Old skirting boards and door frames - can't afford to replace

thriftyscotslass

First time on this thread and a complete novice at decorating :eek:

Basically I have lots of very old skirting boards and door frames that have been painted over several times in various shades.

Although I would love to strip everything out and get a professional to start again from scratch with new skirting and doors, this isn't an option - no money.

Sooo, I desperately need help and advice - how would you treat old doors and skirting boards that have 3 or 4 coats of gloss on them?

Next question - walls.

We have taken the paper off the bathroom walls - again very old. We are left with small bits of paper, old paint stuck to the plaster. I have scraped as much as possilble off but will end up gouging into the plaster creating holes if I attack it much harder. What is my best course of action?

Sorry, did say a complete novice but I am a good learner :rotfl:

Shimmyhill

You could sand or use paint stripper on the skirting etc. Can then sand for a good finish.

To get the paper off either wet it or use a steamer on it and it will fall off !

littleredhen

with regards to doors i would get a price from a dip & strip type company then i would go to my local b&q or wherever and price new doors my last money saving tip would be to see if you can get someone who is handy to help out and offer a home cooked meal in return - i am sure others will be along soon with ideas!

27col

Heat guns work very well to remove paint. You might have to have a couple of goes if there are a lot of coats to remove.

skiTTish

Can you borrow ,beg ,hire a hot air gun/paint stripper ?
thats what we used for our old woodwork ,stripped it completely ,primed ,undercoated then egg shell and it still looks like new 4 yrs later!! (where as we used to find gloss 'yellowed' within the year )
As for the walls ,you need to wet the paper to remove as much as you can ,then if you intend painting them you need to sand he walls and then maybe treat with a base coat

WestonDave

I find one of those scrapers you use for getting paint off windows is the best thing for getting the last bits of wallpaper off - they come with effectively a stanley knife blade in them and it is sharp enough to take it off without risk of gouging. Combine it with a wet cloth to soften it and you'll be well away!

The skirting boards and doors really depend on what you want to do with them and what shape they are. Flat panel doors might as well just be painted over but you'll find a small gloss roller will give you a smoother finish (I still prefer gloss but I know these days eggshell or matt is more popular but the the technique is the same) Give it a sand over to remove any big dents. You don't really need to take it all off but you may need to deal with any big dents or chips possibly with some filler.

thriftyscotslass

Thanks for all your replies - I would have replied sooner but we had a bit of a family crisis - brother was assaulted, ending up in hospital :eek: He's okay but will take a bit of time to mend, the other guy will be charged with GBH.

So back to my decorating - I've cleared all the paper and remaining flakes of paint off the bathroom walls. I am now completely back to the plaster. Although, the plaster is in a better state than I thought it would be, it is too poor to paint over, it would need a plaster skim for that.

As money is an issue, I have decided to cover the plaster with lining paper as I have several rolls left over from previous jobs carried out by oh.

My question is this - do I need to prepare the plaster before I line the walls. You can see old paste stains on the plaster and the plaster has several gouges in it but nothing serious and a mm deep at the most.

I have also borrowed an electric sander so tommorrows task is to attack the glosswork. The doors are old, cheap panel ones so I don't think there's any point in taking them back to the wood. If you don't agree, point me in the right direction, all advice gratefully received.

ormus

i use a heat gun on almost everything. worth its weight in gold.
heat guns are not expensive now.
old panel doors are likely to be pretty good quality. its the new hollow doors that are rubbish. the old ones i burn off.
the newer type ones just get a quick sanding and then painted.

roses

I paid £25 per door to get them dipped and stripped in London, it's a lot cheaper than you think:

http://www.doorstripping.com/

cattie

roses wrote: »

I paid £25 per door to get them dipped and stripped in London, it's a lot cheaper than you think:

http://www.doorstripping.com/

Wow, that's cheap. Wish I knew about these people before as I had to have 9 proper doors & 5 eaves cupboard doors stripped last year & wasn't too happy with the finished product of all of them either. Some were left in the caustic solution too long I fear.

Biggles

As Andrew-B says, there's normally no need to strip old skirting boards and doors. I've never done it, just sand them to provide a good base and paint over. Unless there's a marked colour difference, you can normally get away with using a single coat of a good non-drip gloss.