When repairing an apartment, it is not always necessary to change the old flooring, as it is in good enough condition. Often the paint on which the floor is treated is also resistant and cannot be removed: in some areas it was worn out, but in the far corners it was perfectly preserved. Therefore, before proceeding with the repair, it is necessary to determine how to remove the paint from the floor.
- Why remove the old paintwork
- Paint Removal Methods
- Mechanical cleaning
- Heat treatment
- Chemical method
Why remove the old paintwork
Painting floors is one of the most popular types of finishes, as the paint provides a decent appearance and protection from external influences. Its use for wooden surfaces is widespread, since they suffer most from high humidity, are prone to fading in the sun, and are often damaged by pests.
Before painting the floor with new paint, you need to clean the existing one. Sometimes it is possible to paint directly on top of the old coating, but there is a risk of forming too thick a layer, which may interfere with the free opening and closing of doors. In addition, cracks often appear on the paint, and if the coating is not removed, they will also appear on a fresh surface.
Before removing old paint, it is important to understand what material the floor is made of. The cleaning method directly depends on this:
- Wooden floor. Usually, removing a decorative coating from such a surface is not difficult, but one nuance must be taken into account. Often floorboards are attached to logs using ordinary nails, in which case it is better to refuse to use some tools. Devices such as an electric planer or a grinder can simply break down by bumping into a nail.
- Self-leveling floors. It’s easiest to clean them from paint - absolutely any tool is perfect for this. It happens that when filling on the surface, irregularities are formed, but it is easy to remove the coating from them manually, unless it takes a little longer.
- Ceramic tiles and linoleum are best cleaned using a building hair dryer, as any other method increases the risk of damage to both the surfaces themselves and the tools used.
Paint Removal Methods
There are three options for how to effectively clean the floor from old paint:
- mechanical;
- chemical;
- thermal.
Traditionally, the first two methods are used for a wooden floor. However, the most modern is the thermal method that allows you to perform the work most efficiently.
to contents ↑If none of the options helped to cope with a firmly stuck paint, then experts recommend completely changing the floors.
Mechanical cleaning
To clean the floor from old paint mechanically, a variety of tools are used, both manual and electric. The latter are convenient, since they do not require much effort. Commonly used for processing large areas.
Hand-held devices are used in situations where the task is to clean hard-to-reach areas, a limited area or remove paint that is already starting to peel off and leaves quite easily.These include all kinds of scrapers, sandpaper devices, brushes and spatulas.
Traditionally, they use a grinding machine (angle grinder or grinder) for mechanical cleaning, on which a special nozzle is installed in the form of a wire brush. Instead of a grinder, you can try to use a drill with a metal brush installed on it. Specialists also often use surface grinders to free the floor from old paint.
You can use the sandblasting method. It consists in the fact that a powerful jet of a mixture of water and small abrasive particles is directed to the surface. Under the influence of high pressure in this way, even a layer of rust can be effectively removed. Its most advantageous advantage is that there is no need to pre-prepare the surface. In addition, this method allows you to clean inaccessible places as quickly as possible and without unnecessary effort.
Mechanical methods are used in cases where there is no need to completely remove the paint layer, and it is enough to remove the areas that began to exfoliate. In addition, they are universal: they allow you to remove any kind of coating.
to contents ↑Heat treatment
This is a method in which the old paint layer is heated to a temperature at which it becomes soft and is removed with a spatula. Different types of equipment are used for heating: building hair dryers, blowtorches and even gas burners.
This technique is very effective and allows you to quickly prepare the surface, which is then planned to be repainted. However, it has its drawbacks and limitations, and they can not be ignored:
- The use of this method in closed rooms with poor ventilation is extremely undesirable, since most paints emit toxic fumes that are harmful to the human body when heated.
- The use of heat treatment is not possible for plastic surfaces. With increasing temperature, they tend to deform.
- To remove paint from plaster, metalwork and concrete floor, this method is completely useless.
But if necessary paint wood floors with new paint, then it is thermal cleaning that will be the fastest and most effective way to prepare the surface. The thick paint layer softens, swells with increasing temperature, and is easy to clean.
to contents ↑After removing the paint material, it is allowed to apply a fresh coating without additional preparatory procedures.
Chemical method
For this method, specially developed formulations of various chemicals are used: solvents, acids and caustic alkalis. The product is applied using a convenient brush, sometimes in several layers, between the application of which they withstand an interval of five minutes to half an hour. It is important to remember safety precautions: before using the compositions, it is imperative to wear protective gloves and carefully study the instructions for the use of chemicals.
The paint either dissolves completely or becomes soft, and then it needs to be cleaned off and the residues washed off with white spirit. Only then can the floors be repainted.
The main advantage of this method can be considered the ease of its application. But it is important to be careful, as many chemicals are toxic, and it is best to use them only on small areas of the surface.
The chemical method most effectively copes with fairly fresh paint, which was applied no more than two years ago. If the coating is older, then it is likely that you will need to process it several times. In most cases, each composition is used to remove a certain type of paint, information about this can be found on the label.
What specific cleaning method to use before repainting the floors depends on many factors: surface type, type of paint, repair budget and surface condition. Only by evaluating all of these aspects can a decision be made on how to remove coverage.
