12 September, 2010

Behr Masonry and Concrete Stripper

We're going to turn the old coal room (one of two in the basement) into a summer bedroom (it's much cooler down here). This room is also Ted's office. We cleaned it up pretty well, and set up our 1930s bed against the far wall.


There's a nice view of the garden, too.


As with my office, this room is going to need a little help. We want to keep at least one foundation wall of the brick and concrete exposed, and not repaint it. The only problem is, it's been painted an ugly yellow on the top, and an even uglier green on the bottom. We also plan to tile this room, so the green chipping paint on the floor--yes, the floor was painted--needs to come up. We've tried numerous stripping products, including SoyGel and PeelAway, and nothing seems to work. It's frustrating, and has led to more than a few arguments spirited discussions on whether or not we should even leave the brick exposed at all.

At Home Depot this week, we spotted a product by Behr specially designed to strip masonry and concrete. What the heck, what's another $30? We decided to give it a try.


We slathered a test spot on the floor, on the concrete wall, and on the brick. We left it on for about an hour and a half, rewetting the surface once because it did dry out very fast. We then scrapped up the paint with a plastic scrapper, then took a wire brush and water to work it out of the grooves. It only took a few minutes at that point. Here's the floor:


And here's the concrete wall:


And here's the brick:


We're seriously impressed with how it cleaned the concrete; we should be able to further clean it and then use a terra cotta colored concrete stain. The brick was more difficult to scrape the paint from, and there's still quite a bit in the grooves. Maybe a second coat would help. If not, I'll take it back as far as we can, and dry brush a "white wash" look to it, so it will look kind of old worldish, but not yellow.

Overall, this is the best product we've come across for stripping paint from masonry and brick.

*In answer to a few e-mails I've received, my mom made the quilt on the bed for me and Ted. It's a double-wedding-ring pattern.

5 comments:

Karen Anne said...

I haven't stripped paint, but I saw somewhere that people might cover up some stripper once it's been applied to help keep it wet. Now if I could just remember what they cover it with - plastic wrap?

Joanne said...

Yup, plastic wrap. We tried the plastic wrap method with the PeelAway and SoyGel; even leaving it alone for several days didn't budge the paint. Because this Behr stuff worked pretty well, and fairly fast, we're going to try a larger area, and I'll use the plastic wrap then.

Be glad you've never had to strip paint. It's a long, evil, process.

Sharon Kwilter said...

Thanks for the review. We have some brick we'd like to strip; we'll have to buy a gallon of our own and give it a try.

Joanne said...

Good luck, Sharon. Let me know how it turns out.

Hucke Exteriors Inc said...

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