dissolving paint

[gusl]

Dear LJ Genie,

I would like a liquid that dissolves paint, but not the varnish on the wooden floor. Alternatively, another way to deal with specks of paint.

Comments

[altamira16.livejournal.com]

Where are the specks of paint? If they are on the floor, throw a rug over them and ignore. You may be able to take a very fine sandpaper to the paint without scratching the surface underneath the paint too much. I don't know what a good definition for "very fine" is as far as sandpaper goes.

[gustavolacerda.livejournal.com]

Sandpapering would be too much work. The whole house is covered with paint specks.

you don't know me

[electragiselle.livejournal.com]

but I was reading my LJ friends of friends list and came across your post. I think I may be about to help. I was an apartment manager and to get paint specks off of carpets and floors we used a product called "Goof Off" it can be found at Lowes, Home Depot, Target and any number of other places.. here is a link to there website.

http://www.valspar.com/val/resident/goof-off.jsp (http://www.valspar.com/val/resident/goof-off.jsp)

good luck
~Brandy

Re: you don't know me

[gustavolacerda.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the advice!

I did buy the Goof-Off, but it didn't do anything to the dried paint. I let it sit on the paint for 10 minutes, scrubbed it, but it was just like water.

I'll try the soapy water.

[williamallthing.livejournal.com]

paint over the whole floor!

[http://users.livejournal.com/_tove/]

Do you know what kind of paint and what kind of varnish they are? If they're both oil-based, you're not going to find anything that will affect just the paint, but if the paint is latex, you might get away with just soaking it in soapy water and running a scraper over it. It will be easiest if the speckles are drop-shaped, that is, slightly raised bumps.

Alternatively, the "throw a rug over them and ignore" plan is pretty good too, and in the future, make whomever paints the house use dropcloths, and a brush instead of a roller.

[gustavolacerda.livejournal.com]

what are the advantages of a brush vs a roller?

[http://users.livejournal.com/_tove/]

Rollers are way quicker on large surfaces, and easier to get a smooth texture. Rollers are also difficult to use for detail work (you can use cute tiny rollers, but at lot of times people just try to fudge it with the larger ones), and, more importantly in this context, they spatter. It's generally a bad idea to mix brushwork and rolling, because the brushwork has a more definite grain.