Sloppy Painting Leaving Old Paint On Upvc Frames

[susanxx]

The previous owners of my house didn't do very good prep before painting the exterior rendered walls with masonary paint. Hence the window frames have unsightly paint blobs all over the upvc frames. Is there an easy way to remove this paint, have tried scraping with a craft knife in a holder but it seems to shave the frame rather than clear the paint? Many thanks

[Khandro]

I haven't tested this personally;
http://www.biostrip.co.uk/news/remove-all-paint-from-window-frames-in-just-thirty-minutes/

[KARL]

Masonry paint is water based but once dried it forms a layer of synthetic material - somewhat similar to plastic but distinctly different from PVC. The craft knife is too sharp for using to get between the two materials as opposed to uncontrollably crossing over the boundary. Because I always have some of it around, I would be tempted to try to soften the paint by applying white spirit, perhaps in repeated applications to ensure penetration of the liquid, then use a conventional somewhat blunt scraper of some sort. Obviously I would try it out on a very limited area first to see if it works and leaves no staining. It will perhaps be more work and more tedious than the product suggested by Khandro, but possibly significantly cheaper than a proprietary method. Don't worry about only softening what you intend to remove, any other areas you stray onto will dry out within 24 hours or so with no significant ill effect.

[Khandro]

A general point about scrapers, the edge should not be sharp, like a knife, which tends to dig into the frame, it should be square with sharp corners and can be kept like that as the corners become rounded, by use by using a fine file to keep the leading edge at 90 degrees to the blade. The square corner will then remove the paint without digging in.

[The Builder]

You could try a car product such as this, Susan...

Amazon.co.uk User Recommendation

It would probably take a lot of work, but may be worth a try.

Halford's have similar products.