But an even bigger problem also became quickly apparent. The paint on the current trim was peeling off – a lot.
When we moved into this house three years ago, the walls were painted dingy pastel colors and all of the trim was painted to match the walls. These rooms were painted bright yellow with yellowish trim. I quickly painted the walls blue and the trim a nice crisp white.
Unfortunately, I didn’t bother to check what kind of paint the trim had been painted with previously – I just got myself a nice can of semi-gloss white paint and blissfully painted away.
Which brings me to the present and the badly peeling paint. If you so much as scratch the trim with your fingernail, the nice white paint peels right off. And that is what led me to realize that I had made a colossal mistake – I painted latex paint over oil-based paint with no primer in between.The latex paint did not really bond to the oil paint at all. Big problem.
I, of course, turned to the knowledge of the world wide web to find solutions to this problem and none of them sound very fun. These are the suggestions I found
- Sand off all of the latex paint and then prime with an oil-based primer and repaint.
- Strip off all of the latex paint using a chemical stripper and then prime with an oil-based primer and repaint.
- Replace all of the trim.
Now to save you from making this same mistake. Almost all trim in older homes is painted using oil-based paints and a good portion of the trim in newer homes as well. Before you repaint any woodwork, there is an easy test you can do to determine what type of paint was used in your home.
Pour a small amount of denatured alcohol on a rag and gently rub the painted surface. If the paint is softened or color comes off on the rag, it is latex paint. If the paint appears unaffected, it is an oil paint. Be sure to use a dark rag for light paint and visa-versa so it will be easy to tell if the paint is coming off on the rag.
Anyone else make this mistake before? Any tips on removing latex paint or other tests to see what kind of paint you are dealing with to begin with?
7 comments:
we have wood trim and i have been working on painting it- i sanded it lightly and the primer adhered well to all but the quarter round at the bottom- UGH. if it gets hit it gets nicked! so frustrating! it is only done in a couple rooms, but the rest will get the quarter round treated with deglosser i think first- what a pain! i feel ya!
Um... that's probably what happened in our house. We rent, but when we moved in all of our trims & doors were pretty white. They have been peeling steadily since then to reveal a tanish-yellowish layer beneath the white. Lovely.
Oh so sorry that happened to you. It is very sweet of you to pass this info along to us. I reallly appreciate you doing that. Good luck with your sanding.
Oh dear....I did the same thing many years ago with a door in our very first house. It took me awhile to figure out why the new paint was peeling off the door. Not the kind of thing you repeat! None of us really need 'make work' projects!
Yes...been there...done that. We live in an old, old farmhouse and I found that I always have to prime everything FIRST. I've found my best friend is a little palm sander...they are GREAT and not that big of an expense...will help you make the sanding job a LOT easier! I always cut several pieces of sandpaper to fit the Palm sander so they are ready when I need a new sheet. It'll go quicker than you realize once you just start. I counted it as a good learning experience!
Hello! Just want to say thank you for this interesting article! =) Peace, Joy.
We just recently bought a house that was built in 1969. Its in great shape for a 43 year old home. Then I noticed everything painted with this beautiful white color (trim, doors, windows) is peeling!! It is so irritating. I started looking up ways to fix this and now I'm starting to wonder if its cheaper to just replace everything. This is 1800 sq house with white trim peeling in every direction. I don't even know what I will do next.. URG.
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