Tin Ceiling Restoration Help Please

A. Hi Jenny. If you got 80% of the paint off, it's probably time to repaint it, possibly the color of tin. The idea of getting all the paint off and finding a decorative and usable layer of tin plating on the ceiling tiles underneath all that paint doesn't sound realistic to me anyway. What is the objection to painting them?

Luck & Regards,


Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey

? What's your ceiling like at the moment?

A. While looking for info on this same topic, I came across a snippet on another board about using oven cleaner [on eBay or Amazon].

We had tried to use a few other things: Strypeeze(not thick enough to adhere to an upside-down surface); Citrustrip (less caustic and supposedly strips with a very thin layer - didn't work well); RediStrip (a paste-like remover that works upside down and is not caustic, but is very expensive and did not work well on the pressed detail of the Tin).

After seeing the tip about oven cleaner [on eBay or Amazon], we decided to give it a try ... it was just short of amazing compared to the other products "designed" for paint-removal.

Our ceiling had at least 5 coats of paint, the first one having been put on around 1910 or so... The first application of oven cleaner completely loosened the top 2 heavy layers of paint. After cleaning that with a plastic putty knife, another application of oven cleaner was applied that loosened most of the rest of the paint which we then took off again with the plastic putty knife. There was still quite a bit of paint left in the recesses of the decorative tin, so we applied one more application of oven cleaner and used a stiff plastic bristle brush to get into the crevices. Then wiped the whole surface with damp rags to remove the residue. It came out beautifully.

We waited about 2 hours after applying the oven cleaner before removing the loosened paint and made sure to have plastic sheeting below as the cleaner would eat into the hardwood floors. NOTE: The cleaner is supposed to be safe on metal (it is designed for ovens) but, do not leave the last application on for more than a few hours as it may leave minor pock marks in the old tin.

Glad to hear that it worked well, Joe, but also concerned about working overhead with oven cleaner because it's really strong stuff (lye); one drop in your eye and you could be blind. It works better than products "designed for the job" because it's much stronger. At least make sure that you are constantly wearing properly fitting chemical goggles [on eBay or Amazon]. Ted Mooney, P.E. Striving to live Aloha finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey Yes, I suppose that's true... oven cleaner in the eye could blind a person, but I do believe that just about any chemical that can strip paint could blind you if gotten in the eye... hence the common sense use of good eye protection (goggles) when working with any caustic chemicals whether overhead or not. Joe Varga [returning] - Rochester, New York

A. I did this on two ceilings about 8 years ago. I tried everything for removal; Chipping, propane torch, Methylene chloride. I finally found a product called Peel Away [affil links]. It is a Sodium Hydroxide paste that is troweled on and a paper-plastic film that is pressed against the paste. The next day the film is peeled off with the paint sticking to the paper. Sometimes it will just fall down from the weight. No toxic fumes but use rubber gloves [on eBay or Amazon] and eye protection goggles; NaOH burns the skin. Applying thicker paste means less work cleaning in the details but this has to be balanced against the cost. At that time a 5 gal bucket was about $125. It was still a lot of nasty work but I could not have completed the project without this product.
There were too many different shades of gray to leave the metal unpainted. I used some kind of white primer, I think it was a Zinsser oil base (Zinsser B-I-N Primer Sealer [on eBay or Amazon] ) that cleaned up with water. The finish coat was a latex base with metallic powder mixed in. One room was done in bronze, the other with brass color. It was applied with a hvlp paint sprayer [on eBay or Amazon] and I was very pleased with the result.I think the paint was called Chromatone from Crescent Bronze in Chicago and it was also expensive. Our building inspector commented that this was the only remaining original residential tin celling in town that he knew of.

A. Hi Lisa,
A clearcoat would require removing the rust first and would offer only limited protection. If it doesn't offend your aesthetic sense, I think Rustoleum Hammered Metal [affil links] paint in a silver color would be a more promising & permanent solution.
Luck & Regards,


Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey

A. I have a house built in 1908 that has tin walls as well as tin ceilings. I started peeling the cracking layers of paint in my bedroom and ended up with a huge ugly mess. I'm now in the process of having someone soda blast the room, like sand-blasting, only with baking soda. I have yet to see the final results, as it's taking the guy longer than he thought, but I'm hoping this is my solution.

I'm intrigued by the oven cleaner [on eBay or Amazon] idea that others have posted, but it does sound a bit dangerous.

We recently unearthed a hidden tin ceiling in the kitchen and decided, like idiots, to restore it. It's not a particularly fancy ceiling, luckily, comprised of "corrugated" panels with cross bars and rosettes. 90% of the paint had already fallen off inside the false ceiling, but the remaining paint was a nightmare to remove. Obviously, it was lead.

I investigated dry ice blasting, but frankly didn't want to spend $15 per sq ft for lead paint removal. Had we been able to, we would have left it bare, or urethaned it. We had to admit defeat and ended up painting it with Glidden (Ralph Lauren) metallic silver paint with sponges.

We stripped it, FOR A SOLID WEEK, with a variety of scrapers, some custom ground, and a variety of chemicals. We used oven cleaner that we read about here. It does work, but there's no one cure-all. We tried peel away #1 (had it already) and just didn't have the patience after discovering 24 hours was not enough. People, this is not easy work. It's a real labor of love. You couldn't pay me enough to do this in someone else's home. For the bits that we simply couldn't get off I used oven cleaner and brillo pad [on eBay or Amazon] to soften the edges. Obviously, we used HEPA mask [affil links] the entire time and trisodium phosphate [on eBay or Amazon] for cleanup. Max strength oven cleaner [on eBay or Amazon] was good for quick passes because it's quick acting. Spray it on, wait a few minutes, scrape/scrub, wipe it off before it hardens. Repeat.

Now I know why the tin was abandoned.

A. I had 60 tiles I bought from an antique dealer. They had many layers of paint.

I got an old oil tank which had been cut in two (an old bath tub would also work). I filled the oil tank with water and poured in 8 kilos of baking soda [on eBay or Amazon] . I used two propane burners to bring the water to boiling. I boiled the tiles for 30 minutes.

I then pressure washed (pressure washer [affil links]) them. The paint poured off them and left them looking new.

A. I'm in the same place as most of you. Right now I'm trying to scrape it off with a weed wacker, it works but the auto feed on those things are a joke. If your tin ceiling isn't yet installed you're lucky! Take the tiles to someone who does glass bead blasting (ask an auto body shop if you can't find one.) Be sure to use a metal primer (Zinsser B-I-N Primer Sealer) before you paint it.