Best practice for restoring wood trim before painting
Send a chip to the lab before you have your contractor sand that stuff. The contractor should know a lab, or you can find one online.
hkapstein
in General Discussion 4 years and 4 months ago
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Guest User | 4 years and 4 months ago
We have a lot of wood trim and wainscoting (see picture) that has been buried under many years of paint. Since we don’t quite have the budget to strip it down to the wood and then repaint, which I imagine is what you’re really “supposed” to do, what’s the next best procedure for getting the wood in good enough shape to paint -and look good enough?
The more specific info the better – what methods and products would you use? Is there anything to avoid that might damage the wood? and if you know anyone who could do this project, that’d be great too!
[Wainscoting](//muut.com/u/brownstoner/s3/:brownstoner:x4Vz:wainscoting.jpg.jpg)
cate | 4 years and 4 months ago
Generally speaking, you’d remove any stray hardware, repair any broken woodwork, caulk as needed, prime and paint. Looks like you’re missing a crown molding. A finish carpenter could fix that — preferably one with old house experience. Don’t sand paint that might contain lead.
stevecym | 4 years and 4 months ago
There is no reason to strip. Sand first. Choosing a grit might be tricky depending on how soft the top coat is. Too rough you move it around and remove more than you need. To fine it does nothing. When i start something like this i have 60, 80, 100, 120, and 150 grit on hand. You have to make a decision, do you want to sand that latex off and hit the lead paint and send that around the house. No you dont. If you sand the old paint, spray it with water. If you choose to leave most of the paint, sand the rough edges down, perhaps with 100 grit. Wet any of the old paint. And test all this for lead. Then, go over all with 120 and 150. Dust it off and prime with zinser bin. Coat with latex. Let dry well. Fill any rough spots with latex spackle. Tint the spackle a little so the patches show. Sand patches by hand with a flat wood block and 150 grit. Dust. Prime. Paint all. Repeat as nec. Sand with 180. Dust. Caulk. Paint. Caulk is done after all sanding. Before last coat.
stevecym | 4 years and 4 months ago
Use a wet dry sand paper where wet sanding.
stevecym | 4 years and 4 months ago
Do not use sanding sponges. They travel over the imperfections and work harder on the surrounding areas. Before final coats, i will scuff sand with a 220 sponge.
stevecym | 4 years and 4 months ago
And follow the directions on the paint cans. If you read and follow those directions, you will be a better skilled painter than 90% of the painters in this city.
stevecym | 4 years and 4 months ago
And you are not really sanding to remove paint but smooth it over a bit. Take down brush marks, debris left by previous efforts.
And use a good brush for final coat.
cate | 4 years and 4 months ago
You could potentially make a mess and get lead paint dust everywhere if you don’t properly prepare the area and know what you are doing.
Guest User | 4 years and 4 months ago
Thanks @cate and @stevecym for the detailed answer! @Steve – So to make sure I understand you correctly, when sanding the old non latex paint that might contain lead (I will test first), the best procedure is to wet a regular piece of sandpaper?
And any recs for the finish for the paint – semigloss? Or maybe if it’s not going to look “perfect” we should choose something less glossy so as not to draw the eye to much to the trim?
andriywww1990 | 4 years and 4 months ago
you had better read about lead paint protection. i do not know that much about this as i do not any of this inside houses anymore (i painted a door in a house last year, did a lead test which came back positive and told the customer i could not sand but would prime) and i only do bits and pieces outside (doors are rebuilt off site).
my impression of the proper way to do this, is with a trigger sprayer on fine mist and as you sand you spray. it weighs the dust down. we have a festool extractor (which has a hepa bag in it and another filter) and use that for our own safety but my understanding now is that we still have to mist.
(we got the festool with the help of a customer some years back who wanted us to sand some panels in her house and did not want lead dust around; she is on here and i am still grateful to her for this as the festool was a game changer for us:-))
keep in mind, for the type of quick over coating work i describe above, you are not taking a lot off. what you need to do is smooth out the height difference between the latex and old oil; your task is to sand the latex. the oil, except for a quick pass over to knock down high spots, is collateral. if you want, you could give it all a once over pass, fast, with 220 and not knock the high spots down between the latex and oil and then prime and fill the edge between the two with latex filler and then sand that even. it might show. (also, that old latex might continue to peel as the old oil was not primed over before applying the latex). (if this was my house, i would get my festool out and remove all of the latex and then sand the oil with 120 or 150 and prime and fill and sand and prime and paint – of that is what my wife would wish i did. in truth though, i would attack it).
from the amount of work done in that house, you will want to buy a bunch of lead test kits and check the dust all over after they leave. you will want to either have that place professionally cleaned or clean it your self. there are lead wipes for this. another thing, if you test this place now and find lead in places, i would not be as worried about what you do at this point. you are cleaning anyway. i no longer worry about this stuff for myself – the damage is already done. i do worry a lot when i am around women of child bearing years and children and i flat out refuse to do anything like this around them.
somedaytheocean | 4 years and 4 months ago
@stevecym slightly different topic re: older post about sprinkler system check – greatly appreciate if you can share the contact that you mentioned in an older post that can come and check if our sprinklers system is working. thanks in advance
Guest User | 4 years and 4 months ago
Just to respond to that last question… if you’ve still got some rough edges on the trim/wainscoting, I’d suggest going at least one step less glossy than semi-gloss for the finish, so that would be satin. You’ll still get a bit of a shine, which will differentiate the trim from the walls (and if the walls are imperfect/patched plaster, I’d recommend going with a washable matte finish to hide those imperfections). Someone else might be able to weigh in about going even less glossy than satin, but then you’re down to eggshell, which is usually used on walls…
stevecym | 4 years and 4 months ago
Spot on victorian. So when anything is less than perfect, step the gloss down. The gloss reflects light where the imperfections are and makes them stand out. But i did a door on a house in the heights about 2 yrs ago and had to match the inside to the inside trim. It was so nice i thought i was looking at satin impervo. It was not, it was the ben moore regal whatever in pearl, water base. It looked premium.
stevecym | 4 years and 4 months ago
Avag, i will do so when at my desk, but they are on utica ave. Down further, not up by eastern or atlantc
hkapstein | 4 years and 4 months ago
There is probably lead paint so the main question is whether you are sanding into the lead layer or not. An alternative might be to use a chemical deglosser which has its own drawbacks but won’t generate any dust.
I’m a big fan of zinsser bin, but I’d think twice before priming the entire area with bin. The zinsser instructions recommend against priming an entire surface with bin. The shellac base is considered more brittle. You may have a layer of shellac under there anyway though. Bin is also more expensive, and a but harder to work with and cleanup. It may be better to save it for trouble spots and use something else, maybe a water base primer like zinser 123. You might get away with only spot priming depending on the condition and type of the paint.
Also I’d say get a heat gun, and you can strip off any small areas where the paint is not well adhered or in such poor condition you wouldn’t want to paint over it.
Guest User | 4 years and 4 months ago
Great tips, thanks again… thanks, all.
So for the sanding – are we talking just sandpaper and a block, ie no power tools? Or is there a sanding tool? Sorry, I’m a total newbie at this stuff!
And @victoria and @steve -good idea to look into satin or pearl options. Should trim be the Regal Select? the Ben Moore salesperson advocated for Advance paint for trim.
@urbandad – thx for primer and heat gun tips.
hkapstein | 4 years and 4 months ago
A drywall sanding screen may work faster than actual sandpaper. If you have a lot of detail, you may want to pick up a can of the liquid sandpaper. You could use sanding grips or just let them go. You really just need to scuff it up a bit, so if you have a large flat area, I’d use a bigger screen on a pole with a sanding attachment. I can’t see power tools helping much here unless you really need to sand something flat.
Also I’d grab some quick drying wood filler in case you need to fill some defects in the wood.
Here’s another idea. Try to test your process on a piece that’s easy to redo, or that’s in an inconspicuous location first, and see if it’s coming out how you like. I’d roll on the paint and then brush it flat. Use a nice brush and not a chip brush. You may want to thin it a little or use an extender to make it level out better, but maybe it won’t matter if the current paint job is poor. Get good paint, you don’t want to do this again soon.
cate | 4 years and 4 months ago
I would be avoid sanding anything that might contain lead paint. There is a wet sanding method you can use, but you have to know how to contain the area and protect yourself. You risk spreading the lead paint dust around if you do not know what you are doing. If you don’t require a perfect result, you can paint without sanding (heaven knows I have never sanded before painting!). If you need perfect results, i would advise either hiring someone to strip the woodwork first (using lead safe methods) or hire professional painters who are trained in lead safe practices.
hkapstein | 4 years and 4 months ago
Cate, he’s not really sanding, just scuffing the surface. You could just take a sandpaper like 120 grit or maybe even 150 and run it back and forth one pass and you’d be good to prime and paint. I guess you’d have to judge if you’re if you’re liberating lead from underneath, but I’m sure people do this all the time. You could scuff a small section and than check with a test kit if you exposed any lead. It doesn’t really make a ton of dust. I think it would take a long time to do a large area wet as the sandpaper will clog every few square feet. The screen might work better, I’ve never tried using a screen wet.
Now if you really just don’t want to mess with the possibility of scratching lead paint, just use the liquid sandpaper or a similar deglosser. That may be a better choice on many parts of this job anyway. https://www.homedepot.com/p/Klean-Strip-1-qt-Liquid-Sandpaper-Cleaner-Deglosser-QWN285/100112667
Now you suggest to paint without sanding/deglossing, and this may work, but I don’t recomend it. The point of the sanding is not to even the surface in this case, except maybe in a few spots. The purpose is the prevent the new layer of paint from peeling off. If the surface is glossy, it would be like painting glass. The paint can come up and peel off in big chunks especially if disturbed. You may get lucky, or you may not, but for the limited effort, any decent painter would try to rough a gloss or semi gloss before painting over. And if you paint the whole thing this way and it does peel, there’s not much you can do at that point short of stripping. You can’t paint over a layer that’s not adhered and expect it to magically bond the paint underneath.