using the speed heater along with Citristrip.

The top layer is modern oil-based paint. The middle layer is lead paint. The last layer is the original shellac finish.

Sadly I uncovered a layer of paint on the molding that tested for lead. So now I need to make sure I'm extra careful when removing things. I've always worn a mask during the work and since I'm using stripper plus an infrared heater, I'm hoping that these 2 methods will reduce lead issues as opposed to sanding. The problem is that even after heating the paint, the still needs to be some scraping to get the paint off. Also, I just have a Shop Vac so I'm thinking that I'll need to invest in a HEPA vacuum to clean up the paint chips. A couple of issues with finding a HEPA vacuum for lead removal is that it’s not just a matter of buying a HEPA filter for an existing Shop Vac. The EPA published guidelines that the vacuum must be completely sealed, but the EPA doesn’t have a list of certified vacuums. Without that certification, you have to trust the manufacturers’ own certification. EPA-compliant vacuums are a bit more expensive and looking at reviews, they mostly get mixed reviews, so it I’m not eager to drop a few hundred bucks on something that may not really work.

Making my way around the molding.

Starting on the door.

 The ceiling cleaning involves lots of scrubbing with sudsy water to try and remove all the remnants of popcorn and calcimine. I bought a squeegee to help clean off the water rather than spreading the mess around on the ceiling, but after each application, things still come off with white calcimine rather than clean.

Ceiling is getting clean. All popcorn removed and now can see the original plaster.

This feral cat is always hanging around the house.