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I bought some acid today - hydrochloric acid. I had an accident with a tin of emulsion paint on my patio and need to remove the dried stuff. If this does not work, what else can I use?

Chris

holy moly man, are you crazy ??

BE VERY F*CK*N CAREFULL WITH THE ACID !!!!!!!

I was once a silversmith (years ago) & I can tell you from experience that the acid you've bought is very very dangerous & would eat it's way straight through your bloody hand !!

If used at all, acid of this potency should be HEAVILY DILUTED WITH WATER. You should be wearing eye protection (plastic goggles). You should be wearing long heavy-duty rubber gloves over a long sleaved jumper !!! You should continue wearing the protection even once diluted with water.

Lastly, it may be the wrong thing for the job. To strip paint off of any surface, all you really need is some nitromorse paint stripper orm a similar product designed for the job of stripping paint. They are also dangerous & require wearing protection, but will work if you read & follow the instructions.

Be careful

You can try vanish oxi action on emulsion paint, should be available in any supermarket, the pink bottles.
Try it before you use the acid, it will go more easy on nature and on you.
You should be very careful with the acid, indeed.

Let me know if it worked, please.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: ChrisWerner on 2006-05-13 13:47 ]</font>

As Shroomz said - Hydrochloric acid would eat through anything.

I remember back in my labouring days that brick cleaning was done by spraying a dilution of hydrochloric acid under pressure. This certainly cleaned paint and mortar off bricks.We had to wear head to toe protection.
How much paint did you spill?

Thanks for your concerns. I will be very careful when I do it and have some rubber gloves ready. The man in the hardware shop suggested using the acid. The instructions on the bottle says that is has to be diluted and applied for 20 minutes. About 1 litre of paint was spilled. I drenched the spillage with water and wasing up liquid but still there are swathes of whiteness spoiling my patio. I hope the acid does not dissolve the paving stones

Always pour the acid into the water, never pour water into acid, it could explode. The water has the ability ot absorb the heat generated when the two substances mix. The acid cannot dissipate the heat of the reaction and may explode showering you and everything around you with acid.

Wear goggles aa well for eye protection.

R

On 2006-05-13 15:29, ElectronicaDub wrote:
Thanks for your concerns. I will be very careful when I do it and have some rubber gloves ready. The man in the hardware shop suggested using the acid. The instructions on the bottle says that is has to be diluted and applied for 20 minutes. About 1 litre of paint was spilled. I drenched the spillage with water and wasing up liquid but still there are swathes of whiteness spoiling my patio. I hope the acid does not dissolve the paving stones

It depends on the stones...they could be awfully coloured for oxydation...any strong acid will react with the calcium contained in the stones, bringing those possible effects:
1)Corrosion and degradation of the surface with change of colour and loss off shape.
2)toxic vapors, very nasty, they can ruin your lungs forever, you should also wear a specifical filter mask (not the little paper mask, but a true one, with replaceable filter and eyes protection.

The acid could dilute the paint, but what's happening when it dries? how do you remove everything....

I'd ask the makers of such stones what do they suggest.

You probably wont get it off in one go .
Ditch the acid ........get some ordinary paint stripper ,wait till there is no sun on the area with the paint ...shlep on a thick layer of stripper and then cover it immediately with glad wrap [plastic food wrapping film ]. In ordinary paint stripper the degreasing agent is a gas held in suspension in the gel and the film keeps it locally on the paint and slows the migration of the gas and drying of the gel . Wait for half an hour ,grab an old cardboard box to dump the glad wrap in and slowly lift the film ...DONT flick the film the paint stripper knows exactly where your eyes are and it WILL get you if you move to fast repeat until you run out of stripper and then flush the area . there will probably be paint left in little crevices but it will be softened so dig it out with an old screwdriver or something . If there isn't any wood involved in this you could try cleaning whats left with caustic soda .Add the granules to the water not the other way around cos it heats up FAST ,you must wear gloves and eye protection ..it burns like buggery.... and if you do splash yourself just flush with a lot of water straight away . it would probably be better to rub the caustic with steel wool rather than a scrubbing brush to avoid the flicks a brush will cause .BTW where the caustic has been it will be very slippery like you had smeared soap on the surface so watch your step there . The caustic and the paint stripper wont hurt any plants they flow on ,some things like jasmine seem to like it actually ,as long as you do a lot of flushing with a hose afterwards .
If anyone wants to strip turned table legs or intricate surfaces.... the paint stripper and glad wrap is the way to go ,after years of supplementing a musos income by restoring old furniture I have to say it gives about 4 or 5 times more bang for your buck than just painting on the stripper.
Lots of Luck
Paul


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: skwawks on 2006-05-13 18:14 ]</font>

If everything fails you can always follow the example below:

skwawks is giving the best advice. hydrochloric acid could destroy your patio...

Well, the acid did the job. It fizzed, went green then black patches formed. I hosed it away and the paint came off. Thanks for all your tips.

I celebrated by playing some guitar patches through Cemo's Guitar plugin, That thing is really good.

Chris

Congrats