Welcome to AHM Furniture Repair

  A.H.M. Furniture Repair's

Stripping Only Service

There is no good reason for you to attempt chemical wood stripping unless you enjoy doing it. Our Stripping Only service is more economical than people usually guess, often just a little more than you would spend for the material you'll need to do it yourself. The professional systems that we use will get the wood much cleaner than what common home stripping method will achieve. Doing it yourself doesn't even save you very much money when you consider the cost of buying your own stripper, gloves, brushes, scrapers, etc. 

Stripper fumes can be dangerous without proper ventilation. If you do it indoors, fumes will get into your heating system and can cause serious damage when they mix with combustion air. A corrosive gas is the result which can ruin your furnace. Non-methlyene chloride, so-called safe strippers avoid some of the problem but guess what? They don't work very well! If they did, refinishers would be using them en masse. They are not.

  As an added bonus we can help you evaluate your project just as we do on refinishing project proposals. All stripping projects are inspected for possible needed repairs. We will quote a price to do those repairs if you wish, but in any case, we believe it is necessary to point them out to you before we start.

We use different methods for stripping various pieces that are necessary to handle the wide range of challenging situations. Our strategy is to apply the most efficient method of stripping that does not risk damage to the item. The stripping chemical we use is one of the finest products on the market and is available to professionals only. It will not burn or cause grain raising of the wood, and evaporates so the wood doesn't have to be "washed" with water to remove residue. We almost always use a brush-on stripper where we will have the most control over exposing the item to chemicals.  This is often described by others as "by hand" stripping method  but this is best way to get to know the piece being stripped to ensure that every detail gets seen, and there is no loss of integrity in the glue joints. This provides for a more through repair and refinishing job.

To remove paint requires the item stay wet with chemical longer. For painted items that can handle a period of soaking, the tank method is most efficient. We generally do this with only small items that don't have a lot joinery. Larger items are coated with stripper and wrapped to stop evaporation and allow the stripper to do its work overnight. 

  If you are going to do your own stripping, please consider the following.

1. Get your chemical and other supplies from a paint store where you can get knowledgeable service. Don't be suckered by TV infomercials! Believe me, there are no stripping chemicals available that are significantly different or stronger than those that you'll find right down the street at the paint store! 

2. The larger variable with any given stripping project is the existing paint or finish on the furniture. If you're having problems stripping, it's probably not because you're using the "wrong" stripper. The problem is what you are stripping, or how you are stripping, and usually not what brand of stripper you are using. Think about what you're going to spend on material vs. what we'd charge you to strip it. Is it really worth it? How confident are you that you'll be successful? Almost every month we'll have a stripping project to do for someone who started it themselves and gave up.