Drawers, Floor and Stripping Paint

Getting back into the shop today to build drawers for two closets and also for a vanity. I also have some salvaged redwood boards from an old fence that I will be turning into sill aprons for a window project that I will be doing soon.

old fence boards

The mud room in the house has a wood floor now. Doug Fir 1 x 4 was removed from the kitchen for repair and some was used upstairs to replace funky floor boards. It feels good to see a finished floor since we repaired it 6 years ago.

new floor for the mud room

Another project I tackled at the house was stripping paint from a door. I stripped all the doors upstairs and now have a good method that does not require any toxic chemicals. I learned this method from taking courses at College of the Redwoods in their Historic Preservation and Restoration Technology program.

To strip paint my favorite method is using a heat gun. The doors in this house have raised panels and molding that frame the panels. To remove paint from the different shapes I have ground putty knives to fit the molding and the profile on the raised panels.

scraping tools

For the stiles and rails I use one of those 5 in 1 scrapers and keep a stiff putty knife close by to frequently clean the paint from the scraper. The heat gun softens the paint and when enough heat is applied the paint easily comes off all the way down to the sealed wood below the many layers of paint that have been applied over the century and a quarter that the house has been in existence.