Halp! Household repair question

[grasswire]

Is there something better than goo-be-gone? It's not working.

I need to get rid of those awful doublestick foam things that people use to put posters on walls. They're on wood closet doors and also on the textured plaster walls.

The return of my damage deposit on the apartment is important. These things are HORRIBLE. Who knew?

[AlCzervik]

1. on the doors i'd use WD-40

[grasswire]

11. how would wd-40 work?

I think of it as an oil. It's not?

Not knocking the suggestion, by the way. I'll try anything!

[AlCzervik]

12. i used to take stickers off my coffee table after trying goo gone

i let it sit for about 10 minutes and gently scraped it off, no damage done to the wood.

[LiberalEsto]

2. Heat it with a blow-drier on a low setting

and see if it will scrape off more easily

[EmperorHasNoClothes]

3. They are horrible

I hate that stuff. You might try shaving them down as low as you can with a sharp razor blade, then try the Goo Gone.

[Merlot]

6. That's how I got rid of one on my wall

Had to scrub quite a bit with the goo-gone and a sponge. Also used simple green when the go-gone stoped working.

If nothing else works, try very fine 0000 steel wool.

[grasswire]

10. I wondered about simple green

It's more powerful than goo-be-gone?

Thanks for the suggestions.

[BrklynLiberal]

4. ice, paint thinner, nail polish remover, (acetone), an emery board,

or sand paper.
hmmmmmmm that is about all I can think of right now.

Good luck

[SOteric]

13. However, all of those products will dissolve the paint finish

to varying extents and repainting may become necessary.

I'd stick with gentle heat, such as from a blow dryer, followed by some sort of a soap-based agent.

[tridim]

5. I had some of that crap on my bathroom door

and ended up just painting over it and then hanging a mirror. I couldn't get it off. Tried rubbing alcohol and about 3 other solvents. No luck.

[bigmonkey]

7. Two suggestions

1) Take the foam off as much as possible, and then rub the rest off with your thumb. This actually works for me, but YMMV.
2) Again, take them down as much as possible, then rub a piece of tape over them and peel it off slowly and carefully. You will get some of the stuck-on stuff off, and you can repeat the process with a new piece of tape. Again, this works for me, with patience, but YMMV.

(Where YMMV stands for "Your mileage may vary".)

[Kali]

8. is goo-be-gone the same as De-Solv-It?

stuff works pretty good.

[dixiechiken]

9. You can try Methyl Ethyl Ketone (MEK)...

It will probably strip the finish off of the wood, though... should that happen, however, that's easy enough to fix with one of those wood touch-up "pens". As far as the plaster walls, again, it'll most likely strip the paint (and possibly a little bit of the plaster) but like the wood, it shouldn't be anything not easily fixable as long as you don't drench any one area. Use only a small amount on a rag at a time and let one area dry as much as you can before attacking it again (if necessary). You can usually find MEK with the other paint thinners in any paint department. (It's much stronger than those others like Mineral Spirits, Toluene or Xylene, though.)

[grasswire]

14. what about lighter fluid?

I recall hearing of that use for it. Whaddya think?

[WHAT]

15. yep, I use charcoal lighter...

to get rid of all of the gummy stuff. It works better than anything else I've tried and it dries rapidly so I feel like it's safe.