Any suggestions on how to remove painted wood screws from a deck?

Question

I have slottedhex flatheaded wood screws that have been stained over and I cannot remove them with a six sided bit with a s***w driver because of the stain or paint in the slots of the screws. The screws fasten the floor boards of the deck and have been painted over.

Answer 1

What I would do is buy a little can of paint remover.  The kind I use is a citrus application that has no toxic fumes and it's relatively cheap...about $5.00 for a container.  Dab some on the painted over s***w heads....only do a few at a time, and let it sit until the paint and old stain becomes soft.  then use a putty knife to clean the heads off and use whatever driver head you need to remove the screws.  

Add:

Be careful with a s***w tap like the one person suggested, where you hit it with a hammer to pop it loose.  This could snap the heads off of the screws, then you'll have another issue on your hands.  Not that it's a bad idea, just use caution.

Answer 2

What I used to do for fasteners that got painted/waxed over on a submarine was a machinist scribe.  Generally paint and similar stuff chips out of s***w slots/holes.  

Answer 3

I've had reasonably good luck just putting a new philips s***w driver into the heads of painted-over screws and hitting it with a hammer.  The force is so large and concentrated on the paint that it usually squeezes up around the screwdriver.   I haven't found any paint that was too hard to yield to this approach.

If you use one of those impact s***w drivers (the ones you hit with a hammer) it will also twist the s***w at the same time, readying it for removal using a drill/driver.