The popularity of chalk paint has exploded in recent years with a huge number of people choosing to use chalk paint in their homes, gardens, and yards. The unique look of chalk paint, its low price, and its excellent performance make it a solid option for many people and with its surge in popularity, we have noticed a surge in questions being asked about it.
We have noticed more and more people asking questions related to how to remove chalk paint from metal in recent weeks so we have decided to focus on this for todays article. As the majority of people who use chalk paint are in a hurry to apply it to the surfaces that they want to paint, they rarely consider actually removing it from the surface in the future when their tastes change.
Due to this, we think that the numbers of people reaching out to ask about removing their chalk paint from metal surfaces in their home will increase as it is not as easy to remove chalk paint from metal as it is from wood or plastic. That said though, there are some things that you can try if you wish that tend to allow you to quickly and easily remove chalk paint from most metal types.
How To Remove Chalk Paint From Metal!
You can often remove chalk paint from metal surfaces with ease with a number of products but the specific type of metal that you are working with will come into play. Different types of metal and alloys will respond better to different methods of removing your chalk paint so you have to keep this in mind.
This can create an issue for some people who are not sure what type of metal they are working with as they may use one of the treatments in our article below on the wrong type of metal. Thankfully, we have tried to organise our recommendations in an order of most effective for most metals so the best products are at the top and then descend from there.
This should help any of our readers who are unsure of the type of metal that they are wanting to remove chalk paint from. If you do know the type of metal that you are working with then you should always read the label of the product for how to actually apply it to the metal to optimally remove the chalk paint though.
Citrus Based Paint Removers
In our opinion, the various citrus based paint removers on the market are your best option for removing chalk paint from most types of metal. They are easy to use, cheap, and very quick to get the job done while also being very beginner friendly too.
Although there are a large number of these citrus based paint removers on the market now, we usually recommend that our readers go with one of the more Reputable cirtus based paint removers. The low quality products on the market can often be too strong for softer metals and may cause side effects.
Depending on the type of citrus paint remover that you do with, you may have to apply water to it prior to applying it to your metal surface to remove the chalk paint. With other products there is no need for this and the product comes ready to use directly from the container. Due to there being so many products out there, we recommend that you always check the label for the specific paint remover that you get to ensure that you are using it correctly for optimal results.
Mineral Spirits
Mineral spirits is another good option for removing chalk paint from metal but the majority of mineral spirit products on the market tend to be harsher than the citrus based products. This can result in unwanted side effects on more types of metal and this is why mineral spirits are our second recommendation to our readers.
We would always recommend that you use a High quality mineral spirit product when trying to remove chalk paint from metal. That said though, even if the product you use recommends that you don’t add water too it, you may still want to make your own fifty fifty mix with water unless the packaging of your mineral spirt is below 70% strength.
If you don’t know what type of metal you are working with then we would not recommend that you use mineral spirit at all though. Citric acid based products will often out perform them on a wider range of metals without risking any of the possible side effects that you could get.
Muriatic Acid
Although we usually recommend against using any type of muriatic acid on metal, especially for sometime as simple as removing chalk paint, a large number of people do use it specifically with aluminium with great results. That said though, it will cause issues with most other types of metals and potentially ruin some.
This is why we usually recommend that our readers avoid using muriatic acid at all costs unless they know what they are doing. We see so many tutorials on removing paint from metal on social media and YouTube that recommend muriatic acid without actually informing their viewers that it will ruin a wide range of metals beyond repair.
That said though, if you do know what you are doing then muriatic acid can be a great product for specialist jobs but is not ideal for general use. It can make stainless steel look as though it has been burned and will even eat through some weaker metals and fully break them down over time.
Sandblasting
Sandblasting can be a quick and easy way to remove chalk paint from metal but the equipment required to do the job correctly is usually too expensive for most people unless they need to sandblast other surfaces too. Depending on the type of sandblasted machine used you may have to use the lowest setting too or it may damage your metal while removing the chalk paint too.
Most industrial sandblaster machines are very expensive compared to the other methods on our list so that is why we have put it as our last suggestion. That said though, second hand sandblaster machines are much cheaper or you may know someone who can lend you their sandblaster for the weekend for free.
Our advice would be to start on the lowest setting of the particular machine you have access to and then slowly increase the pressure from there. This should allow you to slowly work your way up to a level where you can quickly and easily remove the chalk paint from your metal without damaging the metal in the process.
Conclusion
That brings our article going over how you can remove chalk paint from metal as quickly and easily as possible to an end. Although it is harder to safely remove chalk paint from metal without actually damaging the metal than it is with other surfaces, it can still be done at home without the use of specialist equipment if needed and most of our readers should be able to remove their chalk paint from a metal surface with ease.
