Advice on painting over dark wood stain

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My new house has all the skirting / door frames and doors wood stained to a mahogany finish which makes it pretty gloomy.

I am looking to paint over it all if possible. What would be the easiest (there is lots of it!) process to complete this transformation. Further what primers / paint would be recommended to use? Many thanks.

K
 
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Bizarrely, I was literally about to ask exactly the same thing. My house has varnished wood in a mid brown hue. Some of it I’ve varnished myself (mainly round windows) with Ronseal water based satin but 80% of it is an unknown stain/varnish.

Does this sound like a plan to key up the current finish? I was thinking something like 240 or maybe even as smooth as 400 grit to clean/key. I feel I don’t want to be scratching into current finish incase of it scratching/chipping off.
 
I assume that they have been varnished. If so, and they had been varnished with oil based varnish, you need to sand the varnish thoroughly.

I would recommend sanding it with 80 grit paper before then undercoating it.

Waterbased varnish? Although I am a professional decorator, I cannot recall having to paint over waterbased varnish before. When presented with existing waterbased eggshell etc, I usually just scrap the waterbased finish off. 9 times out of 10, my fingernail is hard enough to take it back to the previous oilbased paint (assuming that it had previously been painted with oilbased paint and that no one bothered to key it.).
 
I was thinking something like 240 or maybe even as smooth as 400 grit to clean/key. I feel I don’t want to be scratching into current finish incase of it scratching/chipping off.

400G may just end up polishing the surface.

180 to 240 would be better, however, waterbased paints do not like to be sanded (they overheat and clog the paper). I would recommend using a stearate coated silicone carbide paper or even better, something like Abranet- it is a mesh type "paper" and hence less prone to clogging.
 
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Ah, yes I remember sanding water based and it clogging.

I know it’s difficult without seeing testing. I guess myself and the OP probably do need to try one or two sanding methods.

Re paint, any primer/undercoat recommendations? Something that grips well? I want an eggshell finish. I’ve a bad experience of a Johnstone’s water based eggshell before (but I rate the gloss..) but I’d use water based if there’s a good recommendation?
 
Ah, yes I remember sanding water based and it clogging.

I know it’s difficult without seeing testing. I guess myself and the OP probably do need to try one or two sanding methods.

Re paint, any primer/undercoat recommendations? Something that grips well? I want an eggshell finish. I’ve a bad experience of a Johnstone’s water based eggshell before (but I rate the gloss..) but I’d use water based if there’s a good recommendation?

The only waterbased finish that I have applied and provided a quality of finish that I was happy to sign off was Eico. It is a 10% sheen, slightly more matt than eggshell. In both of the houses that I used it (throughout) I had to use oil based undercoat to obliterate the oil yellowed gloss.

The primary downside to using the OB U/C is that you have to wait for the solvents to evaporate before you apply the WB finish. If you don't you will get fisheyes in the paint finish- that is to say that, the paint will pull away from the surface and leave pools.

I have only used the Johnstone waterbased eggshell once- I hated every single moment... I haven't tried their WB gloss.

BTW, as with Dulux, you get a trade version and then the rubbish DIY version. If it doesn't say Johnstone Trade it is the DIY stuff.
 
I have no idea whether mine is varnished or simply a sadolin type finish.
I am even thinking of just taking the skirting boards all off and renewing tbh.
Wouldn't it ne lovely if there was a simple primer that painted straight onto it as a base for my gloss finish (not water based :eek:) )
 
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Thanks for reply above opps.

This sounds very decent
https://www.duluxdecoratorcentre.co.uk/dulux-trade-ultra-grip-primer

Surely a good bet. Quite amazing their claims of it sticking to tiles, glass, powder coating..

Edit: I see this too, obviously similar
https://www.crowntrade.co.uk/product/interior-products/crown-trade-grip-extreme-fast-drying-primer/

They look like two very different products. The Dulux one is a 2 pack product that uses a separate catalyst to cure. The Crown one seems to be a one pack product.

I haven't used either and thus cannot comment on them.

Many paints laud their ability to stick to hard surfaces, few publish evidence though. The shellac based Zinsser BIN, for example, is often promoted as a primer that doesn't require pre-sanding. Sure, you can apply it straight over varnished surfaces, it will pass the finger nail scratch test but the edges of the varnished door will chip as soon as the vacuum cleaner bumps into it. BTW I do use BIN, I just don't use it as a substitute for sanding surfaces.

From time to time I spray with two pack paints. They are extremely tough but if I am spraying over an old coating I will sand back to the wood if possible.
 
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I hadn’t noticed one was two part, thx for heads up there!

I was still thinking of sanding tbh. I suspect like the OP, with all woodwork in mind sanding back to bare wood definitely isn’t likely to happen. Using something like these paints do seem like they’re probably a good idea.

I’m a little surprised not a bit more input here. Surely lots of painters/decorators deal with this sort of thing and I’m 99.9% sure most wont be sanding wood right back!!
 

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