Stripping and staining 100 y.o. unvarnished crown moulding
Hi,
I recently purchased a 1928 home. The window casing and baseboards are beautifully stained (I think they may be fir). However, the 4″ crown moulding is painted…and I was hoping to have it stained, like the rest of the gorgeous trim.
So, I stripped a test patch….to see if the mouldings were originally finished with shellac (then painted). So, out comes the Silent paint stripper (which doesn’t work as well on such curved trim). Anyways, no shellac….it’s paint over raw wood…..so it was always painted (why I have NO idea).
I’m going to get a bit of stain tomorrow for a test patch, but does anyone have real life experience with this situation? Am I going to be able to get all the paint out of the grain such that I can stain/shellac the mouldings? If so, any recommended approaches?
I’m open to the possibility of sending it offsite to strip, particularly since all of the rooms are going to have a full paint treatment (so I can sand off any buildup)….it’s the re-installation that worries me.
Thanks
PS…replacing is NOT an option and I know about the dangers of lead paint, so we can skip those discussions 🙂
Replies
A few thoughts, Is the crown the same species as the stained work?
You may need to make a good scraper to match the profile, it will help when melting the paint.
Sometimes paint thinner will clean the last bits and residue.
You could consider a gel stain or even a bit of faux finishing to match the existing woodwork.
I would recommend not taking it down as it's very likely to damage the moulding.
I have to strip a larger patch today with chemical strippers...to determine the wood species...SPR is not the best with crown.
Damage is what most worries me. I've removed baseboard and door trim without issue, but I'm worried about the weight of the crown and breaking the corners (not to mention potential damage to the original plaster).
Removing old paint from crown is a labor of Hercules. It's one of those jobs you'll still be working on next year. There was probably a reason it was painted in the first place.
Is the silent paint stripper an infrared heat lamp stripping tool ( mine is known as the silent paint remover - yellow rectangle ) - I've done a lot of paint removal with it and pre-treating the paint with linseed oil and letting the treated surfaces over night helps with the removal. Just be very cautious about any linseed contaminated clothes - you don't want a burnt house from the very common spontaneous combustion of oil soaked rags.
On the shaped pieces, I have a whole variety of scrapers to make the job easier. Also having a good file to sharpen the scrapers is beneficial
you probably won't be able to get all the paint off with out some pretty difficult stripping and sanding so staining might not work out for you any way (unless you do pull the crown and send it out)
for what it's worth, my houses are all in the 100 y/o range