What's this coating on our door frames & can it be paint

[CluelessDIYer1]

ver?

Frames are original 1930s. We've stripped them, or rather 2 of them (painful process so we're just going to sand the others).

Anyway once you get under the paint there's this glue-like sticky stuff that's a nuisance to get off...



Would this have to be totally removed before painting, or would it be ok to sand smooth & then paint, since paint was on top of it anyway?

The plan was to remove as much as i can, then sand it & then prime & paint, but i just wondered all the same.

 

[JohnD]

it might be old varnish or scumble.

would be cheaper and easier to pull them off and fit some new architrave.

 

[CluelessDIYer1]

it might be old varnish or scumble.

would be cheaper and easier to pull them off and fit some new architrave.

Easier yes (if we got someone else to do it though), but cheaper? Really?

All it's costing us to strip it is time & electricity with the heat gun. Oh & some sandpaper. Then paint which we were buying in any way.

 

[foxhole]

You have rushed the stripping all that comes off when heat stripping.

 

[CluelessDIYer1]

I had the heat gun at distance. If i'd left it heating any longer then the paint would've started burning & smoking (it did in parts). We didn't want to start scorching it as it was leaded paint.

 

[JohnD]

what do you think Architrave costs?

 

[CluelessDIYer1]

More than my time, which is free, especially with fitting charges.

 

[Bosswhite]

More than my time, which is free, especially with fitting charges.

Work out the energy cost of using the heat gun, and the problems that you could have after you have painted the architrave with the old Varnish/scumble bleeding through,

You will probably find the Household Insurance will not cover usage of a heat gun if anything goes wrong.

you will find it cheaper to replace.

 

[foxhole]

I had the heat gun at distance. If i'd left it heating any longer then the paint would've started burning & smoking (it did in parts). We didn't want to start scorching it as it was leaded paint.

You keep only a small section heated and clean completely thru to bare timber as you go.

 

[emilybronte]

I agree that new architrave would be preferable. What's there may be original 1930s but it's not particularly beautiful, in fact it's a mess. Before 2010 you could have got it all off with Nitromors or similar, but they simply aren't as effective any more.

I would take off one section, and get a joiner's yard to use it as a template to make up enough for the whole house. Then employ a joiner to fit all the architraves. It's a day or two's work and you will get a really professional result, plus save yourself hours and hours of work (for a less than perfect result).

In the grand scheme of things when renovating, you're talking £500 (labour and materials). Well worth it.

 

[CluelessDIYer1]

I'm not disputing that new will look better. I agree - it would.

The thing is, there's that much time that has passed & that many things that have gone wrong & then we've done this job & that job that all seem to go wrong, we just get to the point where we say right enough is enough. What do we NEED to get done & what can we live with.

The door frames are something we can live with.

Add to this the fact that we've just shelled out a good few £1000 on a couple of jobs with more jobs that NEED doing stacking up. £XYZ may not be a lot in "the grand scheme of things", but it can be a lot to the pocket as things currently stand.

Plus knowing our luck, taking the frame out will end up butchering the plaster & then that'll need re-doing. We've just had a bad plastering episode which we don't care to repeat, but plastering is getting a bit off topic...

...So long as we can paint them then all is well. We started with 2 doors & because of the time taken to do these, we're going to sand the rest & repaint.
I intend to strip the glue/varnish/whateveritis off & then sand it. So long as the paint sticks well then all is well. No it wont look as good as new, but it'll be a lot less hassle. I figure that varnish was painted before, so it should be ok to go again.


The wife was mentioning something about stain blocking the knots though. Never heard about that before.

 

[sparkwright]

I can fully understand your reluctance to remove the architraves.

There's a small risk of damaging the plaster, because of the age of the property.

If you wanted to remove the skirting boards, for the same reason, there's a huge risk of damaging the plaster.

I agree there will be plenty of stain blocking primers out there.

I'm sure someone can recommend something.

Have you cleaned off the sticky stuff?

Sticky stuff will often get drawn out of the knots when stripping paint.

Make sure you treat the knots, with knotting solution I suppose.

Big question is, do these architraves really need stripping? Stripping paint is best left as a last resort in some cases, as of all the extra work it causes.

 

[CluelessDIYer1]

I can fully understand your reluctance to remove the architraves.

There's a small risk of damaging the plaster, because of the age of the property.

If you wanted to remove the skirting boards, for the same reason, there's a huge risk of damaging the plaster.

I agree there will be plenty of stain blocking primers out there.

I'm sure someone can recommend something.

Have you cleaned off the sticky stuff?

Sticky stuff will often get drawn out of the knots when stripping paint.

Make sure you treat the knots, with knotting solution I suppose.

Big question is, do these architraves really need stripping? Stripping paint is best left as a last resort in some cases, as of all the extra work it causes.

We should've removed the skirting in the living room. The plasterers never pointed this out to us. They removed some of it, so now we're left with partial skirting. We're thinking of patching in as nobody is going to pay attention to your skirting, so long as it's all the same colour & same height etc.

Interestingly, when removing the carpet grippers, i rammed the crowbar in too hard & got under the skirting when prying upwards & you could see the wall move up & down. I thought - WTF, how on earth am i moving the entire wall?!?

Removed all the sticky stuff off one frame but not the other. That's this weekends job.

As for was it required - possibly not...

...the doors wouldn't shut you see & we whittled this down to way too much paint layering. I thought (in my infinite wisdom) that if you sand a section down & then re-paint then it'll not tie in well with the rest of the frame.
That was back in my days of being overly-perfectionist. I've since had enough & just want in.
So we decided to strip it to get it all even.

The only thing that physically looked like it had WAY too much paint layering were the bannisters/spindles on the stairs. It looked bad.