Proven ways to remove paint from bathroom walls yourself

Paint on a bathroom wall can be a serious obstacle when carrying out renovation work. It is difficult to get rid of it, since it was most often applied to concrete.

The process of removing it is associated with dust, noise and an impressive amount of time. However, not all methods of removing old coating are so complicated.

Knowing the basic methods of removing paint, you can choose the best option for yourself. We'll tell you how to remove paint from bathroom walls in this article.

How to quickly remove old paint?

To get rid of old paint on the wall, you need to consider some points:

1. 
   The humidity level in the bathroom is high. Therefore, the old coating most often comes off the walls without difficulty. This is especially true when the composition is applied to plaster. It is easy to remove it mechanically.

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2. To combat paint that is applied directly to concrete, it is better to use chemical compounds.
   This coating is not afraid of moisture, so it does not peel off the walls. If you try to remove it with an ax or chisel, you can seriously damage the wall.
3. Before starting work, the wall must be thoroughly moistened. Wet paint comes off easier.
4. You can easily remove paint from a bathroom wall if you heat it up with a hair dryer. Even the oldest coating cannot withstand it.

If you take these tips into account, the work will go much faster and easier.

Required Tool

How to remove old paint from bathroom walls will depend on the method you plan to use. Mechanical surface treatment will require special tools or technical equipment. For this you can use:

1. Putty knife. The scraper will effectively clean the coating. Especially if chips and cracks have formed on it. But the tool is more suitable for processing a small area. When using a spatula, your hands get tired quickly, so you need to stock up on other tools.
2. Axe. To effectively remove paint from the walls, you must first wet them with water. The ax is suitable for cases where the layer is very thick. With its help, you can put notches on the surface, and then begin dismantling the coating. A small and not very sharp tool is suitable for this.
3. Hammer and chisel. With their help, layers of coating are peeled off. The disadvantage is a waste of time and effort. You will probably need multiple tools as they will become dull with use.
4. Grinding machine with diamond cutter. A good method that allows you to quickly and professionally remove paint from walls. Electrical equipment will save energy and time, although it produces a lot of construction dust. In addition, it works quite loudly.
5. A hammer drill, grinder or drill with an appropriate attachment. A powerful tool removes not only the coloring matter, but also part of the putty and plaster (with sufficient pressure and if necessary).
6. Technical hair dryer. Used to remove paint, although the process will take longer than with other professional equipment.

Various spatulas, scrapers

Hammer and chisel

Sander

Construction hair dryer

Ax Please note: How to remove paint from hands

Features of removing different types of paintwork

In order for the wall cleaning process to be as productive as possible, it is necessary to take into account the type of coating. Removing different types of paint:

Bathroom and toilet after paint stripping

After your efforts, the bathroom and toilet should be completely cleaned from paint to concrete. Of course, they will not look very attractive, but according to the technology you will do everything correctly:

So, how to remove old paint from walls is no longer a problem for us. In the next lesson we will continue dismantling work - we will knock down concrete thresholds.

Main mistakes

In order not to harm your own health and not damage the wall, you need to familiarize yourself with the most common mistakes that inexperienced repairmen make :

1. 
   Working with caustic substances without a respirator and gloves.
   The bathroom is a small room with poor ventilation. In it, caustic vapors spread very quickly. Inhaling them can cause serious poisoning.

2. Excessive pressure on the wall. If you overdo it with mechanical methods of removing paint, this can lead to destruction of the concrete base. It is difficult to straighten a heavily damaged wall.
3. Removing paint from the area of ​​electrical switches without turning them off. The room must be de-energized during work. One careless movement is enough to get an electric shock.

It is better to remove the bathtub and other plumbing fixtures from the room during the work.

How to remove old paint from walls

There are several reliable and proven ways to remove old paint from the walls of a bathroom and toilet:

• using a hammer and chisel;
• using paint remover;
• using a cord brush.

Each of these methods has its own characteristics in terms of the nature of the work, labor costs and the amount of dust generated. You can choose any of them. However, I want to say right away that the maximum effect is obtained if all these methods are used in combination, focusing directly on the area of ​​the wall being treated.

How to Remove Old Paint with a Hammer and Chisel

This is what is called a head-on solution. We take a hammer and chisel in our hands and begin to beat off the paint, centimeter by centimeter.

The chisel can be used in different types:

It’s hard for me to say which chisel is better and which is worse. You have to try it yourself. The only thing, remember. When you go to a hardware store, buy 2, or better yet 3, chisels at once. For example, 2 of one type and 1 of another. During operation, the chisel begins to become dull, and of course, in this case, you need to have a spare one on hand.

This is the longest and most monotonous option. However, it gives the maximum effect - the paint comes off the first time, and the wall becomes full of small potholes, which is very good when you subsequently lay plaster or tile adhesive on it, since adhesion to the wall will be the best.

How to Remove Old Paint with Paint Remover

Another method involves etching the paint using a caustic substance. It's called paint destroyer. In the store, such a shredder is sold in cans. For example, I used these:

Take a regular brush, dip it in destroyer (it will look like liquid jelly) and apply it to the paint on the wall. Then we wait about 10-15 minutes, the paint on the wall swells and you can further peel it off with a hard spatula:

What you need to remember when working with this reagent:

1. It is imperative to work with rubber gloves. In the picture above, the work is done without gloves, which is highly not recommended. If the reagent gets on your hand, it should be washed off with water as quickly as possible.
2. When you coat a wall, do not wall it up under any circumstances. It is necessary to ensure ventilation of the room. The liquid is very concentrated and has a pungent odor. So they smeared it on the wall and left the room. We wait until the paint swells.
3. Do not lightly close the opened jar after work! If you close it, do it hard! The slightly closed lid on the jar shoots and flies out with a pop. And this is a risk of getting bits of liquid on your face!

I can say one thing that the paint destroyer definitely helps with the work. Expanded paint is easier to peel off than regular paint. True, sometimes the paint is so ingrained that even this does not help. In this case, you can go over the same place with the reagent again, and then pick up the spatula again.

How to get rid of old paint using a cord brush

Take a cord brush:

Place the cord brush on the drill:

We begin to work in places where there is paint. The only thing you need to remember in this case is that there will be a lot of dust. And sometimes a cord brush doesn’t do the job where the paint can be knocked off with a chisel and hammer. For the option with a cord brush in a small room, you will have to barricade the bathroom so that dust does not get out. And of course you need to remember about personal protective equipment (look here):

Important Tips

Tips from professional repairmen:

1. When working with chemicals, you must use personal protective equipment: gloves, goggles and a respirator.
2. When using electrical appliances, such as an angle grinder, in the bathroom, do not allow the tools to come into contact with water.
3. To ventilate the room, do not close the door to the bathroom.
4. When removing paint from walls, you need to protect the flooring and plumbing from possible contamination. To do this, they are covered with polyethylene or unnecessary fabric.

If the paint in some areas is difficult to clean off, then you can refuse to completely remove it. Such a coating will not become an obstacle to further repair work.

Mechanical surface cleaning

We remove old paint from the wall using mechanical cleaning. This is a popular method because it does not use dangerous chemicals to dissolve the material. The benefits include:

• the ability to treat all areas, including hard-to-reach ones;
• minimal amount of time if you use the right tools;
• a person does not breathe emissions from substances that are used in the chemical cleaning method.

Among the disadvantages are the high level of noise, as well as dust generated during the process of removing old paint from the walls. In order to use the selected tool, no special knowledge or skills are required. In most cases, everything is clear on an intuitive level. The method of machining depends on what equipment you use. If we are talking about an ax, then everything is quite simple. First, you will need to moisten the surface with water if there are cracks or chips on it. The liquid will partially soak the plaster and make it easier to remove the material. Using an ax, small notches are made on the coating. The paint should puff up a little. Next, using a tool, it is cleaned from top to bottom. You need to choose an ax that is sharp, but not so sharp that you could get hurt due to careless movement. Please note that the material is difficult to remove from concrete or a thin layer of primer. How to quickly remove paint from bathroom walls? Use a hammer drill, grinder or drill with special attachments for this. The equipment will significantly save time and effort, so the mechanical cleaning method will be the most effective. One of the disadvantages is the high level of construction dust. Use power tools to move in a longitudinal direction. Be sure to use products to protect your hair, hands and respiratory system. The material may remain in the corners, so you will need to process the coating manually using other tools.

Removing paint using a hair dryer and spatula

Removing paint with a spatula only Please note: How to fix paint on fabric

Chemicals

If you don’t want to do hard physical labor, you can remove paint from the walls using chemical methods. To do this, use various products that soften the paintwork, and it can be easily removed with a spatula.

Organic solvents

If you decide to use organic solvents, then if there are several layers of paint, each of them must be processed separately.

Since solvents are toxic, a respirator is used when working with them, and the room is well ventilated.

Organic solvents include white spirit and acetone. They are applied to the surface with a roller or brush and left there for several hours. The paint softens and is then removed with a scraper or spatula. After cleaning the walls, they should be thoroughly rinsed to remove solvent residues.

Professional cleaning solutions.

Inorganic reagents

You can use a composition of lime and soda in the following proportion: 400 g of soda and 1.4 kg of quicklime. First they are mixed, and then water is added to obtain the consistency of thick sour cream. The finished composition is applied to the painted surface and left for 10-12 hours. After this, the paint softens and is easily removed from the wall.

You can use liquid glass; it is applied to a layer of paint and allowed to dry. After this, the paint coating is removed simultaneously with the liquid glass film. The use of chemical compounds makes paint removal easier, but it is still a long and labor-intensive process.