sanding door frames...lead ?

Dan-Dan

Morning

We are replacing the skirting in our lounge soon , so i need to sand the door frames to match , the house is 1976 and looks like the paint used at the time , could still be the same paint i can see now , so my questions are :

1) How will i check that the pain isnt full of unsavoury lead ?
2)What grade sandpaper should i use bearing in mind i will varnish afterwards
3)Should i be getting hold of a machine , or is it easy enough doing a couple of door frames by hand?

Cheers

SailorSam

I don't know about the lead, i would have thought with a fairly modern paint it shouldn't be a pboblem. You should get yourself 2 or 3 grades of sandpaper though, starting off with the roughest and then getting a smoother finish ready to paint. It's going to be a lot easier to sand down by hand than using a machine. A Sander only works well on flat surfaces and your frames are no doubt shaped,
It's just a boring job that takes patience. The more time you put into it the better finish you'll get.

Rodney_Trotter

Dan

Varnish suggests you're going back to bare wood. Are you planning to use any kind of stain first? 1976 door frames and 2014 skirting may differ and not be the a colour match with just clear varnish.

When you remove the gloss, heat gun masthead best, you may find any dings and screw holes have had filler in them. Have you considered new door casings?

Dan-Dan

Thanks Sam , thats great , you dont think 1976 houses had lead painted frames?

Dan-Dan

Rodney_Trotter wrote: »

Dan

Varnish suggests you're going back to bare wood. Are you planning to use any kind of stain first? 1976 door frames and 2014 skirting may differ and not be the a colour match with just clear varnish.

When you remove the gloss, heat gun masthead best, you may find any dings and screw holes have had filler in them. Have you considered new door casings?

Morning Rodders

We have just standard magnet pine un varnished skirting already , that we have in the knocked through dining room so it will match whats been installed there , problem with the door casing , it starts escalting costs , we just varnished dark pine the new skirting in the dining room rather than any stain first , and it looks OK?

SailorSam

I was just reading and according to Wikipedia lead based paints were banned in 1992, i was surprised at that, i thought it was many years earlier than that. Maybe a better thing to use rather than sandpaper would be those little sanding sponges, you can keep those wet to keep the dust down and they fit your hand easier than paper.
You may find this an interesting article.

http://www.hastings.gov.uk/environment_planning/pollution_noise_drainage/lead/

Dan-Dan

thank you , maybe i do need to consider a chippy and get new door frames in instead...

Rodney_Trotter

73867 when you're in screwfix

DaftyDuck

Lead paint hasn't been common since the early 80's and, even then, the lead content was generally quite low. It's one of those health issues that's probably overhyped as well... although better that way than "what the heck; it's only plutonium..." Also, it's more dangerous in developing young than in adults.

Me, I'd get a quote for new door frames... probably... but I'd almost certainly strip the frames and reuse, but I'd start with paint stripper/scraper and wire wool to finish. Once most was removed, I'd sand using fine sandpaper. If it has a patterned surround, it's often only nailed on, and is easily removed, so this at least could be done outside.

You are a busy beaver.... You going to give us a photo tour of before/after soon?

Dan-Dan

just came out of screwfix loaded doen like santa , even got meself a lovely saw for all those garden taks the wife has lined up

DaftyDuck

Dan-Dan wrote: »

just came out of screwfix loaded doen like santa , even got meself a lovely saw for all those garden taks the wife has lined up

Did you know... Screwfix now sell fencing panels....