Ok, so I am in the process of moving into an apartment that was built in the 1870s. Old city, old buildings.

Anyway. There's this one wall that is all wood paneling. Either the people who painted it didn't do proper prep work for the paint or there was water damage, but the paint has bubbles and is peeling. I've been using a putty knife to chip off the lose paint. It's getting very tedious because the paint will stop chipping in some places so now I have patches of paint that is caked on about 7 or 8 layers thick.

I could sand the paint off, but that would be a hell of a job. I was thinking about how I could make the work go faster and thought "Hell, why don't I just use a solvent to get this shit off?"

There's a problem with that though. I think the two freshest coats of paint are latex based. That means turpentine won't work for taking it off.

Does anyone know an all purpose solvent that can remove latex, oil, and (possibly) lead based paints?

Last question: given the age of the building, do you guys think that some of the paint could be lead based? If so, what precautions should I take other than a dust mask?

Edit: Mods, if you think this post would be better in another forum, feel free to move it. I put it here because I think the regulars here have better knowledge of solvents than a forum like The Pub.