No really.
I didn't take any pictures of the problem, so I will describe for you, as best I can, the nature of this beast.
Umm...Some tape peeled the paint off my trim.
I think that sums it up pretty well.
What's happened is, during the course of taping off our kitchen to work on drywall, floor, etc, the masking tape-- and even blue painters' tape-- has peeled bits of paint off of the doorway trim. I blame part of this on a certain someone's reckless ripping off of the tape. But mostly, I think this might mean that some PO painted latex over oil without proper prep. Or that the oil is so old that its doing its whole crumble and FAIL routine.
It's not terrible, and it's only on a few pieces, but I'm trying to decide how best to alleviate this crap. I want to paint this trim soon. I will be using a low-VOC alkyd. It seems to last much longer than latex; I know that latex has come a long way, but I was sitting in my mother's house the other day when I realized that we painted her trim almost 20 years ago. A good scrub with a magic eraser, and it'll be like new. That shit's like a candy shell.
Anyway, I cannot take the trim off of the walls for a variety of reasons, namely due to the fact that the house was drywalled around the trim. I fear I would be opening the most giganticest can of worms ever.
I also considered priming with a serious business primer and succumbing to latex, but we've already painted the yet to be installed base shoe with oil.
So, I'm not sure how to proceed here. The trim is a variety of shades of white throughout the house-- so I think some is oil and some is latex (and the bathroom's is, whatever the base, FLAT FINISH. grrrr. That irritates me so much. It looks sooooo dirty. It IS so dirty). Considering the age of the house, and the many colors that we have see on the trim, I know that whatever's under the possibly-latex layer is oil.
My questions are these: If I prime with something like Kilz2 and paint with oil, am I, somewhere down the line, going to see a problem wherein the maybe-latex layer and surrounding oil/primer lose adhesion? Or will the oil, with its hard candy shell, be ok once it's cured?
Also, how should I handle the pieces with peeling paint-- should I use a stripper (heh.) to get the top layer or two off? Since we're not taking these pieces off the wall, they'll have to be stripped in situ, so I'd probably want to use something like a citrus or soy based remover. I'd prefer to sand as little as possible, due to the lead content.
Should I just wet scrape and prime-- then paint? I'm using a semi-gloss finish, so I don't want too much bumpiness...Scrape, "fill," sand, prime, paint?
Ugh.
I guess I'm leaning toward first trying to scrape. If that's bad, then chemically (or citrus-ally or soy-ally) stripping the face of the trim, then doing some serious priming and painting; and then simply priming and painting the un-peeled trim.
Suggestions?
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7 comments:
Every time I read someone's blog entry about a citrus stripper, it's followed a few entries later by "We went and got the evil chemical stuff that actually works." Maybe they're just all doing it wrong, but I'd be doing some serious homework before I bothered with the stuff.
Beyond that, I dunno. Painting is obviously one of those things that I shouldn't be giving advice on, since the porch I painted less than a year ago is already peeling. ("Oh, there's not *that* much bare wood, I don't need to bother with primer" was obviously wrong.)
We had to use the evil chemical stuff, too, the last time we did any stripping* but we weren't living in the house with a kid, 3 cats and a dog. I'm just at a loss. I figure If I guess if I try the citrus stuff, I'll start with the most inconspicuous piece...
*I'm like Beavis and Butthead with these things.
I use citrus stripper or Peel Away (depends on mood & piece - always citrus on window sashes for some reason - easier to scrub away at it with a green scrubby). You can also do heat gun, but have to follow with a stripper to clean up. They all suck, you just have to be really patient & zen about it. If you're going to paint over it though - why not just wet sand/feather the chippy parts? Esp if you'll use a nice oil paint that will gloss over it pretty well.
I like your wet sanding suggestion, Sarah...Unless someone gives me a good reason to strip the whole thing, then I'm starting with that!
The citrus stuff works pretty well, if you glop it on thick, cover it with saran wrap, and leave it for a LONG time. NOT 30 minutes like the package says... at least a couple hours. We did one side of our door with it before I switched to the heat gun, and I'm going to finish up with the stripper.
I haven't had much luck with citrus strippers either - I find they tend to get very gunky. We've had good luck with a heat gun too.
You could also fill the peeling area with a little dry wall mud and lightly sand down.
Stripping paint stinks!!! I guess I am just not zen enough.
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