When painting a room, it is essential to tape over any hinges, doorknobs, and light switches.
When you do this, you will end up saving yourself quite a bit of work.
The more paint that ends up on these things, the more work you will have in front of you.
The good news is that there are ways to help remove this paint.
The process is going to be a bit long, and you will have to work to get this paint off, but in the end, your hinges will look brand new again.
All we can say is that this will teach you to make sure you tape or remove hinges the next time you paint.
How to Remove Paint from Hinges (Step-by-Step)
Step 1: Gather Supplies
The process of removing paint from hinges is something that anyone can do.
You will not need to be a DIY expert to complete this process.
However, things will be a bit easier if you have certain tools available to use.
You are going to have to boil the hinges to release some of the old paint.
For this, we recommend using an old saucepan.
You will not want to use one of your new Calphalon pots as there will be paint and other debris in the pot.
The saucepan may very well be able to be used again, but in case some damage happens, don’t use your good cookware.
In addition to this cookware, you will need something that you can use as a scraper.
You will want to choose a tool that has a sharp and flat edge and a handle that is easy to get a good grip on.
This part of the process will be the most dangerous, and it is essential to make sure that you choose a scraper that feels comfortable to you.
Other than that, the supplies needed to complete this process are going to be rather basic and easy to find in your garage.
- Screwdriver
- Old saucepan
- Wire brush
- Scraper
- Pliers
- Water
- Protective Gloves
- Towel
Step 2: Remove Hinges
The first step in this process is going to be to remove the hinges.
Although there is some touch up work you can do to a very light layer of paint on a hinge, they need to be removed to truly clean them up.
This process is for those hinges that have quite a bit of paint and residue on them.
This is not something you would need to go through if you were dealing with a simple drip of paint that fell on the hinge.
Many people purchase a home that previous owners painted.
If the owners didn’t understand the proper way to paint, they might have simply painted directly over the hinges.
This is a bad idea, and if you want to avoid replacing the entire hinge, this paint removal process is the best one to follow.
Take all of the hinges and their screws and place them in your old saucepan.
It’s essential to place the screws in the saucepan as well.
As you will probably see when you are removing the hinges, the screws will likely have quite a bit of paint on them as well.
This process should help to make sure your screws end up looking brand new as well.
Step 3: Boil Hinges
The next step is to boil the hinges.
You will fill the saucepan containing the hinges and screws with enough water to cover them.
Let the water heat up and boil for about twenty minutes.
You will want to keep an eye on this pot to ensure that it does not boil over.
Since the water will likely have lots of paint chips and other debris in it, having this boil over onto the stovetop will be a mistake.
As you watch your hinges boil, you should notice that some of the paint starts to come off and into the water.
This usually happens after about twenty minutes of boiling.
At this point, you can turn the water off and then move on to the next step.
Step 4: Remove Hinges
Take the pliers that we recommended you have with you and carefully start to remove the hinges from the water.
They are going to be quite hot, and you will have to make sure you do not burn your hand during this part of the process.
You may want to wear gloves to make sure that the water does not splash up onto your wrists or hands.
Place the hot hinges on an old towel that you have set up to be your workspace.
We recommend removing all hinges and screws and setting them on the towel, and then disposing of the water.
Although you don’t need to work with the hinges while they are boiling hot, the paint seems to come off a bit more easily when they are still warm.
Step 5: Scrape Paint Off
Now you are ready to start removing paint from the hinges.
When you look at what you have created, you will likely see that a good amount of the paint has already left the hinge.
This is a great thing and will make your life quite a bit easier.
Now you are going to take your scraper and start scraping off some of the paint residue that you can see.
Always be mindful of where you are placing your hand as you are scraping.
If your hand is in the way of the scraper, you could very easily end up cutting yourself.
Try and push the paint off in strips wherever possible.
When you keep the scraper moving and pushing through the old paint, it seems to be much easier to release it from the hinge.
You will notice that there are certain areas in which the paint is going to be much harder to remove.
These areas usually include the screw holes and the actual hinge piece itself.
Do the best you can on the flat sides of the hinge with the scraper in your hand.
This part of the process is designed to remove the bulk of the debris.
Scraping takes a bit of muscle and time, and though the softer paint is easier to remove than the original, it will not simply fly off the hinge.
Do the best you can with your scraper to remove any chunks of the paint and then move to the next step.
Step 6: Scrub and Polish
For this part of the process, you will need a wire brush.
This is where you will do some detailed work to get the hinges completely clean and new looking.
As you scrub and polish these hinges, you may find that you need a combination of a few products.
You can use things like steel wool as well to start to get the hinge completely cleaned.
The hardest part is getting inside the screw holes of the hinge.
You will notice that the wire brush is going to be the easiest tool to use to clean out these areas.
You can also use the wire brush to scrub the paint off of any of the screws that still happen to have some debris on them.
The scrubbing and polishing process is time consuming, but when you are finished, you will very likely have brand new hinges in your hands.
As you can see from the process and the work involved, you will want to avoid painting over hinges in the future.
If you find that you can avoid having to clean hinges all together, you will have saved yourself quite a bit of time.
If you are deciding to complete this process, we recommend doing a bunch of hinges at once.
Go around your home and look for any doorknobs or hinges that have these issues.
You can easily place them all in the same pot and get them cleaned up together.
This process is our favorite one to use because it is all natural and does not require any chemicals.
You won’t have to worry about your safety quite as much when working with hot water and a bit of elbow grease.
Can You Use a Heat Gun to Remove Paint from Hinges?
Another way you can remove paint from hinges is to use a heat gun.
As you can imagine, the heat gun will work very similarly to the boiling process we used in our step-by-step guide.
When using a heat gun, you will still want to remove the hinges from the door.
If you leave the hinges up, you risk removing paint from an area where you don’t want it to be removed.
The heat gun is an excellent tool to have in your house for a variety of projects.
When you heat up the paint with the heat gun, you are still going to need the scraper and brush to completely remove the paint from the hinges.
The overall process will be quite similar, but the heat gun does give you a bit more flexibility in how you heat up the old paint.
This process will be just as effective as the boiling of hinges.
Can You Use a Crockpot to Remove Paint From Hinges?
Some websites will tell you that a crockpot is a great way to remove paint from hinges.
We happen to disagree with this statement.
Although a crockpot could technically work for this process, the crockpot will then be no good for cooking food.
In our method, we recommend using an old saucepan to boil your hinges.
Certainly, it is easier to have an old saucepan for projects like this than to keep an old crockpot on hand.
Crockpots are typically a much more expensive purchase than a saucepan.
They also tend to take up quite a bit of space.
There is really just no reason to keep an extra or old crockpot around for boiling hinges.
Technically, the method will work just as well as the heat gun or boiling water method.
You will still need to scrape and brush the hinge regardless of the fact that it sat in the crock pot for a few hours.
Although the crockpot method is a natural and safe way to clean these hinges, it is certainly not the most convenient.
Will a Paint Stripper Work to Remove Paint from Hinges?
Most of the methods that we have mentioned are going to be reasonably safe and environmentally friendly.
Using a paint stripper is introducing a chemical into the process.
A paint stripper is a quick and effective method to get the paint off of old hinges.
However, if the paint is a few layers thick, you are still going to need to do a bit of scrubbing.
This is why we like the boiling method the best.
When you use a stripper, your hands will be covered with the product as you try and hold the hinge and use the stripper to loosen up the paint.
If your hinge has a drop or two of paint on it, you may be able to put a bit of paint stripper on a rag and simply just wipe the hinge clean.
Try and take a look at the amount of work you have in front of you and which one of the methods makes the most sense for you.
Conclusion
Removing paint from hinges helps to give your home a much more professional and complete look.
When hinges are covered in layers of paint, they also don’t work quite as well.
Our step-by-step method for removing hinges is safe and effective.
You won’t have to worry about where you complete this process.
With a little bit of effort and scrubbing, your hinges will look brand new in about an hour or so.
New hinges can be quite expensive, especially if they are of higher quality.
Save yourself some money and restore your old hinges today.
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