How to Remove Latex Paint From Wainscoting

If you are planning to remove latex paint from your wainscoting, you should use particular strategies based on your specific goals for the surface. If you need to eliminate minor paint drips and splatters, you can accomplish your goal by utilizing simple household tools. If you want to strip the wainscoting bare, you must use a paint-stripping solvent. Know the proper ways to apply the solvent and take appropriate safety precautions, or you could damage the underlying wood and risk personal injury.

Stripping Paint

• 1

  Using a plastic putty knife, scrape large sections of failing paint from the wainscoting. Using a coarse, 80-grit sandpaper, sand stubborn paint from the wood.

• 2

  Put on a respirator.

• 3

  Place plastic dropcloths beneath the wainscoting.

• 4

  Using an oil paintbrush, apply stripping solvent to a 3-foot by 3-foot area of the wainscoting.

• 5

  Wait 60 seconds for the solvent to loosen the paint. Using the putty knife and 80-grit sandpaper, remove remaining latex paint. Continue until the wainscoting is bare.

• 6

  Wait 10 to 20 minutes for the stripping solvent to evaporate.

Removing Paint Drips

• 1

  Dampen a shop rag with olive oil.

• 2

  Use the rag to lubricate the wainscoting by applying olive oil to the latex paint drips and splatters.

• 3

  Cover the scraping end of a plastic putty knife with a piece of terry cloth.

• 4

  Using the terry cloth as a buffer between the scraper and the wood, use the putty knife to scrape the latex paint drips and splatters from the lubricated wainscoting.