DIY Doctor UK DIY Forums

We moved into a house which was built in the 1930's.I hate white gloss paint on anything at all,most of the wood in the house has been replaced and brush-waxed with light oak, we now need to do the wooden bits on the stairs which can't be replaced.We have used a heat gun and industrial strength varnish removed to get 70 years of paint right down to the wood but nothing will shift the really dark varnish which remains, it is really sticky when heated or varnish stripper applied and we have tried scraping and sanding it down to get to bare wood but to no avail.
Can anybody help with this annoying problem.

Now this varnish is a real nightmare and whatever you use its not going to be easy. I believe this varnish is one of the first early hard wearing varnishes, but the longer its on there the harder wearing it seems to be.

The only thing I have found that breaks this down is to go over it with a heat gun which breaks it down, and then go over with something like Home Strip paint and varnish remover. Leave the stripper on for about and hour, and remove it with a stainless steel scouring ball dipped in warm soapy water.

Home Strip can be purchased from the projects page: https://www.diydoctor.org.uk/projects/paintstrip.htm under paint stripping. This product is totally safe and is very pleasant to use..