How to save money on paint stripper

We have done a study on what paint stripper really costs you. Most of us rate the cost as the most important factor and hope that buying cheaper won’t make the job harder. While there is nothing wrong with this approach there is another critical factor that most people don’t consider – coverage! If you are trying to save money, you need to focus on cost per square metre, not cost per litre.

Gel Paint Strippers
The fact is that thick gel paint strippers provide terrible coverage. Read the label. We have found that one litre tins of gel stripper are by far the most expensive way to strip paint and that’s not even taking their inferior performance into consideration.

If you buy a one litre tin of gel stripper for say $22 how much will it do, what would you expect? Will it do a door or a window? Well the label of one leading brand explains that you get 0.4 square metres to the litre – that means you need 10 litres to do a door! That works out to $220.

You can be excused for disbelieving this but here is the reasoned logic. If you apply gel stripper nice and thin at 1mm thick then one litre will cover 1 square metre. That’s just maths. But if you apply it this thin then you get lack lustre results. Gel stripper needs to go on thick or you have to keep putting on more coats. At the recommended 2.5mm thick coat the maths works out 1 litre will cover 0.4 square meters. A door is roughly 4 square metres (2 sides) so that’s where we work out the 10 litres.

If you are very lucky and can manage to completely soften all the paint in one 2.5mm coat then at a cost of $22 per litre your cost per square metre is $55 or $220 per door, and you still have to clean the door down and buy sand paper to sand out the residue and the raised grain.

All the above is only considering cost and not performance. We found most gel paint strippers to be very similar in performance. Some may cause wood bleaching, some raise the grain, some are really hard to remove or go hard, some are slower, some don’t like acrylics. Then there are the other invisible costs like scraper damage through gouging and the cost of your elbow grease.

Spray On Paint Stripper
Spray on paint strippers are more expensive per litre but usually cheaper per square metre because you use much less. Spray strippers tend to be much more absorbent and don’t just sit on top of the paint . However spray strippers can run more so they are not great for ceilings and more suited to flat surfaces. However the downside of these types of strippers can be the fumes, more harsh chemicals and you still have to sand out all the paint residue.

The Cooper’s Restoration System
This brings us to a special class – The Coopers Restoration System. It’s really interesting that this product being the most able paint stripper we have tested along with all its components that come in the pack works out the cheapest cost per square metre of all the products we have evaluated. The reason is in coverage. One litre of the Cooper’s Restoration System will strip typically 4 square metres – a door for instance, and you don’t have to sand – it is ready for finishing immediately. This is ten times better coverage than a gel stripper and that’s how they achieve better coverage value.

The small one litre Coopers Restoration System works out to $33.50 per square metre but their 5 door pack works out to just $22.50 – that’s a very big saving over ordinary gel stripper.

But the value considerations don’t stop there. Comparing prices alone does not consider performance, quality of end result, user comfort or ease. The Coopers Restoration System is a very definite winner in these areas as well, especially as it seems to work on just about everything and there’s no damage, plus you don’t have to sand.

The Coopers Restoration System is a spray on product but it does not run like ordinary spray on paint strippers. It has a property that makes it adhere to the paint and it will only run if you apply way too much. It’s fine for doors and windows and often used on ceilings and beams.

Conclusion
So when you are trying to save money on material costs, don’t be fooled by the low cost per litre. What matters to your wallet is the lower cost per square metre. Read the coverage guidelines and watch out for danger signs like “apply thick”.

Foot note: The above coverage examples are based on typical projects. The amount of product (regardless of brand) you need will vary depending on how thick your coatings actually are.