woodwork

Heatgun or Nitromoors & a paint scraper.

paint stripper or burn the paint off then sand

Hi. Quite often it is best to use a heat gun to strip back to wood. Easy enough with sills, skirtings etc but quite tricky with architraves. When the budget won't allow for such procedures it is possible to fill the 'face' of the surface with wood filler ( as long as paint underneath is sound ) ; but this would involve a fair bit of sanding ! There are some photos of a window sill ( before and after ) on my profile page Regards, Candyman Interiors

burn them off or use nitromorse

Get a decent heat gun and scraper and remove all the paint back to the wood work, takes a long time but worth it. Once down to bare timber sand down REALLY well and make sure no existing paint or undercoat is left. Most importantly leave the bare timber for a few days before touching it again, this will give it time to breath, you then dont get anything coming out into your new paint. To be on the safeside i would undercoat with B I N, you can find it in most diy shops then topcoat in whatever you like, e.g gloss, satin or matt.

The best you can properly do is hire yourself a detailing sander if you dont really enjoy sanding it will do it alot quicker for you and will get a nice smooth finish.

Hi, You could try heat gun and scraper, gets you back to the bare wood. Still abit laborious but not as much as sanding your fingers to the bone.

I AM NO EXPERT IN THIS HOW EVER HAVING WORKED WITH DAD IN HIS PAINTING AND DECORATING BUISNESS MANY YEARS AGO WOULD SAY HAVE YOU TRIED USING A HEAT GUN AND SCRAPER IT SHOULD BLISTER THE PAINT MAKING IT EASY TO GET OFF I RECENTLY DECORATED AND WALL PAPERED MY LIVING ROOM AND THEN LAMINATED THE LIVING ROOM FLOOR AND WHILE DOING THE FLOORING TOOK THE SKIRTS OFF AND THEY WHERE IN A BAY AS WELL BUT WITH MY HEAT GUN AND SCRAPER THE JOB WAS MADE A LOT LESS TEDIOUS (ALWAYS WHERE A MAKE WHEN DOING THAT TYPE OF JOB AS THE FUMES WONT SMELL NICE AND ALSO ARE NOT GOOD FOR YOU

Festool Rotex 90 and Grannat grade sandpaper,use the detail head and you will strip those windows in 15minutes flat, take my word for it, i can do them in 5/7 minutes but i do this for a living.Use 60Grit to start and once you have covered whole window go to an 80 grit and the same again and go up to 120 and your ready to prime,then put a 240 grit on,undercoat sand,1st coat sandfinal coat, to rotex to polish mode. You will have more or less new windows,this is 2012 you dont have to sand your fingers away theres amazing power tools out there if your willing to invest in your business, these tools will bring controlled quick performance and leave your customers with loverly prepped and decorated surfaces. kind regards chris