How to Prepare Wood Trim for a Smooth Paint Chore

Here's how to wash, sand, bit and fill woodwork for a polish finish.

Time

A full day

Complication

Beginner

Cost

$51–100

Introduction

Do you want your one-time trim to await fresh, smooth and crisp after its painted? These tips show you how the pros practice information technology. They're DIY friendly, and so y'all can prep your trim yourself and still get professional-looking results.

Tools Required

Materials Required

  • Acrylic caulk
  • Cleaning sponges
  • Detergent
  • Duct tape
  • Liquid sandpaper
  • Rubber gloves
  • Sanding block
  • Sanding sponge
  • Sandpaper
  • Spackling compound
  • Two-role forest filler

A Good Pigment Job Starts With Skillful Prep Work

The one-time adage, "A good paint job is 90 percent prep piece of work and ten percent painting," is admittedly truthful. A quick coat of paint applied over existing paint or stain may expect proficient — only it won't last.

The central to a long-lasting pigment job is to set up the woodwork so information technology's clean and gloss-free. Nosotros'll show you how to achieve a mar-free surface that'll concur paint for 10 years or longer. Whether you're repainting forest or painting forest that'due south been stained and varnished, the steps hither use to doors, windows or trim.

CAUTION: If your home was built before 1979, cheque the paint for pb. Call your public health section for instructions on how to do it. Don't use the scraping or sanding techniques we show here on lead paint considering doing then will release lead dust, the primary cause of lead poisoning.

Project pace-by-footstep (13)

Step one

Wash the Woodwork

  • You'll need buckets, sponges and detergent;
    • Pro Tip: Don't wash with a material rag, equally it may shine a flat surface or boring a lustrous one. The goal is to remove the grime so you don't push it farther into the forest during sanding.
  • Use a not-soapy detergent such as Dirtex, Spic & Span or TSP No-Rinse Substitute.

Step 2

Wash the Trim

  • Make clean and rinse one department before moving onto the next department;
  • Wash wood from the lesser upward with slow, easy upwardly-and-down strokes so the solution has time to soften the grime.
    • Pro Tip: If you start at the superlative, the cleaner can run down the wood and create hard-to-remove streaks.
  • Modify both the cleaning solution and the rinse water often — whenever the water becomes cloudy.
    • Pro Tip: Spend extra time cleaning areas that take a lot of hand contact, like around door handles such as windows, door frames and around light switches and handles/knobs, and places that attract high airborne particles (all wood in kitchens, bathrooms and laundry rooms).

Step three

Use Special Cleaners to Remove Stains

  • Use a heavy-duty cleaner on stains, or encompass them with a stain-blocking primer.
  • If stains from markers, ink or crayons resist initial cleaning, remove them with a specialty cleaner. Otherwise, they'll bleed through the new paint. If all else fails, apply a stain-hiding primer.

Step four

Sand All Surfaces to Remove the Shine

  • Hand-sand all woodwork smooth with fine, 180-grit sandpaper until all smooth disappears.
    • Notation: A coarser-grit paper will remove more than necessary (employ 80- to 120-grit to smooth imperfections such every bit heavy globs of old paint).
  • If the exterior pigment layer is gummy, use a "clog-resistant," or "self-lubricating," sandpaper (such as 3M's SandBlaster paper). Information technology has an anti-load coating that keeps the paper from bottleneck.

Step 5

Examination Paint Adhesion

  • Pull duct record off the paint to see if the paint sticks;
  • To determine if the new paint will hold, scribe an "X" lightly into the surface paint layer with a razor blade. Firmly stick duct tape over the marking and yank it abroad quickly. If whatsoever pigment adheres to the tape, it's unsound and should exist removed.

Footstep 6

Scrape Loose Pigment

  • Employ a 2-in. carbide-blade scraper to eliminate areas of hardened crud, flaking or chipped paint, and thick paint globs;
    • Note: Buy one that fits your mitt and features a replaceable carbide blade.
  • Pull the scraper in the direction of the woods grain, and use finesse and elbow grease to "rake" the pigment abroad but not gouge the wood;
  • Scrape until the remaining paint won't budge and you lot have nice, well-baked (but non sharp) edges in the details of the wood.

Stride 7

Grit and Vacuum Thoroughly

  • When the first sanding and scraping step is complete, dust off all areas with an sometime paintbrush and vacuum woodwork with a brush attachment.

Pace 8

Make clean Out Crevices With a Putty Knife

  • For pocket-size, tight areas, scrape with a ane-1/2-in. flexible putty knife.
  • Employ a pushing motion to go under the paint — working from an area of loose pigment to an area where paint has firmly adhered.
    • Pro Tip: This bevels the remaining paint layers to make a smooth transition betwixt damaged and undamaged areas, and information technology renews the details in the forest.

Step nine

Check for Flaws With a Trouble Light

  • Position a hand-held work light so it shines across the wood surface to discover loose paint, rough edges and other blemishes in the surface to determine what needs to be filled;
  • Use a pencil and lightly circle spots that demand work.

Stride 10

Fill Holes With Compound

  • Use a flexible putty knife to fill all chips, holes and cracks with spackling compound.
    • Notation: Holes filled with a heavy glaze or several layers of paint may look good initially, merely the issue won't last. When the paint dries, these filled areas will often reopen.
  • Use a lightweight compound that dries fast and doesn't shrink.
    • Pro Tip: Employ more filler than is needed to each hole with a putty knife, then polish information technology by pressing down and pulling toward you. Then employ the widest putty pocketknife you have to feather out the filler — and keep sanding to a minimum.

Step xi

Rebuild Damaged Corners

  • For damaged corners, use a 2-office wood filler or an automotive torso filler like Bondo. Both are tough, won't compress and stick like glue.

Step 12

Caulk Betwixt Woodwork and Walls

  • Apply a thin bead of paintable acrylic latex caulk only within the crack where wood meets a wall for a smooth, professional advent.
  • Remove extra caulk with a putty pocketknife.
    • Pro Tip: Purchase a dripless caulk gun to relieve time and frustration. Cut the tip smaller than you think you demand.

Step thirteen

Feather out Filled Areas With Fine-Grit Sandpaper

  • Prime areas that are filled with a chemical compound;
    • Pro Tip: If you don't do this, the dull spot will show through the finished coat of paint.
  • Use 320-grit sandpaper over all filled areas to flatten and plume them out.
  • Grit off the sanded areas with an one-time paintbrush, and vacuum with a brush zipper.
  • End by wiping down the wood with a damp fabric if using water-based pigment or a tack cloth if using oil-based paint.

Originally Published: Dec 17, 2018