Nitromors Craftsman Strip: Removing 4 Layers of Paint from a Georgian Skirting Panel

Four coats on a Georgian skirting panel usually break down into a bottom layer of lead-based oil paint, a mid-layer or two of alkyd gloss from the 1970s onward, and a top skin of modern water-based acrylic. Each layer reacts at a different pace to methylene-chloride-free strippers. Nitromors reformulated Craftsman Strip in 2010 after the EU restricted dichloromethane in consumer products, and the present gel works more slowly than the old solvent version. Allow 15 to 30 minutes of dwell on gloss. The oldest oil layers need closer to an hour, and cling film over the fresh gel keeps it wet long enough to bite through the paint.

Why the bottom layer resists longest

The problem coat is usually the one nearest the timber. Pre-1960 skirting in a Georgian house often carries lead oil paint that has cross-linked over decades into a hard, brittle film. Modern strippers soften it unevenly, leaving clean patches beside areas that smear under the scraper.

Work in sections no wider than 30cm. Brush the gel on thickly, aiming for a full 2mm bead, then press cling film over the treated area and use the long end of the dwell window.

When the film comes away and the paint has turned into a soft brown paste, use a 25mm Bahco carbide scraper at a low angle. The paint should lift in ribbons. A steep blade angle cuts into the softwood, and Georgian skirting is usually deal or pine that bruises easily.

Lead paint changes the way the waste is handled. Wet scrapings go into a sealed heavy-gauge bag for disposal, and the household bin is the wrong place for them. Dry sanding any suspected lead layer creates the hazardous dust the job is meant to avoid.

A damp scrape keeps the residue bound into the stripper gel. If a home lead test swab from a decorating merchant turns pink on the bottom coat, keep the rest of the work wet from that point onward.

Rushing this stage usually costs more time than it saves. A half-softened lead oil layer smears, clogs the scraper and forces a second pass of gel over wood that has already started to dry.

Neutralising before filler or finish

Nitromors Craftsman Strip leaves an alkaline residue. Wipe the stripped timber with white spirit, then make a second pass with clean water on a cloth. Leave the board to dry for a full day before filler or finish goes near it. Residue left in the grain can interfere with hard wax oil, leaving the surface curing poorly over contaminated timber.

Filling gouges and open grain on the cleaned panel

Once the four layers are off, the bare skirting shows every scraper mark and every original nail hole. Georgian softwood also has open grain that absorbed paint for a century, so the pores often read darker than the surrounding face of the board.

For structural gouges, a two-part wood filler such as Ronseal High Performance sets in around 30 minutes and takes a screw if the skirting has to be refixed. Hairline scraper marks can be handled with a flexible interior filler. Depth decides the product: anything that catches a fingernail needs the two-part filler, while shallower marks close with fine surface filler and a light sand at 180 grit.

Grain filling is a separate choice. If the panel is going back to paint, primer can bridge the pores. If the board is heading for a clear or oiled finish, an open-pore appearance suits Georgian deal, and a filled-flat surface can look out of place. On a 3-metre run of skirting with roughly a dozen nail holes and two deep gouges, one 275ml tube of two-part filler covers the work with material to spare. The 30-minute cure also means the whole run can be sanded in a single afternoon session instead of being left overnight.

Softwood punishes rushed sanding. A random-orbital sander at 120 grit followed by 180 grit flattens the two-part filler without dishing the softer surrounding pine. Hand-sanding with a cork block along the grain gives the final pass on profiled sections, especially the beading that sits out of reach for machine sanding.

When veneer has a water ring

Some Georgian rooms combine plain skirting with veneered dado or cupboard panels, and those surfaces bring a different fault. A white water ring in veneer is usually moisture trapped in the shellac or lacquer film above the veneer. The timber itself is often still untouched.

Heat is the first tool. Hold a hairdryer 15cm off the surface, keep it moving, and drive the trapped moisture out of the finish. The white bloom often clears in a couple of minutes.

If the mark remains after heat, a light cut with Liberon Black Bison wax on 0000-grade wire wool can work the ring out of the surface while preserving the veneer. Old veneer can be under a millimetre thick. Once the cut reaches the groundwork beneath, wax has no way to hide the damage.

A dark ring means water has passed through the finish and entered the veneer. It requires oxalic acid crystals mixed to a saturated solution, brushed on, left to work and then neutralised. That treatment bleaches the surface and also lightens nearby wood, so the whole panel usually needs to be treated to keep the colour even.

Choosing the topcoat: hard wax oil or traditional wax

Osmo Polyx-Oil 3032 suits a stripped Georgian panel that is going clear. It is a hard wax oil, so it partly enters the timber and partly forms a surface film, giving better resistance to light domestic knocks than straight wax. Two thin coats applied with a lint-free cloth or an Osmo floor pad give a low-sheen surface that matches the muted look of period joinery. Leave the first coat to cure for 8 to 10 hours before applying the second. The common mistake is a heavy coat: excess Polyx-Oil stays tacky for days because it cannot cure properly. Within the first hour, the fix is a hard wipe-back with a cloth dampened in white spirit.

Liberon Black Bison wax behaves differently. It is a beeswax and carnauba paste that builds sheen through buffing, though it offers little protection against water or handling. On skirting, shoes and vacuum cleaners mark it quickly. Its best place is on veneered upper panels that see little contact, where the deep hand-buffed shine is worth the fragile surface. On a skirting board that meets a mop and a hoover several times a week, Osmo holds up while Bison wears quickly.

Colour temperature separates the two finishes as well. Polyx-Oil warms softwood noticeably and pulls amber tones out of old pine. Clear Black Bison wax stays closer to the raw sanded colour. Testing both on an offcut of the same stripped skirting matters because the amber shift on 200-year-old deal can be stronger than a sample card suggests.

Glue before finish

A loose spindle or a sprung skirting mitre has to be fixed before finishing. Titebond III or a good PVA goes into a clean, dry joint, clamped for the full open time. A finish laid over a moving joint cracks along the line within weeks.

Movement after the last layer

Paint removal also exposes the board’s movement history. A Georgian skirting painted a dozen times has passed through a dozen winters of central heating, a condition that did not exist when the timber was cut. The softwood may have shrunk and cupped around its fixings.

The fit against the plaster often becomes clearer after the final scrape. On some runs the cleaned skirting lies flat; on others, the old paint had been masking a warp along the wall. The awkward part is that the board can look cleaner while sitting less obediently against the plaster.