The Best Paint Remover
Expert BioExpert Bio
WRT (Water restoration technician), CCT (Carpet Cleaning technician), and bio hazard cleanup, as well as several other certifications from the IICRC. Ben has managed teams involved in cleaning projects around the United States. Ben’s passion for cleaning dates all the way back to keeping his rugby gear tidy while a young lad. Ben holds an undergraduate degree from Oxford, a Master’s degree from Oxford, and a mountain of hands on experience at the school of hard knocks.
Whether you’re a DIY expert getting ready to tackle a big painting project or a professional painter, having a quality paint remover can save you a lot of time and hassle. Just take a look at the shelf the next time you go into a home improvement store and you’ll see there are dozens of different types and brands of paint removers. It’s easy to just blindly select one without knowing the differences, but we are here to help you make a more educated selection.
What you want to look for in a paint remover is whether it will remove paint from different surfaces. You may get some paint dripping on hardwood floors, wooden decks, concrete or possibly even carpet. And removing spray paint overspray can sometimes be different than removing drippings from a paint brush. In our evaluations, we found plenty of effective paint removers, but we were able to narrow down our selections to just two.
We have more than 35 years of experience analyzing, testing and evaluating different cleaning products. Paint removers are some of the easiest products to test, since they either work as advertised or they don’t. Some work best on hard surfaces, while others work best on soft surfaces. Others can strip off multiple layers of paint, while some may only be effective on one or two layers. It’s difficult to know this on your own just by reading the label, so we’ve got you covered.
Based on our testing categories, we’ve narrowed down our paint remover options and labeled Goof Off FG653 Professional Strength Remover as our Top Pick, while Dumond Chemicals 3332 Smart Strip Advanced Paint Remover gets our Green Pick. Both of these products were effective in their own ways and had many more benefits than disadvantages compared to the dozens of other paint removers we evaluated.