Dumond Smart Strip Advanced Paint Remover- Strips 15+ Layers of Paint, Environmentally Friendly, Non-Toxic, Safe, No Hazardous Fumes, No Foul Smells (1 Gallon)

I have been restoring older homes for over 30 years now; the house I have just purchased was built in 1806 and has 210 years worth of paint on all the woodword. There are so many layers of paint that you can hardly see the lovely profiles of the complicated, Federal-style trim. For exterior stripping I have been using the really ugly, stinky stuff, but for interior stripping, Smart Strip is fantastic! Paint it on thick, think peanut butter sandwich thick, cover it with wax paper and walk away for a day or two. There's almost NO smell, and it doesn't burn your skin if you get some on you. This product won't quickly take your project down to bare wood, but after a few applications you can either sand or use a heat gun to finish the job. Paint scrapes off pretty easily with a sharp scraper, and you can just put the stuff in a trash bag without it melting through. Again, you will have to be patient to use this product, but it's worth the time. This is my second gallon tub and I plan to buy more when I run out of it! Ok, a quick 2020 addendum. I've just purchased my forth gallon since this old house has so much trim that has needed to be stripped. I've also tried a few other soy strippers in the meanwhile, which were gooey, stinky and required that the surface be washed after removal of the stripper. Gross. Stick with this product, and even if you have to apply multiple times, you will get a good result and almost NO odor. No regrets.

I need to remove layers of paint, including lead, from the wood framing around where a new custom-built wood frame storm door will go in the front entry to a 1940 house built by my parents. After viewing a video on YouTube demonstrating how to use SMART STRIP to remove paint on woodwork inside a house, I thought this product would work for my purposes. So, I purchased 1 gallon from Amazon. NOWHERE ON AMAZON DID I FIND INFO STATING THIS PRODUCT WORKS BEST ON POST-1980 PAINT REMOVAL, nor was that info given in the YouTube video I had viewed. On Friday, June 11, 2021 @ 3:25 pm I painted the Smart Strip on a 12" x 5" test area on the bottom right side of my door frame. Left product on for 24 hours. On Saturday, June 12, 2021 @ 3:30 pm, I started removing the DUMOND paper from the test area. Some paint came off, but a lot didn't. When I tried to use a plastic putty knife to remove the reside, the wood seemed soft in places & I ended up gouging into some of the wood frame. I stopped & decided to reapply SMART STRIP to just the areas where the paint did not come off. That was done @ 6:15 pm on Saturday, June 12, 2021. The next day around 9:30 am, I removed the DUMOND paper from the test strip.....some of the remaining paint came off, but a some didn't. I decided I could not put anymore of this product on my door frame. I went to the DUMOND web site & found info stating that SMART STRIP works best for POST-1980 PAINT removal & another, more expensive, DUMOND paint remover product works best for PRE-1980 PPAINT REMOVAL. The reviews on AMAZON for the PRE-1980 DUMMOND PAINT REMOVAL PRODUCT are mixed, so I am going to consult a professional as to what I should do. I have already spent $80 on SMART STRIP + LAMINATED PAPER & don't feel like spending hundreds more when I don't know if the second product will work successfully or not. Because I have opened & used part of this product, I cannot return it. I understand that policy. Had I done more research, I might not be in this situation now! My point is: Amazon/Seller should make sure all pertinent info about their product is available on Amazon. In this case it is one paint removal product works best on structures painted during a certain period of years & another works best for painting done during a different time span. I DO LIKE THAT BOTH DUMOND PRODUCTS ARE ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY TO BOTH ENVIRONMENT & USER AS WELL AS SAFE FOR USING WHEN REMOVING LAYERS OF PAINT, SOME OF WHICH CONTAIN LEAD!!!!

So! Stripping paint from brick is about the hardest job I have done to date! We have a huge fire place with at least 50 years worth of paint on the brick (and mortar). It has been a 3 summer project, and we have tried EVERYTHING under the sun (except a heat gun, indoors...). The Smart Strip in conjunction with the paper worked as well as the other products but where it excells is in the time it takes. This is a MESSY process and short of sand blasting or using an angle grinder/brass wire wheel attached to your drill, NOTHING is going to remove all of the paint. Here's what worked for us: (prep: VERY IMPORTANT- use paintrer's tape (not regular masking tape, heavy duty paper and trash bags to cover and protect everything in about 2 or so feet (at the least) and heavy card board with plastic underneath for at min 3 feet on the floor (Did I mention this is very messy) 1) spread the stripper on the section you will work on (I'd recommend 1 sheet's worth at a time) similar to icing a cake, start at the top if working vertical. 2)cover with Dumonds paper, yes it is worth it (wax paper, parchment, plastic is either way too much bother (plastic, as it just fell off) or didn't help at all, and make sure to spread it on smoothly and remove the air bubbles especially in mortar areas, 3) Wait! At least 24 hours, 4)if something didn't get covered by the paper this is where you should start. 5) Now for the WORK! We used 2 long narrow heavy duty wire brushes, a smaller wire brush or 3 (these brushes lasted on the 7' x 3' section, but will loose their bristles and get gummed up beyond use), some pot scrubbing pads the green ones), some of the 3m brand scrubbers are helpful as well, some metal scrapers/putty knives to remove the bulk of the goop, a bag lined trash can (so you can scrape the goop off the putty knife and have a ready place for putting the goop that come off and sticks to everything), and a disposable bucket of water, 6) peal back a small amount of the paper at a time starting at the top, (the paper will keep the stripper maliable longer) 7) use the putty to scrape the worse goop off, then use the wire brush to scrub, rinse the goo off in the water, a wooden skewer can help dislodge this Oobleck like horror and you do want to get this off very frequently (I tapped it very firmly on the top of the bucket to dislodge the gunk), the use a very wet scrubbing pads of your choice to get the scummy fill off (the big sticky goop must be off first, when these pads get supper goopy throw them in the trash, they'll just make things worse rather than better and you can't clean off the goop from the stubbing pads, the 3m seem to do a bit better and can be washed out some and once dried the goop isn't too bad, but hey won't last long and I save useing them until the end or an uneven or chipped brick that I couldn't get into with the wire brushes, use plenty of water. Clean up at the end of the day using Good Off, outside-stinks. Nothing works better for cutting through the Oobleck goop! It will melt any adhesive holding your brush together though. It is more $$$ BUT I finished this section in a total of 8 days work, the other 2 sections took 2+months of working every day to get the same results. Oh, you should also protect yourself! This stripper doesn't burn like most of the oothers we've used and has nearly no smell, but it is chemicals and harsh ones. So be careful, nitrile gloves and eye protection are the bare minimum!

The product works pretty well. Doesn't hurt the skin unless left on awhile and even then it's not noxious. Also not too terrible in indoor spaces for air quality-- even if I don't open windows it doesn't get too bad after using a few gallons on a ton of surfaces. I have an old house with a lot of old paint and it goes through 1-2 layers after 24 hours of sitting. Definitely hasn't gone through 15 layers in one coating, but this paint is pretty old further down likely. I've recoated up to 4 times and it gets everything off. It's hard work. Shipping is problematic. Amazon doesn't factor in weight with packaging . The boxes fit ok, but they use a sheet of brown paper for packaging. We have had several come ruptured and it's a big mess to clean up. Then when requested a replacement, they ask for the broken item back. Get ready for a pile of mush!

Used this on my cabinets & works well for stripping many old layers of paint. It needs to be slopped on there fairly thick. I covered with plastic wrap and waited about an hour- you’ll see it change colors. DO NOT LET DRY. Container says you can spray with water if it does dry, but I do not suggest that. I suggest adding more of the product.