A revolutionary innovation for removing paint & varnish from wood with gentle infrared heat.

The Basics

Removing multiple layers of paint from an entire house is easy with The Silent Paint Remover.

By using The Silent Paint Remover™ method, you are using a fast, environmentally friendly, and labor saving way of stripping paint and varnish from wood surfaces. Infrared heat will penetrate the surface and heating the mass behind the paint, this will draw out the moisture and the oil's in the wood pushing the paint residue out of the grain resulting in an open wood grain. After the paint or varnish is removed you can prime immediately. When renovating windows, The Silent Paint Remover loosens paint and putty at the same time. Here are tips and techniques for using The Silent Paint Remover™ system:

Heat first then scrape. Expose the paint with infrared heat for 20 to 40 seconds, and then scrape with a high quality pull scraper. Usually you can remove all layers down to the initial primer coat. This is a very rewarding experience to see the paint come off in sheets. You will not experience burn marks or lead vapors. Although little dust is produced, it is reccommended to use carbon filter dust mask.

This method is far superior to any other paint removing method. It will achieve a prepared surface that that will be close to painting on new wood. Old houses did not have any paint failure issues until years and years after many layers were applied. In some ways it is like turning the clock back. It is well worth restoring any old wood. New wood is not nearly as of high quality as the old wood or simply not available any longer. Power-sanding is not recommended. You can do a light hand sanding if you feel the surface is rough.

A high quality pull scraper is essential with The Silent Paint Remover™. Infrared heat softens the paint, and then it is up to a quality scraper to get the paint off. When using a pull-scraper, pull toward you instead of away from you. Most paint on the surface will require a little elbow grease when scraping. Traditional putty knives do not work well.

Hands-free attachments eliminate work interruption. Hands-free attachments can save you a lot of time. It will allow you to scrape and simultaneously heat the next area. The attachments work well on soffit, wall, and trim surfaces and allow you to heat hard-to-reach areas effortlessly. You heat an area of 12" x 5", move the tool to a new area and scrape the area you just heated. The hands-free attachment also prevents the tool from being damaged by dropping it.

It is essential to remove all layers of paint. The Silent Paint Remover™ heats the mass of the wood for easy scraping. By removing all layers of paint you achieve the best bond for the new coat of paint. You can expect up to 20 years of life for your new paint job. If paint is applied on top of old paint or varnish, you can not expect to endure more than a few years before the paint begins peeling again.

Paint as soon as possible. Paint can be removed at any time of the year as long as temperature and weather conditions permit priming and painting (50 degrees is the minimum temperature). Painting as soon as possible gives the best result. Mildew and fungal threats are eliminated as the moisture level in the wood after paint removal will normally be as low as 8 -10%.

Hard-to-reach areas. You may use The Silent Paint Remover™ in those "Hard to Reach" areas effortlessly. This is just a fantastic job done by Bob & Carol Workman. The trick is in adding to the heating time and not putting the tool too close to the surface. Also, using a sharp scraper is a big help.

Project duration. The Silent Paint Remover™ method proves itself to be the quickest when comparing all aspects of removing paint with other methods. The paint-removing process with many other methods is a small part of the total preparation involved. Sanding and additional steps to neutralize chemicals requires additional time. The Silent Paint Remover™ simply heats the paint, making it soft for easy scraping and clean-up. Hands-free attachments allow for elimination of work interruption - the next surface is heated up while you scrape.

Watch out for faulty Infrared tubes. The only disadvantage to this method is that you must be careful not to drop the tool on a hard surface (like the floor). The Infrared tubes last for a very long time - approximately 5,000 hours) - but are breakable. It is easy to replace the tubes if they do break. If pairs of tubes stop working, either a fuse or breaker has blown or there is a fault on the electrical cables running to the heater.

Pay attention to surface conditions. As with any paint removing system, variables (such as age of the wood, condition of the paint, chemical content of the paint, etc.) should be been taken into consideration and sensitivity to the particulars of the surface conditions must be continuously maintained to avoid unwanted results.

Exterior Paint Removal

Wind and rain. Wind has a strong cooling effect, irrespective of whether it is hot or cold outside. For this reason, you should always protect the working surface in windy conditions. As a general rule, protect all equipment from exposure to water or other liquids.

When using scaffolding. There must be a gap of at least 12" between the siding and the scaffolding in order to accommodate The Silent Paint Remover™ and or its attachments.

Interior Paint Removal

Reduce heating time. It is recommended to slightly reduce the heating time indoors to avoid any unnecessary exposure to fumes. You will have to rely more on a sharp scraper for this reason. Latex paint will generate heavy smoke when heated beyond required time. You should not see a lot of smoke. If smoke is emitting, you are heating the surface to long. Make sure you are utilizing good ventilation and respirators.

Use respiratory protection. Always use respiratory mask, gloves and protective clothing when removing paint - indoors or outdoors. For lead paint use our 3M respiration type N100. You can find this on our accessories page.

Siding

When you are doing an exterior siding project the Hands Free attachment is very useful and will speed up the process significantly.

1. You also need to have sharp scrapers on hand continuously. We suggest having enough scrapers on hand so you do not need to do any sharpening during the day. Sharp scrapers will make the process go much faster. Use our hardened steel scrapers to remove the bulk of the paint and then go over with a tungsten carbide blade to finish the surface for the primer. If you are removing very thin layer of paint, the tungsten carbide scrapers may be used in the first step after the surface is heated.
   
   
2. No power sanding. Power sanding will only heat up the remaining paint residue and closing the grain making it counter productive.
   
   
3. In preparation for primer it is recommended to use a metal primer on all nail heads. If you are replacing nails, use stainless steel screws as replacement. Stainless steel screws are now readily available and not expensive. This is what happens when you do not prime the nail heads before painting. Use a metal primer before the wood primer. Note: Primer is not necessary if using organic linseed paint.
   
   
4. Do not caulk horizontal seams. This is very important to remember. Caulking all seams on exterior siding is a major cause for paint failure in the future. Moisture must be able to escape. You can caulk vertical seams with a high quality caulk.
   
   
5. After removing paint, use Organic 50 year linseed oil paint to prevent any paint failure in the future..

Windows

Window restoration. The Silent Paint Remover™ is also excellent for restoring old windows. Old windows are of much better quality and made of quality wood that is now extinct or in very short supply and therefore very expensive. If you follow our simple steps in window restoration you will be very pleased to find out that your restored window will look fantastic. By eliminating glazing pins you will also have very little problem with moisture deteriorating your sash when you are done. This is a very rewarding project to do. Follow these steps.

Doors

Removing multiple layers of paint on a door is easy with The Silent Paint Remover™. Place the door on a firm table surface and clamp it down to make sure it does not move around. You heat and scrape at the same time. If the tool heats faster than you can scrape, simply place the tool on its side to make sure the heat can escape out of the tool.

Varnished doors that have been painted are a relatively easy scenario. This may be the one and only scenario when you can use a good quality stripping knife/putty scraper when you are removing the paint. Varnish prevents the paint from soaking into the grain of the wood making paint removal a simple process. Do not power-sand. Sanding is not recommended. If you must sand, please hand-sand only.

If the door is going to be repainted, heating and scraping will be sufficient with the goal of removing the thick layers off the surface in one step for repainting. If you need to sand, only hand sand the surface areas.

Leaving clean wood. If you would like to leave the surface clean you may have to apply raw linseed oil. The raw linseed oil will reconstitute the paint residue. Allow 24 hours for the raw linseed oil to penetrate before reheating with The Silent Paint Remover™.

Trim

The Silent Paint Remover™ is very effective on various trim. The infrared heat will penetrate any shape of the trim. Sometimes the trim is so loaded with paint you may not be able to tell what it looks like until some of the paint is removed. Find out if there is a scraper blade that will fit the shape of the trim. This will be very useful when removing paint from intricately detailed wood surfaces. Our website offers various scrapers that can accommodate various shapes. It is also possible to utilize a standard scraper blade, shaping the blade on a grinder to match the shape of the wood surface.

Ceilings

Using The Silent Paint Remover™ to remove paint from wood ceilings can be very effective. Heating time is very short. We suggest using one of our articulating clamp-arms mounted on a heavy-duty umbrella stand for this type of work.

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