Painting - How to remove paint on glass (windows)?

Hi,

I moved into a house where on the glass of some windows is covered with excess paint. I have to assume that paint has been applied a while ago.
What is the best method for removing paint? Paint removal chemicals or mechanical?


P.S. I'm planning to add a fresh coat of trim paint.

I'd just use a spray bottle with a drop or 2 or dish soap in some water, and a razor blade scraper. The soapy water acts as a lube. Shouldn't be any reason to push real hard, normally the paint withh come right off, esp if its a latex.

I agree! Be sure to move the razor blade in only one direction - that will reduce the possiblility of scratching the glass.

I suggest a flat razor blade.

Oops! That's what I get for waiting 3 hrs to post!

Thanks. I got a small "scraper" tool at the hardware store. It comes with interchangeable blades. The method described seems to work well. How steep (angle) can I got with the blade in stubborn areas?

Not sure I understand:o
The razor blade will work best with the least angle. The steeper the angle, the less effective it will be.

Sliding the blade at the acute-est angle works the beat, in essence sawing at the paint, and also the least change of scratching the glass. When you repaint, be sure to bridge the paint to the glass a bristle width, at least at the bottom of each pane to help keep condensation from getting to the wood.

I cosined a loan for a cute angle once.....but now I'm going off on a tangent. I guess thats a sine.....

That is what I did: kept the blade as "low" to the glass as possible. Essentially just my finger in between and pushed against the paint. This works really well 95% of the time.
However, i have some stubborn paint areas where I wanted to experiment with an other technique.

How about stickers? I have Pella windows which feature a little sticker with a number at the bottom. Can I remove it with the blade?

The scraper will probably take the sticker off but may leave adhesive residue.A little cigarette lighter fluid always got stuff like that off for me but there's a lot of things that will probably work like Goo-Gone and not damage the paint if it drips.Most solvents will but lighter fluid,paint thinner and the various citrus based remover products won't as long as you wipe them off the surface fairly quickly.

Also there's been no mention of products like Goof off and Oops.These are latex paint removing products.For your purposes they are not a good idea so if you see them in a store and think they'd work I'd avoid them for this specific job.If they drip or run they'll mess up the paint on the window and if you try to use any solvent based product on a hot window or in the sun they will evaporate or the solvent base will before the product can do it's job.

Catch 22 is it'd be great for the stickers but there are alternatives.

And please, please, please always use single edge blades for this type of thing. They are firmer, and only have one cutting edge. I've actually seen people using double edge blades doing this. They bend, slip, etc. That's generally a mistake people only make once, and you won't be playing guitar or the piano for a while after you make the mistake. Darwin's theory at work I guess.