Sunday, June 6, 2010

STRIPPER SHOWDOWN

OK people...if google lead you here for anything other than furniture finish stripping get to steppin'

This here post is about a furniture stripper showdown officiated by my boy Tank......pictured below.

Don't worry we had good ventilation and Tank was lounging in the yard while the work was done.

First thing I must confess is that my ignorance is what lead me to this showdown. I painted a laminate table black. I used Deglosser instead of sanding and that was only the beginning of my foolishness.
It sat in the center of the garage as I moved on to other immediate gratification projects. Somehow it got over spray on it from these other projects....imagine that! Then one day when we were cleaning out and organizing the basement it sat in the hot sun for hours. To my surprise when we brought it in it was hot to the touch and the paint had bubbled. UGHHHH!

Lesson learned....SAND!!!!!

I decided that I would strip it down and start again. I have three different strippers and wanted to know which was best.

Citristrip Gel, Olympic Premium, and Klean Strip
I started with putting Citristrip and Olympic on half of the table

waited about 15 minutes.....very impatient!


Tank says that Citristrip did a better job on the real wood on the edges and the formica top. He noted that it wasn't as stinky either.
He said that round goes to Citristrip!!!

Now the reason we saved one whole side  for the Klean Strip is because it says it is #1 and smells like it could eat your lungs. We thought it would melt that paint like butta'!


People we thought we had a winner here....it bubbled up in seconds. The formika came off like butta' so we got a little excited

When we got to the wood it was another story....

What a disappointment! Had to go around the edges with Citristrip to get the rest off.

Tank declares CITRISTRIP the challenge winner!
The bottle says it is safe to use indoors. I believe it....the smell is like an orange grove and it worked like butta baby!

Do you have a stripper that you would like to put up against Citristrip? Bring it!

3 comments:

Anita @ GoingALittleCoastal said...

Thanks so much for doing this little experiment for us. Great to know. I haven't stripped in awhile. But I will give the citristrip a try when I do!
Love Tank's face. It's like "huh? you want me to do what?" Does he have allergies? My dog gets pink like that around the mouth when his allergies kick in.

Tracy's Trinkets and Treasures said...

Very informative post. Can you just do a weekly post about testing products and save us all time? I think your assitant, Tank, must be present every week as well.

Tracy's Trinkets and Treasures said...

I have to tell you when I saw your post on my sidebar that said Stripper Showdown and showed a pic of your dog, I was a little afraid that your dog pulled your shorts down or something in your front yard. My mind thinks really weird sometimes. I am so glad you stayed dressed and your table got stripped.