Hi,

I could do with some advice on how to paint varnished wood. I also
have a couple of questions. I have done a google search on this news
group for answers but there seem to be a number of solutions to my
problem so I could do with a little clarification.

Basically, the house I am looking to purchase has the following

- brown skirting boards
- brown panel doors
- brown wooden stair banister. This is a really really deep brown
colour.

Im no expert at all on wood, but I imagine that all of the above was
originally light coloured wood when it was fabricated and was then
stained to make it the current colour. Does this sound correct?

What I would like to look at doing is making all of this white. Can
all of the above listed areas be easily turned white including the
panel doors?

Reading other posts it seems that there are a couple of ways to do
this. The first way seems to be to sand down the surface so the new
primer/paint has something to key to. Do I need to fully sand down the
surface or just "rough" the surface up.

Presumably I need to apply a primer before paint?

The second method appears to be to buy some special paint/primer(?)
and just apply that to the current surface and then just gloss paint
over it. How effective is this method and is it more cost/time
effective that sanding the surface down?

Thanks in advance for any help,

Charles.

On 26 Sep 2003 05:10:01 -0700, (Charles
Middleton) wrote:

Hi,

I could do with some advice on how to paint varnished wood. I also
have a couple of questions. I have done a google search on this news
group for answers but there seem to be a number of solutions to my
problem so I could do with a little clarification.

Basically, the house I am looking to purchase has the following

- brown skirting boards
- brown panel doors
- brown wooden stair banister. This is a really really deep brown
colour.

Im no expert at all on wood, but I imagine that all of the above was
originally light coloured wood when it was fabricated and was then
stained to make it the current colour. Does this sound correct?

What I would like to look at doing is making all of this white. Can
all of the above listed areas be easily turned white including the
panel doors?

Reading other posts it seems that there are a couple of ways to do
this. The first way seems to be to sand down the surface so the new
primer/paint has something to key to. Do I need to fully sand down the
surface or just "rough" the surface up.

Presumably I need to apply a primer before paint?

The second method appears to be to buy some special paint/primer(?)
and just apply that to the current surface and then just gloss paint
over it. How effective is this method and is it more cost/time
effective that sanding the surface down?

Thanks in advance for any help,

Charles.


Wash it. Scuff sand it. Undercoat (Not primer). Sand it again. If
brown is not grinning through then top coat it. If it is, then a
further undercoat wouldn't go remiss.


Paul Mc cann

Paul Mc Cann wrote in message . ..
On 26 Sep 2003 05:10:01 -0700, (Charles
Middleton) wrote:

- brown skirting boards
- brown panel doors
- brown wooden stair banister. This is a really really deep brown
colour.

Im no expert at all on wood, but I imagine that all of the above was
originally light coloured wood when it was fabricated and was then
stained to make it the current colour. Does this sound correct?

Without knowning the age and state of the house and/or previous
resident, how could we offer a remotely accurate comment to that?

What I would like to look at doing is making all of this white. Can
all of the above listed areas be easily turned white including the
panel doors?

Would you be happy with stripped pine? Take a door to a firm that does
that for a test run. It tends to grey a little and can ruin the glue.
That's presuming you have wooden doors and not hardboard or fibreglass
ones.

Reading other posts it seems that there are a couple of ways to do
this. The first way seems to be to sand down the surface so the new
primer/paint has something to key to. Do I need to fully sand down the
surface or just "rough" the surface up.

Presumably I need to apply a primer before paint?

If it is varnish you will need a little more preparation to use
acrylic rather than oil based undercoat. I'm not sure there is that
much in it so stick with oil based.

But painting bannisters is a lot of work and boring as hell. Stripping
it would be a lot easier, then just varnish it.

The second method appears to be to buy some special paint/primer(?)
and just apply that to the current surface and then just gloss paint
over it. How effective is this method and is it more cost/time
effective that sanding the surface down?

Wash it. Scuff sand it. Undercoat (Not primer). Sand it again. If
brown is not grinning through then top coat it. If it is, then a
further undercoat wouldn't go remiss.

Sounds like a lot of work. I'd be tempted to get some quotes if you
know any painters at your local pub.

If you go the paint stripper route; select a small area (say 4 or 5
rails at a time -that way you can paint it on the next bit whilst
waiting for the last section to blister) to apply it to then brush it
on liberally and after a small pause to let it finish reacting, steel
wool it. You can scrape it off flat surfaces then steel wool it.

Don't worry about the dirt drying on the work just get the rubbish
moving. It will come fully clean when dry if you go over it with steel
wool again.

The trouble is on an old building you may expose the reason the monkey
used such yeeughing paint on it for in the first place.

Wash it. Scuff sand it. Undercoat (Not primer). Sand it again. If
brown is not grinning through then top coat it. If it is, then a
further undercoat wouldn't go remiss.

Yes undercoat takes really well to varnish. I'd add - wash with sugar soap.

cheers

Jacob