Architrave...I need advice

[dario909]

I am a total newbie to DIY

im 28 years old and have just purchased my first house.

I have removed the architrave, and im left with the door frame against the plasterboard and the wall.

I understand I have several options to attach the architrave, nails, adhesive etc, im your experience, which offers a more professional finish asthetics wise, and how do I prep the door frame and adjoing wall etc ready to attach the architrave...just a normal rub down with a sander?

also, do i remove the paint from the door frame too?

cheers guys

 

[BigRobCanUFixIt]

I would nail it on with the pin nails that you can hammer the head into the wood, then fill with wood filler, or if you are painting them use caulk.

To remove the paint you could use something like nitromors chemical and scrape it off. I founf that my door frames had so many layers of paint over them that I just fired up the blow touch and used that with a scraper.

Once you fit new arcitrave then you could caulk up any gaps prior to painting. Jobs a goodun.

Thats what I have been doing to mine recently.

Although if you are trying to get them back to bare wood for staining its a mission and a half. I gave up on the one door I wanted to strip back and varnish and ripped the whole frame out and started from scratch.

You can by architrave already cut with tenon joint! (i think thats what they are called) a bit dearer than cut your own. If you are going to cut your own use a mitre bos or something too.

rob

 

[dario909]

Cheers rob

It's my first house, so trying I cut costs by doing things myself.

I'll attempt sanding the frames so I can varnish them, see how it goes

I'm doing things in this order:

Coving
Flooring
Architrave
Skirting

That way I get a flush finish all round, is that the way to do it?

Cheers

 

[stevethejoiner]

I would second what Rob said.

One thing I would add is to use oval nails and when you nail it in place don't bang the nails all the way home straight away, leave the heads proud until you are happy that the architrave is in the correct place, if not, you can draw the nails out and reposition it.

All the best

Steve.

 

[dario909]

Cheers Steve, much appreciated

 

[BigRobCanUFixIt]

sanding off gloss will be a right pain. And uber dusty, I would burn the majority off with a blow tourch and then sand down the wood. I did find though on the door i stripped the paint or undercoat had penetrated into the wood and I couldnt get it to come up at all. give it a go see what you can do. Im in my first owned place too. Been doing odd jobs for a couple of years now. Just started a big project so up no my eyes in dust and piles of wreckage haha.

 

[dario909]

Not sure what you mean with the blow torch method rob, would you mind walking me through it please? Method etc, things to do, avoid doing etc


Cheers

 

[leew2]

I use grab adhisive such as No More Nails, rub down the surface, brush then clean with white spirit, apply grab adhisive to back of architrive and press into place, hold for a few mins while it 'grabs'.

 

[foxhole]

I wouldn't use adhesive as the timber is rarely straight enough not to need correcting with nails, something glue can't cope with.
To remove paint I use a belt sander on the edge of frame and a power plane set very low to clean off the paint on the wider sections, make the job very quick, last few inches top and bottom the plane does not reach I use a wide flat very sharp chisel.

 

[BigRobCanUFixIt]

i use a blow tourch on the paint. waft it over a patch until it bubbles up, then use a scraper like this one. If it cathces fire then I blow it out and keep in scraping, or stamp on it if it lands on the dust sheet.

A bit like this using a heat gun. But I dont have a heat gun, but I do have a blowtourch