Skirting boards - Removing paint to wax wood?

[Paul_L18]

Hi,
I've recently moved into a 1930s semi. It needs quite a lot of modernising.

I'm starting in the lounge where they is what looks like original skirting boards. They have multiple layers of gloss paint on them so i stripped them down using a heat gun from this to this.

I was quite impressed with how they came up. There's a bit of paint residue and some marks from the heat gun scrapping but in my mind it thought they'd sand down so that i could wax or stain them.

Unfortunately when i've tried to sand them just using my Bosch 1000W mouse sander it hasn't really made much impact. Yes, it's smoothed the boards down a bit, but it's not really shifted the residue or reduced the marks from the stripping.

I'm really keen on getting a wood finish rather than paint, so would appreciate any advice you experienced people can give me.

Thanks
Paul

 

[geraldthehamster]

That looks like it might be original brown varnish, which might yield to more aggressive sanding. Personally I'd consider replacing them, which would also make it easier to make good the messy wall immediately above.

 

[holy85]

Agree, it would take a long time sanding all the wood back. Better off buying skirting that is a little higher so it can over the any damaged plaster if you take the old skirting off.

 

[sh4d0w]

I tried this at the old house, certainly advise to replace them rather than making good

 

[Gerrydelasel]

 

[Brigadier]

When you factor in your time as well, you will get a far better result (at a fraction of the cost) by replacing them.