Painting over varnish w/Latex

How do you prep varnished wood for painting? Sanding Clean the trim with general-purpose household cleaner. ... Sand the trim with a 180-grit sanding sponge or sandpaper. ... Remove all sanding dust. ... Apply stain-blocking primer to the trim. ... Allow the primer to dry, following the primer manufacturer's recommendations. ... Paint the trim with a water-based or oil-based paint.

A light sanding and coat of KILZ primer will prevent the latex from peeling off. If the moldings are intricate there are liquid deglossers:

Sanding doesn't involve the miracles of modern chemistry but it tends to be dusty. Maybe there are some good ones but the 'dust collection' on my orbital sander is a joke. On the bright side, you'll finally have a really good use for that face mask.

Or. you can skip all the above and hope for the best. It is a lot of work, but peeling latex paint isn't too attractive.

Would it be easier to by new baseboard can casings ?

So the natural wood shows?

A lot of work. Unless it looks really bad now, I'd touch up any problem areas. It might look old fashioned but it would still look better, more charming than plain paint everywhere IMO.

If the wood is high-quality, carefully remove the trim and find someone who will use it.

Then replace your baseboard and door casings with MDF or polystyrene.

Cindy Hamilton

Sounds like a lot of work to me. I do see similar as the recommended procedure for many things, but I find it's typically over kill. I'd just make sure it;s clean, then apply Kilz or similar primer. Sanding trim work is a real pain and time consuming, because it's not an easy, flat surface.

Is the purpose of sanding to try and remove varnish or just scratch up the surface so the paint/primer will have something to hold on to ?

Thanks

Mostly the latter...altho also ensure any loose material is removed as well.

The washing with triphosphate or the like to ensure the removal of any grease, etc., from hand traffic, cooking, smoking, etc., etc., etc., is probably even more key.

It gives the surface some tooth. The goal isn't to sand down to bare wood.

Gives it some tooth ... That's what I was thinking