How to remove paint from a concrete wall?

Since in the recent past, instead of wallpaper, paint was often used, the question of removing it from a concrete wall is relevant today. This event is a must, otherwise wallpaper, tile or other materials will hardly be attached to the uncleaned surface of the wall. Consider quick and effective ways to remove old paint.

Before we begin work on cleaning the concrete surface, a few points should be analyzed. This will help to choose the necessary method of purification and allow you to quickly achieve the goal:

• Assessment of the state of the walls. If you intend to decorate the walls with plasterboard, then the presence of paint on the surface will not become an obstacle.When sticking wallpaper or tile, you should carefully remove the old coating, while not all methods are suitable for preparing walls for further work.
• Tool selection. Here it is necessary to take into account the efficiency and convenience of operation, as well as the ability to get the right type of tool without difficulty and unnecessary expenses.

• Variety of coating and thickness of the applied layer. This directly affects the complexity and duration of the process. It is much easier to remove a thick layer of coloring matter from concrete than one layer of paint applied to a thin primed wall. To determine the type of coloring composition, you need to try to remove it in a small area. Water emulsion and acrylic paint is removed quite easily, but it is also possible that the previous residents used the most resistant option - oil paint.

Methods of mechanical impact on the old coating allow you to clean the surface of the walls without the use of toxic substances, but with the presence of dirt and dust.Therefore, it is necessary to prepare in advance the means of protection of the respiratory tract and eyes - a respirator, goggles and a gas mask.

The most affordable way to remove the old coating is to use a chisel and a hammer. A small hatchet will do for this purpose. This method requires huge time and physical costs, but the result will be a flat surface. This technique is not appropriate for large amounts of work.

Pre-ground with an ax or the pointed side of a hammer should be lightly hit the painted surface every 2-3 cm. After that, the surface in the cracks should be well moistened with water with a brush, to enhance the effect you need to mix it with wallpaper glue or salt. After 6 hours, you can begin to remove the swollen layer of paint with a spatula. Paint can depart small particles or large layers. Upon completion of work on the walls should go through a large emery paper or a stiff brush, let dry, and only then proceed to the next stage of work.

Walls can be cleaned and with the help of electrical appliances. Their use allows you to remove the old layer quickly and effortlessly.However, all of them are quite noisy, therefore, cleaning of the walls in an apartment building should be carried out in this way at specially allocated hours or by prior arrangement with neighbors.

For such work, you can use a punch. The nozzle for these purposes should be chosen in the form of a shovel, fixing it in the slotting mode. To work carefully, you need to keep the tool at a right angle. The punch movement is directed up or down due to the emitted vibrations. To make the process faster will help the selection of the widest nozzle.

Another popular appliance - "Bulgarian". With it, you can remove even strongly ingrained paint deposited on the wall or a thin primer coating. It is able to clean the walls to the base, leaving a flat, ready for further work surface. This machine should not be used when working in small unventilated rooms, because even a mask will not protect against the dust that has risen. In large rooms, you also need to be interrupted more often and moisten the air so that the dust quickly falls to the floor.

Removing paint from the walls is possible with a drill using three nozzles.The nozzle-paint collector consists of three chains, each of which contains 13 links. It allows you to remove the paint pieces, and the layer of plaster remains intact. However, the ink picker is not durable: it may take several pieces of nozzles to process the walls in the same room.

Effectively works drill with korshchetkoyhowever, much dust is generated from it.

Koronchataya nozzle works well for bricks, but if you want, you can use it on concrete. The choice of this method, although it will save a lot of dust, but takes a lot of time.

A common disadvantage of all these devices is that it is impossible for them to remove paint in hard-to-reach places: behind batteries, pipes and at the corners. In these areas, the paint will need to be finished manually. The walls after cleansing with a perforator or “grinder” become rough, which improves adhesion with the solution when laying ceramic tiles.

Removing old paint with modern special washes is a quick, silent and effective way. When using these products, it is also necessary to protect hands, eyes and respiratory organs. The algorithm for working with chemistry is described below.

Using a brush or roller, apply a good layer of chemical reagent on the wall. Care must be taken to ensure that the tool is not applied to the same area. Flooring and plinth should be covered to prevent ingress of the chemical.

Almost immediately after application, you can begin to clean the wall with a stiff iron brush. If the paint is not removed immediately, then you should repeat the procedure.

After chemical exposure, the wall should be washed with warm water and a powder and sponge.

Means for removing the old coating can be prepared at home. To do this, take 1.2 kg of quicklime, 500 grams of soda water and ordinary water in such quantity that a thick and homogeneous paste is obtained. The solution must be applied to the wall and left for 12 hours. After that, you can clear the surface of paint.

If you used acrylic paint, you can use the foamy soap solution, which added salicylic acid or ethyl alcohol.For latex paint, use chloroform or dichloroethane.

Another chemical method for removing paint is glass in liquid form. It should be thinly applied to the work surface and left to dry. After that, the treated area should go with a spatula or a brush with stiff bristles.

Aqueous emulsion coating not older than 3 years can be removed using wallpaper glue. He is bred according to the instructions, put on the wall and instead of wallpaper paste old newspapers. After the newspaper dries out, everything should be torn off along with a layer of paint.

Old paint can be removed from the wall using high temperatures. However, some types of paints under the influence of hot air, on the contrary, interlock with the wall. Therefore, before starting work it is necessary to conduct a test in a small area. Also the thermal method is not recommended to use near the power supply network.

Industrial hairdryer is one of the thermal appliances for cleaning walls. With its help it is easy to remove acrylic, water-based, as well as difficult to display alkyd and oil paints. When a hair dryer on the painted wall bubbles appear.This means that the paint is behind the wall and can be removed with a spatula. It is convenient to work together - one heats, and the other cleans.

The blowtorch copes with the task as well as a hair dryer. But it is worth remembering that such a tool is a source of open fire, so it can not be used near textile, paper and other flammable objects. Also included device can not be put on the floor.

From scrap thermal appliances sometimes use iron. To do this, you need to glue a piece of foil on the wall and iron it with an iron. Then you should quickly remove the foil and begin to remove the softened layer of paint.

In addition to the methods described, there are some other methods for removing paint:

• Use of shot blasting equipment. This method is not popular due to the high cost of the device, but it can be rented.

The principle of operation of this device is very similar to a sandblasting machine, only in a shot blasting device metal balls are used as an abrasive material.Under high pressure, they fly out of the nozzle and instantly remove the old layer, after which they are sucked together with the paint particles through a vacuum cleaner. Therefore, the dirt with this method quite a bit. The lack of skills in working with the device can lead to the fact that a layer of concrete is removed along with the paint.

• Water jet. Under high pressure, water has the same effect on paint as the device described above. However, in the apartment the use of this method is fraught with the fact that you can flood the neighbors. In addition, water is not able to remove resistant epoxy paint.
• Grinding machines with diamond discs. This device is very effective, but requires a certain dexterity and accuracy of movements, as well as a high rate of work.

How to remove the old paint from the walls, see the following video.