Hope you can help with some shorts cuts. Moved into a house 2.5 years ago with lots of white gloss woodwork. After repairing some chips I found that the white gloss was actually a nice aged yellow gloss. The glossed woodwork chips easily ( hence my repairs ) showing the dark varnish orginal woodwork.
Ideally I'd like to paint strip off all the old gloss, but I'd be pushing up the daisies before I finish it.
So my question: what are the best shortcut preparation techniques for panelled doors, moulded skirting & picture rail, stairs ( handrail, newel posts etc )?
If the existing paintwork's in good enough condition then wash down with sugar soap, rub down to de-nib and provide a key, then apply one coat of a good quality alkyd (oil based) undercoat followed by one or two coats of gloss ditto. Any localised repairs where bare wood has been exposed should be spot primed, then filled and rubbed down as necessary to bring the surfaces level before applying the undercoat.
It chips easily because it hasn't adhered to the dark varnish. That's because whoevery painted it white just slapped it on without preparing the woodwork.
Why? Have you got a bone in your arm or something? Over two weekends and easter I've decorated a three bed detached house and a two bed flat. That's not just the woodwork, it's walls, ceilings and woodwork.
Getting your finger out would be the best thing you can do.
There are no shortcuts. There's no lazy way out.
If you want the paint to stop chipping you have to get back to a sound surface, If you want a bodge just slap some paint on and the problem of flaking/cracking/chipping will continue.
If the paintwork were sound, I would reccoment flatting it using a liquid sander - takes about half a day per room to do. You rub in the liquid sander on a cloth until you have removed the yellowing or at least have a matt surface. You then eash it off with clean water - at least two washes. Let it dry and paint it.
It has the advantage that it doesn't damage details on mouldings. But is doesn't get back to a sound surface so it's only really useful if the underlying paint is in good order.
Given what you've described it's really best to set yourself a project of (say) one room per weekend. Spend Friday night and Saturday stripping the woodwork - I'd use a hot air gun - and rubbing it down with wire wool. Then prime (white acrylic primer) and gloss. If you have largish flat sections use a gloss roller. You get a better finish and the work is over faster.
Might have a go with a hot air stripper as I'd forgotton this option. The underneath varnish doesn't look very thick so hopefully this won't melt and the "years" of glossing will scrape off easily.
The original dark varnish is probably shellac, or some other alcohol soluble resin. IME they melt pretty easily, and are soluble in mild alkali if you wanted to strip back to bare wood. Washing soda and wallpaper paste makes a cheap stripper.
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