Replies

1. 
   skipj | Mar 11, 2009 05:42am | #1

   What is it stuck to? By 'garden doors' do you mean French Doors? Is the surface primed/painted?

   My general rule of thumb is:

   1. Warm water

   2.Rubbing alchohol

   3. Paint thinner (Note: depending on finish, 2 and 3 may be reversed).

   4. Acetone. (Will melt/dissolve many furniture finishes, Also ruins most stone sealers.)

   5. Denatured alchohol. (See #6.)

   6. Lacquer Thinner. (Will melt latex paint. Assume all #6 from here on.)

   7. MEK. Methyl-ethyl ketone. (Will melt all of the above as well as your eyes, lungs and hands, so suit up and be very careful.) MEK will pull electrostatic powder coating off of metal.

   I hope this is helpful.

2. 
   dedhed6b | Mar 11, 2009 03:00pm | #2

   Try some citris based solvents ie Desolvet, Go BE Gone from hardware store or local big box.

   "Shawdow boxing the appoclipse and wandering the land"
   Wier/Barlow

3. 
   GregGibson | Mar 11, 2009 05:11pm | #3

   Have you tried mild heat, like from a hair dryer ?  Works wonders with a lot of adhesives. 

   Other Greg

4. 
   IMERC | Mar 11, 2009 05:17pm | #4

   mild heat for the bulk of the tape...

   paint thinner cleans up the residue quite nicely....

    

   Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming

   WOW!!! What a Ride!

   
   Forget the primal scream, just ROAR!!!

    

   "Some days it's just not worth chewing through the restraints"

5. 
   DanH | Mar 11, 2009 07:00pm | #5

   Good luck. I doubt that heat will do much -- the stuff is designed to stand up to heat. No doubt there is some solvent that will work, but hard to say if it's petroleum, acetone, MEK, or what. (Note: When using solvents take extreme care to keep the solvent off of any plastic parts.)

   I get this off the Tyvek web site (can't find the page for single-sided tape):

   "DuPont™ Tyvek¯ Doublesided Acrylic Tape is made of solvent free modified acrylic adhesive based on an aqueous dispersion."

   Based on that likely Oops paint remover (which I believe is MEK-based) is the best first shot.

   However, the site also says:

   "Any adhesive residue on the knife blade can be removed effectively with a white spirit type solvent (exercise care when doing so)."

   So maybe plain minerals spirits would work.

   The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. -John Kenneth Galbraith
1. 
   harpoharpo | Mar 12, 2009 01:08am | #7

   Thanks for the quick turn and many good ideas - looks like this weekend will be Chemlab 101 at the ol' casa.  I'll try to report on what solvent/procedure works the best.

    

   skipj  -  the doors are pre-primed exterior french doors - not solid wood, but clad.  Sorry for the omission.

    

   DANH  --  Yeah, I tried looking throught the DuPont site too before bugging you guys, but could only find that the adhesive was an acrylic base.  I even went off to a Canadian site (looks like they are the actual mfr), but could get no closer than "acrylic adhesive" - no solvency data, etc.

    

    

   Beerz to all.....

    

    

    

1. 
   caseyr | Mar 12, 2009 04:28am | #9

   I would have guessed "Goof Off" would do it, but a quick check of their website finds no claims to that effect. However, the search did find that Klean Strip Non-Methylene Chloride Aircraft Remover (aircraft remover...???) and Klean Strip paint removers claim to remove acrylic paint (and just about every thing else). Acrylic appears to be a very common component of tape adhesives and it appears several solvents will work. If you really want to get into it, there is a paper on "Pressure-Sensitive Tape and Techniques for its Removal From Paper" by archival preservation folks that discusses it at length.
   http://aic.stanford.edu/sg/bpg/annual/v02/bp02-13.htmlI would probably still try Goof Off (Not Goof Off 2, which is a milder formulation.) If you are reluctant to try solvents, you might hire a small army of little kids with art gum erasers....

1. 
   jimAKAblue | Mar 12, 2009 04:25pm | #11

   I thought someone in here mentioned that goof off is Acetone.

1. 
   Sphere | Mar 12, 2009 04:59pm | #12

   It dries slower, and is a little oily-er..might be zylene, but acetone it's not.

   For pesky stickers I found either WD-40 or mayonaise works well..eating potato chips I noticed caulk coming loose from my fingers, it was the veg.oil that did it, and mayo is only eggs and oil.Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks

   Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations

    

   They kill Prophets, for Profits.

    

    

2. 
   DonCanDo | Mar 12, 2009 05:17pm | #13

   I just looked a can of Goof-Off.  It says it contains xylene.

   Since acetone is a common nail polish remover, I'm assuming that it's probably a little less toxic.

3. 
   Sphere | Mar 12, 2009 05:24pm | #14

   Thought so, but I spelt it wrong. I have a can of xylene , it is good for cleaning stuff, like a degreaser. Tolulol will mess you up big time, so I stay away from that..we used it in metal plating shop as a degreaser, man..airborne cancer and liver killer.Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks

   Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations

    

   They kill Prophets, for Profits.

    

    

2. 
   Sphere | Mar 12, 2009 04:36am | #10

   Google "Dry Ice blasting" it'll blow you away. That'd do it.Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks

   Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations

    

   They kill Prophets, for Profits.

    

    

6. 
   webted | Mar 11, 2009 10:47pm | #6

   MEK ("methyl ethyl ketone") has about the same solvent properties as acetone ("methyl methyl ketone"), it just has a higher boiling point, so it evaporates more slowly.

   Along those lines, and thinking outside the box a bit, maybe try WD-40 or the equivalent. The oil + solvent mixture will stick around a bit longer, hopefully soften things up a bit, and make scraping more efficient. A lot of times you just need to give things some time to work - 20 minutes can make a world of difference.

   I'd give a good wipedown with mineral spirits afterwards to pick up any residual oil - also a quick scrub with TSP if you're using latex paint.

   -t

7. 
   LIVEONSAWDUST | Mar 12, 2009 04:24am | #8

   "ZYLOL" I get it from my paint store. Not sure if I've used it for housewrap tape, but it has worked for stuff like duct tape residue

   This is the best remover for adhesives I have found.

   Was recommended to me for removing leftover adhesive after removing vinyl lettering on trucks. Doesn't harm the paint.

   Wear rubber gloves though, it will suck all the moisture out of your hands

   
   

   ---

   Edited 3/11/2009 9:28 pm ET by LIVEONSAWDUST

8. 
   PeteBradley | Mar 12, 2009 06:47pm | #15

   Geez, you used Tyvek tape to protect a door?? You know what that stuff costs?? ;-)

   Pete

1. 
   harpoharpo | Mar 12, 2009 11:54pm | #16

   Yeah, I know, but "desperate times call for desperate measures".  It was close, so I used it.

   The doors opened onto a 12x14 room freshly finished with 5" oak plank.  And I was getting hit with marble sized raindrops, and gettin' real damn nervous.  Although it was the first good shower I'd had in days.   My knees would've never forgiven me if I had to pull any back up.....not to mention my wife would have never let me forget........

    

   Edited 3/12/2009 5:05 pm ET by harpoharpo