Painting & Decorating

Advice on removing/preparing tricky coving and heat gun question.

Anonymous user 28/02/2024 - 2.54 PM

Hi, I would be grateful for a bit of advice before I waste lots more time. We recently bought a Edwardian maisonette that just needs pretty much everything doing. Every room needs stripping and starting from scratch. Anyway, things are going fine but our lounge has sculptured coving (plaster) which has numerous grooves (about 7-8) and the paint is cracked in places an lifting. My problem is how on earth I can tackle it. Ideally I would just like to strip it away to paint fresh. The problem is, bits and pieces come away fairly easy but Im not sure the easiest way to get rid of rest. I have small stripper tools in various shapes and sizes but Im getting nowhere fast. The steamer cant get close enough to really do anything. Whats the best thing to do? 1) just sand the areas where paint has lifted to smooth edges then just paint. 2) Spend possible 3 yrs scraping tiny bits and pieces away. 3) Get good sensible advice off here before cracking on with either. I could remove the whole coving but it really is nice and probably wouldnt find anything close to it it, and as its plaster it will be a tricky messy job to get rid. Second question, Bought a heat gun for the paint on wood doors, works a treat! Bubbles in seconds. Im completely baffled why it has no effect on the metal fire place paint. It had no effect before using paint stripper (which is v slow, ineffective and messy). My Gf bought some strip away caustic stuff which was pretty good (VERY messy) and the paint is halfway there to removal. Again, using the heat gun for the remaining patches does nothing. weird? I also tried it on coving to see if it would bubble and lift, but no, nothing again. Im baffled. Sorry for the long one. Any advice welcome Cheers Dave