Cleverly remove dispersion paint and dispose of it properly

• Wallpapering or painting
• Remove wall paint
• Cleverly remove dispersion paint
  • Spatula or multitool
  • Steam and hot water
  • Stripper for emulsion paint
  • Sand and sand
• Disposal of emulsion paint
  • Dispose of scraped paint

Old emulsion paint, ie conventional wall paint, can not be painted over indefinitely. If several layers have already been applied to the wall, the emulsion paint should be cleverly removed before the next coat. How you can remove the paint and then dispose of it properly, we show you here at a glance.

There are very different ways to remove the old wall paint. Which is the right method for your purposes, depends on the thickness of the color layer and the subsequent redesign of the walls. Not always the complete wall color must be removed, often it is sufficient to eliminate the upper layers. However, if you want to make the walls completely new and ecological with a natural color, it is often necessary to make the wall permeable. Therefore, the residues of the plastic-containing paint in the case must be completely removed so that the walls can breathe again.

You need this:

• Spatula, surface spatula
• Multifunctional tool / oscillating vibration saw
• Spiked roller / nail roller
• steam cleaners
• compressor
• Compressed air filler
• angle
• Quast
• brush
• bucket
• Foil / painter fleece
• masking tape
• dish soap
• water
• vinegar
• Spezialabbeizer

Wallpapering or painting

The old wall paint does not necessarily have to be removed if only wallpapering is then required. Then you have to check if the color is firm and stable. Too thick layers should then at least partially remove and smooth out in the first place. If many layers of old paint are on the wall, it will be slightly uneven and may be dissolved by the moisture in the paste in single large stains. Then the disaster would be complete and you would not only have to remove the paint, but also remove the already glued webs of wallpaper again and dispose.

Remove wall paint

Some of the natural paints previously had the problem of adhesion to the old wall paint, they partly beaded off. So if you want to apply such a color later, you should also wash the wall thoroughly with a coarse brush after the paint has been removed. Thus, the plaster layer becomes permeable and permeable again so that the natural color can breathe freely. The moisture balance of the room should be improved and mold problems occur less frequently.

There are many ways to remove the thick layers of old wall paint. Over the decades, however, the recipes for emulsion paints have changed a great deal. If one considers then that often completely different formulations can form the different layers on an old wall, it is clear that not every method leads to the goal. Here we show you the different possibilities.

Cleverly remove dispersion paint

1. With a spatula or the multitool with spatula attachment
2. Hot water with dishwashing liquid or steam cleaner
3. Chemical stripper for emulsion paint
4. Sanding the old paint

Tip: Cover the floor well. If you need to work with moisture, be sure to lay out foil. Even if there is only bare screed on the ground, it absorbs a lot of moisture and old wall paint. Then you have to clean the floor afterwards and ventilate for weeks to get the moisture out of the room.

Spatula or multitool

In older houses, it is sometimes very clear how often the different inhabitants have experimented with different colors over the decades. Tap on the wall with the wooden handle of the spatula and you will notice in many places that voids have literally formed behind the paint. In these cases, of course you are lucky, because it will not be easier to remove the color. At one of these cavities, you hack with the spatula into the paint layers and push it directly underneath. In this way, it is usually possible to detach large panels of paint.

• Tap the wall to locate hollow areas
• hack in a hollow place with a spatula
• remove loose paint with the spatula
• Scrape off solid areas with multitool and spatula attachment

If it is not so easy at some fixed points later, you can use a multi-tool with spatula attachment. Especially if you want to clean a wall with thick layers of paint, the quivering spatula helps you a lot at work.

Tip: The multitool, also known as oscillating vibration saw or dicing saw, is now offered by many manufacturers. You can use this handy helper for countless applications, especially if you make sure that different attachments are included in the set when you buy. To scrape the paint off the wall, a wide putty attachment is required.

Steam and hot water

The binders in the wall paint are in most cases still soluble in water after years. This is the reason why thick layers of paint must be removed, because every new coat again contains a lot of moisture, through which the color layers are dissolved. The advantage, however, is that many of these old paint layers can also be dissolved by water and steam or a detergent solution. But you should open the layers of paint so that the steam and moisture can penetrate. You do this with a spiked roller, a nail roller, a spatula or a wire brush. Then the moisture can run under the paint layers and dissolve the bond there. Now you can soak the layers with a quast with a detergent solution or moisten with a steam cleaner, as you use it for the floor.

Since the method with steam or hot water promises the most success and is very easy to use, here is a brief overview of the individual steps:

• Cover the floor well and protect the electrical system
• break up the paint layers with the nail roller
• Spray water with detergent or steam on the wall
• Allow moisture to soak
• simply remove the paint with the surface spatula

With the steam cleaner, you should only work with the windows open, because the room quickly becomes a sauna. In addition, the sockets and light switches should be taped with foil and painter's crepe, so that you do not damage the electrical system in the whole house with the steam. If the paint layers are well soaked, you can usually even remove the paint from the wall with a very wide surface spatula. So you have less bumps and scratches, as they can arise through narrow spatula later.

Tip: Some home improvement swear when soaking on a wallpaper remover instead of the detergent in the water. This works on several layers of wall paint in principle very similar to the wallpaper and must also soak for a moment. Try the dish soap first and if that does not work, the wallpaper remover might do wonders for your color.

If you have a compressor, there is also for this a compressed air spatula that works even more effective than the multitool. But wear ear protection at work, because the long lasting noise, so directly in the same room, otherwise permanent hearing damage can cause.

Tip: You can apply all options to remove layers of paint with moisture only on plaster or stone. On wood you should not use these variants, because the moisture would swell the wood. As a result, a dispersion paint draws even deeper into the wood. In this case, only the grinding method described below is possible to remove the paint.

Stripper for emulsion paint

If it is known which dispersion is exactly right on the wall, there can be a special paint stripper in the hardware stores, which just like a paint color, triggers the layers. Unfortunately, this paint remover smells similarly strong and should be processed exclusively with mask and open windows. If the paint is actually removed with such an agent, the entire mass must then be disposed of with hazardous waste.

Basically, we've just listed this variation for the sake of completeness, because if you're not sure about which color it is, that chemistry cocktail will often not even work.

Sand and sand

Craftsmen recommend special sandblasting equipment to remove the paint from the plaster. But as a home improvement is on the one hand hardly get such a device and on the other hand, you could damage too much of the plaster with, as this method could actually be worthwhile.

If you prefer the mechanical version, because the color may have made a permanent connection with a wood paneling, then you can progress relatively quickly with an eccentric grinder or an angle grinder with the appropriate disc. However, you should again wear a mouth mask, because the dust is enormous. Therefore, you should only use this method if the room is completely empty. Especially in technical devices, such as TV or music system, the dust penetrates and permanently damages it. For the angle grinder, there is also a wire brush as an attachment, which causes a lot in thick layers of paint. Check, however, whether the substrate can withstand the scratches of the wire brush.

• Connect the industrial vacuum cleaner to the orbital sander to minimize dust
• Always start the eccentric grinder slowly
• Put grinder down on the wall, you can see less mistakes here
• Speed ​​increase gradually
• just put on, slip rings will otherwise be created

Disposal of emulsion paint

One of the popular misinformation for the disposal of emulsion paint is the special waste question . Since in a dispersion the color is finely distributed in the liquid, the product usually comes out with purely organic solvents. In addition, binders and plastic dispersions are the usual main constituents. Chemical solvents or formaldehyde are only present in certain colors and in a negligible dose. Among other things, these colors are allowed to carry the blue environmental angel on their containers. Emulsion paint is not always hazardous waste, because once the paint has dried, it can be disposed of with normal household waste. Emptied containers of wall paint can even be disposed of via the yellow bag. As a result, you can also dispose of the dried brushes and paint rollers in the normal household waste.

You can either let dry paint residues dry out or take them to the pollutant mobile. But the waste consultants recommend the drying of the remains, since the disposal of the communities on the pollutant collection is expensive and expensive. Many waste consultants therefore suggest the sand method. To do this, open the container and mix a little sand into the paint. Then just let the paint bucket dry out.

Dispose of scraped paint

Again, just let it dry, then the emulsion paint, which you have scratched from the wall, quite normal in the household waste . If any of the wall paints have ever been solvent, they are now guaranteed to be steamed out, so disposal via hazardous waste is not necessary.

Tips for quick readers

• Scrape off loose paint with spatula
• Multitool with spatula attachment helps scratching
• with nail scooter break up the layers
• Soak emulsion paint with detergent and water
• Steam cleaner for dissolving the paint layers
• possibly surface spatula for loosened paint
• Compressor with spatula attachment against loosened paint layers
• Dispose of dry paint with household waste
• put empty color containers in the yellow sack
• bring liquid paint to hazardous waste or allow liquid paint to dry
• Paint strippers with paint residues must be hazardous waste