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A job in Savannah taught me to always check for old shellac under new paint
I was stripping a dresser for a client there last fall, working through layers of white latex paint. Under the third coat, my scraper hit something amber and gummy that gummed up the whole pad in seconds. The homeowner said her granddad had 'touched it up' in the 70s, but he'd used a shellac-based primer over the original finish. I lost half a day and three pads before I switched to denatured alcohol to soften it first. Now I do a small spot test with alcohol on any painted piece that feels old. Has anyone else run into this, and what's your go-to method for dealing with it?
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ruby6596d ago
Oh, that gummy amber mess is the worst. Working on an old kitchen cabinet, the scraper just smeared it into a sticky glaze. A bit of lacquer thinner on a rag softened it right up so it could be wiped off. It cuts through that old shellac much faster than alcohol, but you really need good airflow.
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tessaperry6d ago
That spot test with alcohol is a lifesaver. I learned the hard way too, but on a door frame. The shellac was so old it had turned into this weird, brittle plastic that just powdered. A 50/50 mix of ammonia and warm water actually broke it down better than straight alcohol for that one. It smells awful but it works.
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ericw935d ago
My old house had that same brittle shellac on every window sill. I tried ammonia once and the smell stuck around for days, like a cat box exploded. Never again, I'll just deal with the powdered mess.
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