Does anyone have advice for stripping paint from limestone?
My sills and porch trim are painted and I'm wondering how difficult it would be to remove the paint. I've used heat and steam to remove paint from other surfaces, but never tried on stone and worry about damage it with scraping. Are there other methods out there?
Discussion
I've run into this a few times and used chemicals, wood chips, and a plastic brush. Test to make sure the chemicals do not discolour the stone, and after finding they are ok, proceed. Drape the area, then wet the sill/trim to be stripped. Cover with plastic to keep wet and let it do its work for as long as your manufacturer advises. Then remove plastic, sprinkle with a good amount of fairly fine wood chips and start scrubbing. The chips act as an abrasive while not damaging anything. Works on wood too. You can go all the way down to sawdust if there are minute crevices. Just keep wiping back to check your progress and rinse with water or mineral spirits when done.
I usually just use a heat gun, but it seems tougher when it's on brick (my only experience). I've heard that old paint comes up better with heat if you first brush on linseed oil and let it sit overnight. Haven't tried it yet. If everything fails, you might need to go to some king of rotary paint eater tool.