Stripper no longer works well

[buicktree]

It used to be 25% of my jobs were hard to strip. For the past year it's been 75% of my jobs. I've always felt that DIF (and "piranha") had a short shelf life.

Has anyone else seen a decline in the effectiveness (penetration and paste dissolving power) of wallpaper stripper?

Is it cause of large old inventory build up during the recession? Or maybe has the formula changed?

The last job I did it seemed like my DIF was a bizarro "anti-stripper" that was designed to make it harder to remove the paper.

Tom
Deerfield Beach, FL

[Bill Archibald]

Tom,

Can't answer to the diminishing effectiveness of DIF. Many professional paperhangers of the NGPP, including myself, prefer Safe and Simple (http://www.safeandsimple.com/) over DIF any day.

[Jeff Evans]

I have nothing to add, other than the thread title cracks me up. Hey, none of us are what we used to be.:roflmao:

[Bill Archibald]

I have nothing to add, other than the thread title cracks me up.

Now that you mention it ...........

Ahhhhh, but those days are long gone......:roflmao:

[Buff1]

I, too, thought this thread would be about something, well, different.:lol:

[HangingInThere]

Well, I did find it a bit apropos that the Buff one was commenting on the topic... :rolleyes:

It's becoming a classic response from my immediate family whenever asked what your dad, or husband, does for a living... No, not just a stripper, but a professional stripper.

In answer to your question, I've not experienced any difference as to the longevity of DIF. I've had half a tank in my authentic DIF yellow sprayer for months with no observable differences in performance.

I suspect that we are just dealing with the different stock the papers have been printed on and adhesives used. In a recent professional stripping gig where all papers were of the laminated variety (facing peeled off leaving a "liner"), the pasted variety released easier and with less problems than the pre-pasted. I was working atop someone's clear primer, much of which was used to prime drywall repairs atop plaster. The prepasted needed quite a bit more coaxing to release its grip, and also resulted in a softening of the clear primer...resulting in a fair amount of the "peeling sunburn" scenario.

What has been of interest to me was my early experimenting with the effect of the strippers vs. just straight up water. Straight water tends to bounce back and does take a bit to get things wet enough so that the water molecules will get to the cohesive state. When DIF or a stripper is used the solution does not "readily" bounce back and seems to bite grabbing the backing. Once to the cohesive state, adding more solution to keep the backing wet enough to do its thing is accomplished much more easily.

[knockaert]

I have a friend who's company name is "The Strippers". Their motto is "We take it off, We take it all off ".

[UK sticker]

been reading this thread and nearly loged in as UK stripper lol

well anyway i thought every one used hot water and loads of washing up liquid (fairy) to us brits
that always holds the water on
just thought i would share that one!!!

[Chris Murphy]

Yeah, UK Sticker, dishwashing detergents contain 'surfactants' that help hold water to a surface, so a squirt or 2 in a sprayer can make a difference.

[Lee Epstein]

White Vinegar works too.

[Chris Nelson]

White Vinegar works too.

What are you saying? Balsamic won't work?:llama::roflmao:

[HangingInThere]

Indeed Chris, Balsamic works extremely well in gourmet kitchens! ;)

[buicktree]

So I guess nobody has seen a shelf life (or effectiveness decline) problem with "stripper". (See Post #1)


Tom

Deerfield Bch, FL

[HangingInThere]

I have not...

However, my boss has great reservations concerning my observational skills...but what does he know...I'm self-employed!