Sanding gloss woodwork

[Dave2010]

hello,

I have old door frames, skirtings etc with that high gloss finish which we want rid of.
There must be about 50 years of paint on these and its winding me up. I have been sanding all day but there are patches all over the place where the gloss is obviously in dips, crevices and grains of the wood work. Most moldings are quite fancy which does not help.
Do you have to remove every bit of the shine to get a decent key to hep any new stuff adhere??
In some areas its gone back to bare wood which I will have to deal with.

thanks

 

[Robbie uk]

You really don't have to sand it back that far to get the new paint to stick. If you want it like a sheet of glass then your going to have to start rubbing and filling etc. Any raw wood will now need priming and bringing back up to the thickness of the other.

 

[Dave2010]

Thanks for the advice

I thought you had to sand the shine off the gloss to allow a half decent chance of any undercoat to adhere for a decent finish of top coat?

 

[Robbie uk]

You don't have to sand the gloss completely flat. Your only providing a key for the next coat. Undercoat will adhere more than a top anyway.

 

[Dave2010]

so having small shiny patches is OK?

It looks quite patchy as the old paint appears to be quite uneven and to get every square inch shine free would be nightmare

 

[Robbie uk]

One of the main things is to get an undercoat on prior to another top coat.
Unless the woodwork is very rough, you don't need to be rubbing too much.

 

[emilybronte]

If you are worried about the shiny bits, paint them with Zinsser Bullseye 123 which sticks to anything and is pretty good at providing a key for the undercoat. I've painted entire pieces of varnished furniture with it before now if I lacked the enthusiasm to sand off the varnish. Undercoat and 2 top coats of eggshell or gloss and it looks great.