Vinyl Removal: Heat Gun vs. Steamer

[Moze]

I've never used a steamer for vinyl removal. I have a sizable job coming up and would like to hear the opinions of those who have used both as far as which is more effective.

This particular job is fortunately indoors, so the vinyl may actually come off fairly easily. But if not, I may try the steamer method. Would love to hear any techniques (how large of an area can you typically work with at one time, etc.).

Thank you.

 

[nashvillesigns]

if it doesn't peel by hand with a heat gun, i use the stripper. sure it makes a mess, but MUCH faster...

 

[GAC05]

Steamer would be last resort if a heat gun is not working.
We have a fairly nice unit we use to remove auto tint.
It came with what looks like a regular vacuum cleaner bar/brush shaped end on it.
It did not work well at all with this attachment.
If go online what you want to look for is the wallpaper steamer attachment.
We didn't have time to wait to order one so we took a 2 qt funnel and duct taped it directly onto the nozzle.
This trapped the steam in a large area and it worked really well.

wayne k
guam usa

 

[Moze]

It's indoors at a Mercedes-Benz dealership. I'm going to stick with something a little more subdued.

The vinyl is on existing faces that are being reused. So if it doesn't just peel up easily, it's between the heat gun and steamer. I'm hopeful the steamer would be the better choice. I don't really want to run a heat gun in there either.

 

[Moze]

Nice...when did Google Mas start doing interior views??

Anyway, these are the panels:

 

[Fred Weiss]

I've used a Wagner steamer for wallpaper many times and recommend it. There's less of a tendency for the vinyl to tear and most of the adhesive comes off with the vinyl.

 

[kanini]

I har a removal on a van with large, old, cracked and baked-in calendered vinyl on it. The heat gun gave me small chips and would have taken a week. The stripper wheel worked well but I had just a small one that would have taken forever on the large areas.

Luckily I read (I think it was on this forum, thanks a lot again, Signs101 =) about the wallpaper steamer and rented one for a day (10 bucks). It worked like a charm, you'd get off large chunks and no residue. Definately recommend it if you have difficult to remove vinyls, but get one with the plate so you can heat larger areas at once. Good luck!