I purchased a Ready-Strip Paint and Varnish removal kit after seeing the demonstration for it on QVC. I only paid about $25 for the kit. It seemed very inexpensive for this type of product so I decided to make my first QVC purchase and to give it a try.
Ready-Strip Paint and Varnish remover is a green paste that you apply to the surface of the item you wish to remove the paint or varnish from. You leave it on for a few hours and the green pastes will turn to white when it is ready to be removed. You then scrape off the paint with the provided tool. After the majority of the paint is removed you use the paint remover clean up spray and the provided scrub pads to remove the excess paste and paint.
I was very excited to receive this product in the mail. I had planned to remove the several layers of paint off of my cabinets and stain them a beautiful chestnut color. I was quite disappointed to learn that the Ready Strip would only remove about 2 layers of paint. The claim that the product is almost odor-free was far from the truth, but I was happy to find that it wasn’t completely overpowering like some chemicals.
Applying the paste, waiting 4-6 hours, scraping it off, reapplying it and waiting another 4-6 hours took way too long so I went to the store and bought another brand of paint stripper. This brand worked in 15 minutes, but still only took off 2 layers of paint though it claimed to remove 6. Even though Ready Strip has a lot less odor I enjoyed the store bought gel stripper better because it worked much quicker. The best part of the Ready Strip kit was the scraper. The scraper included has 2 blades with several scraping edges on each. The blades were much sharper and more effective than any paint scrapper I could find in any hardware store.
For the rest of my project I used the gel stripper I bought from the store and the blade I received in my Ready Strip kit. For the left over bits of paint I used the clean up spray to soften the paint and the sander to remove it. This method cleaned off all of the stubborn paint leaving beautiful pine cabinets ready to be stained.
Overall, I wouldn’t recommend Ready Strip for any big project. It should, however, work well for removing 1 or 2 layers of paint. I feel that I got my money’s worth from the scrapper alone, but if I had looked hard enough I’m sure I could have found something to work just as good for a lot less. If you plan to remove a lot of stubborn paint or varnish head to your local hardware store to get thick rubber gloves, a mask, goggles, a paint scraper, and a big jug of liquid or gel paint stripper. You might end up spending more, but it’ll be worth your money.
