I recently started finishing basements and find painting the trim for
> baseboard and doors is very labour intensive. Has someone invented a
> machine for painting these things?, like you insert the trim and pull
> it thru betwen two rollers and some paint gets into it via one of the
> rollers...or something like that.
>
> Since they are very narrow, only a few inches in width, I felt a
> machine would be simple. If no machine exists have you made one
> yourself?
if you are doing alot of these that are in rooms that don't have carpet or anything else yet, then a sprayer is the easiest way. you dont want it too easy or you will get fat.
Yes. Essentially it's like you've envisioned it with rollers to pull the trim through and paint sprayers that are activated when a switch is tripped. I'd try a search of WoodWeb.
totally unrelated site numbers and then says none such are available.
I was curious.
I am also assuming (whoops!) that this is done with the molding before it is installed. What is wrong with a plain old fashioned medium length roller?
I mean, this is PAINT, right? Not shellac or lacquer. Roll it on, wait a bit and flip the molding and do the back. Do the pieces on a couple sawhorses with whatever board support is needed, take a coffee break and flip.
Come back and fill and touch up nail holes after the install.
Charlie Self
"If our democracy is to flourish, it must have criticism; if our government is to function it must have dissent." Henry Commager
Well, then you would complain about having to reinstall the base board moldings along the bottom of the wall. I do both and prefer painting the molding in place rather than tearing out old molding, measuring, cutting, air nailer nailing, and caulking. Seldom do those baseboard moldings come out with out breaking.
This is true!! I bought a sprayer to do baseboards, now I weigh 400lbs. Before that I weighed 165lbs! Of course, most of this weight comes from the compressor I carry around on my back!
In my opinion you cant do a quality job pre-staining or pre-painting anything with regards to trim. It always results in a substandard end result. We, and our painting subs, always painted after installation because you need to run a _tiny_ bead of caulk between the trim and the plaster (or other surface) and then tape, or hand cut, rolling your wall color slightly onto the trim, and I mean SLIGHTLY. The only labor saving step is, which ever you choose to paint first (wall or trim) can get onto the other surface and you only tape once. We would most always opt to paint trim first with the progression being: install trim prime walls and trim caulk all trim/wall joints paint trim (getting trim color on wall doesnt matter so can be sprayed or brushed) tape trim allowing wall paint to roll _ever so slightly_ onto trim burnish tape paint walls remove tape
For stained trim it would be: Install trim stain trim (stain gets on wall) urethane trim (urethane gets on wall) caulk trim tape burnish prime (but dont prime right to tape as you will see the edge of the prime coat when you remove the tape) paint remove tape
Whenever you stain/urethane/paint your trim first it is inevetable that you will be left with gaps somewhere between the wall and trim. This is especially the case if you use tape&joint drywall but is an issue with all situations. In our opinion the end result is far superior to any other option and take very little extra time. For doors we spray everything except stain. Paint is sprayed with airless and urethane with HVLP.
Any paintable latex caulk is fine. We used white phenoseal but whatever you like best will work. Cut the tip as small as you can get caulk to flow out of, run a bead, wipe with a wet rag wrapped over your finger.
As small as you can make it. The reason for one color rolling onto the other is merely because you cant tape in the tiny radius left by the caulking. Its easier to tape on the flat just below the radius. It can be tricky on some trims which have a small detail right at the edge but still doable.
If you ever use tape and you just apply it and perhaps press it down with your finger you will get paint bleeding under the tape where the tape wasnt adhered tightly to the surface. Burnishing is when you go along the edge of the tape with something (we used the corner of a putty knife) and rub it down adhering it tightly to the trim. If you dont do this cleaning up the bleeding is impossible. Also remember to remove the tape as soon as you are done with your last coat. If you wait til the paint is dry you risk the chance of peeling/chipping the edge of the paint leaving an ugly edge.
I dont care what industry it is. Unless you have a way, in the field, to pull the casing/trim _dead tight_ against every millimeter of its length along the mating surface you will be left with small gaps which, as I stated, to me make for a substandard end result. When applying almost any trim to even the best skim coat plaster job, wood, metal, whatever, there will be inconsistancies in both the trim and the wall which will make for these gaps. They are especially undesireable with light colors as they show like a sore thumb. They are even worse when the trim is not caulked and in time the joints open up leaving a tiny jagged edge where the paint failed to bridge the tiny crack. Unless you have a way, and desire, to fasten the trim every couple inches, "sucking" a piece of trim in dead tight along its entire length is a very rare instance, at least it was for us and in time it may open even if you got it tight on instal. Perhaps your millwork is shop finished, then the painters who mate up to it in the field caulk the gaps you leave when finished. I would venture to guess they do. Perhaps you have someone hand plane each piece of trim to meet the inconsistancies of the wall and the trim itself, I dont know. For us the bead of caulk provided a tight finish with very little time and effort.
Some time ago, FWW (may have been their companion, FHB) ran a piece that showed how to use a belt sander to fit coutnertops to walls that weren't flat. I imagine the same thing would work with trim, instead of hand planing, but I'd sure hate to have to do it to the current crop of MDF moldings.
Charlie Self
"On account of being a democracy and run by the people, we are the only nation in the world that has to keep a government four years, no matter what it does." Will Rogers
In a well orchestrated job there is very little "crap" that settles on the "fresh site finish". This is why, many times, the painters will have a floor or the whole house to themselves. How do you think homes get hardwood floors that looking like a bowling alley and better? Granted its not a "clean room" spray booth atmosphere but when you can get a smooth as glass coat of oil urethane (8 hour or more dry time) on a hardwood floor (site finish) I am surely not concered about the paint which is dry in an hour or so worst case for latex, a bit longer for oil which is my choice for millwork.
I didnt say the shop finish was substandard, my statement was in relation to the installation of shop finished millwork in the context of the original post. For the average person installing prefinished trim and casing the end result would be substandard as the concensus is that you would get to paint the walls without having to cut anything in then just smack your trim up and you are done. I would imagine this was what the OP was hoping for. A way to paint roughly around all the doors, windows, floors, etc. and then just come in and smack up the trim already painted hence saving the tedium of cutting in. This equals substandard.
Thicken up your skin... I am sure the millwork your industry produces is impecable, your job is safe.
It is my opinion that painting the caulk is a better and more seamless job. If caulking after the fact with a custom mixed caulk floats your boat then keep right on paddling. Its not an option we have ever chosen nor one we would ever.
and money to purchase the equipment to plane each piece of trim applied to match the mating surface that is fine and IT is a superior job to caulking OR applying prepainted/stained trim without. If you havent re-read the original post it was in regards to basement remodels from and individual who just started doing them. It was shortly followed by a post by the same individual about how to protect drywall corners while carrying them to the basement. Now I will concede that, in your consumate dillusion, this basement _may_ be in a 3 millon dollar home but I hesitate to think its the case. I am sure what we are talking about here is mating a piece of 3 1/2" colonial casing or base, probably bought at home crapo or howes, to a tape & joint finish. We are talking about the average home, the average trim, the average installation, etc.. Now if all of you want to morph this into something else go right ahead. Of course the caulk changes the profile of the edge of the trim in relation to the wall. Where there is a gap that profile becomes larger. This is an issue that has to be dealt with in a real world manner in average homes. Yes, in "high end work" to quote your own post we can go to further measures to insure the integrety of these elements. Come back into the real world and remedies have to be taken. In the average home there is no time, money, nor capacity to "mate" these surfaces. We have always said that the painters are the surgeons of a job and the carpet layers get the credit for the whole house. The painters come in and fix EVERYONES f-ups. Gaps, pourous plaster that wasnt shaded, mix custom wood fillers, etc. They do their best to make it all look good, at least the good ones do. The carpet layers, flooring guys, come in and the homeowner now feels like they can move their furniture in as they are not walking on plywood. The get an immediate feeling that the house is finished, all to the work of some carpet and even though there may be a month more of finish left. If you are so far into it that you cant make these connections on your own you need to schedule an appointment "on the couch" _or_ go back and do a couple "non-high end" jobs to regain some perspective.
Now Tom, before you go off and begin typing something so fast and furious that your toaster goes up in flames let's try and put this in perspective. Remember the Craftsman apologist Captain Art and his Turd Barge Sears? Remember how he could never be wrong? Remember the puckering sound his sphincter made when anyone said anything contrary to his rulings? Remember the carnage?
sigh... The halcyon daze of old.
Shauna may just be reacting badly to your reply onna 'count of your agreeing with me. Perhaps she had a bad day this week onna 'count of the guys at the job site were making fun of her tutu clashing with her steel tips. Don't know for sure but I'd hate to see you get dragged into this onna 'count of me.
Remember the turd barge.
UA100, who thinks Bay Area Dave and Shauna oughtta meet up for the ultimate love connection...
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