We're in the process of stripping 50 years of paint from the woodwork in our house. I've been using Citri-strip on the painted areas, and it works wonderfully. The plan is to get the paint and most of the original finish removed, and then sand to bare wood and refinish. There are a handful of places where the woodwork was never painted. I tried just sanding, but the sandpaper became clogged immediately and just scratched the wood. I thought about using Citri-strip on it, but it's fairly expensive. I figured that since denatured alcohol is used to clean it up afterwards, I should be able to mix the two. I tried one part Citri-strip to three parts alcohol and mixed them together in a paint tray with the brush I was using to paint it on. It took a bit of stirring to get it mixed completely, but it worked like a charm. I painted a very thin layer onto the surfaces to be stripped, and within minutes the finish had bubbled up. It dried pretty quickly as well, but a couple of spritzes of alcohol from the spray bottle and a little scrubbing with a stripping pad, and the finish came right off. Thought I'd pass that along, since it's working great for me. The diluted stripper works OK on a single layer of paint, but on multiple layers it's a waste of time. It also works well on the formerly painted areas where the first application took the paint off but not the underlying finish. I'm figuring it could also be mixed with mineral spirits, since the directions say that can also be used to clean it up, but I haven't tried it yet.

I have an oak door that I want to be red. I do not want to paint it. I found Zar oil based tintable stain - and had it color matched to my Classic Red paint chip. I tested the stain on a scrap piece of oak and it was excellent. I stripped the door with Jasco water based stipper down to the natural door (which took hours- and about 3 applications of stripper). Sanded it and was ready to use my red stain. I applied my first coat with a cloth as directed and wiped off the excess. Let dry for over 12 hours, lightly sanded, and applied another coat of stain the same way. Well, I am totally panicked. My door is the nice red color down the center where there is a detailed carving, and in some parts of the grain, but the overall color is orange/peach. Just horrible! Just on the off chance that it would get darker, I tried a third application of stain, but it doesnt seem to be working. 1. It seemed that I got all of the finish off - but could some stain have been left that is reacting to my red color? 2. Is there a way to neutralize it so I can get my red door without painting it? I read that if a wood hardener was applied as some point, it wouldn't take stain.... could that be my problem? Any input on this is appreciated!