CA2798497A1 - Coating removal process - Google Patents

Description

Coating Removal Process Detailed description The present invention relates to the efficient removal of any material from any surface or substrate. The materials to be removed are latex paint, lead paint, alkyd paint, urethane, varnish, epoxy, adhesive and mastic to name a few. The surface or substrates include wood, metal, concrete, masonry, and fibre gloss to name a few.
In the prior art removal of such materials from such surfaces has been so bitterly toilsome and laboriously as to be nearly untaskable for a number of reasons.
Prior art removal methods included heat guns, propane torches, radiant infra red heat, highly toxin chemical strippers of various kinds, abrasion and lastly impact from a rotating flop wheel of heavy gauge (nail thickness) steel rotating on a drill (or the like) against the surface or substrate.
A craft person using one or several of these prior art methods was often in for a really tough job and was exposed to hazard and toxins which are widely known and too numerous to mention. Lead, asbestos, meths, acetone, smoke from all kinds of coatings/projectiles from tools moving at tens of thousands of RPM dust, etc., etc., The present invention then replaces prior art with a fast, clean, safe, easy, inventive process.
The preferred embodiment of the present invention is the restoration of woodwork in heritage structures such as 100 year old homes.
In the preferred embodiment of the present inventive process the work starts by masking off the edges where the door frames, window frames, stair cases and baseboards and so on are adjacent to the walls, floors, masonry and so on. This involves several miles of masking in an average structure. The novelty wears off, so we have invented a masking tool which can do it all in an hour inside of about three days.
The invention will be called "Malcolm X" for now.
Secondly, a continuous bead of hot melt adhesive is applied to the surface or substrate being stripped at the edges where the masking tape is.

Thirdly, common poly tarping is pressed into the hot melt adhesive as to enclose and encapsulate the surface being stripped. This poly material is used widely for shopping bags, garbage bags, vapour barriers drop cloths and the like. It costs pennies per foot. A three to 6 mill thickness of poly works well.
Fourthly, the hot melt may be tacked onto the surface itself at points and the poly pressed in there as to construct a quilted sort of enclosure over the surface being processed.
In the case of a stairway, the poly would be hot melted to masking tape, where the wall adjoins the stairway stringer, then the poly wood be tacked in and hot melt at places on the tread and riser of the stairway. The poly would then go over the hand rail / spindles also known as pickets or balusters, and newel posts, and be tacked to masking tape on the wall at the outside diagonal stringer of the stairs. It would likely be desirable to adhere the poly enclosure to itself at the spaces between the spindles which are typically 2 to 4 inches wide.
The heavily painted and coated woodwork is now fully enclosed and encapsulated in common poly plastic.
The next step is to heat shrink the quilted poly to tighten it over the surface using a heat gun or the like.
We tested seven (7) hot melt adhesives for their bond on poly tarp. All of them formed excellent bonds.
The next step is to put two (2) punctures in the encapsulated wood work and pump the enclosure full of new generation stripping fluid. A good material is "Dev Strip 501", made by the Devoe Coatings Corporation, ( apart of the ICI paints group). Another good material is "Smart Strip" sold by the Sherwin Williams Company.
There are likely many others, these strippers are sold in poly containers and are inert on poly tarping.
The enclosed woodwork is now under a very heavy layer of stripper. There are no toxic vapours, smoke, or dust. After a dwell time of 12 to perhaps 48 hours, the stripper remains fully wet and active on the coatings being removed.
At this point a wet vac is attached to a puncture made on the stripper filled poly enclosure of the woodwork. The re-useable stripper is the simply vacuumed out of the enclosure to be re-used on the next project. Re-capture and re-use of stripper will likely be 75 to 95 percent.

The next step in the process is to cut and peel off the poly enclosure and at the same time scrub and rinse the paint and coatings from the surface into a wet vac. We have invented an air-powered scrub rinse vacuum device and a manual powered one for details. The patent will be called "Malcolm McLaren". The wet vac can be located outside so that hazardous vapours, if any, are ventilated.
At this point, we have a bare wood surface that we may fine sand to smoothness or simply finish as is.
Points where the poly was tacked and quilted to the surface will remain with hot melt adhesive and paint on them. A draw with a paint scraper or a sander will bring them to bare wood state, ready for finishing. A large heritage home of 2 or 3 thousand square feet often has heavily coated woodwork of around 2,000 square feet on its interior and exterior surfaces. Restoration of such surfaces would be valued at towards $100,000's dollars. However, one can now do it easily in one (1) week.
The stripping by products are four kinds. The re-useable stripper and lead paint from which the lead will be extracted for sale. Thirdly, coating resins, paints and varnishes are essentially low quality thermo plastics. They could be made into bricks and blocks for home construction, fences, sheds, or patios. The fourth by-product no stripper laden water which can lawfully be neutralized and flushed in most jurisdictions.
Malcolm Hodgskiss 134 Tope Crescent Hamilton, ON L8S 1M7 rnalcolm@woodenfloorsbymalcolm.com malcolm staircaserefinishing.com