Did you strip paint off of your home’s interior trim/ moulding?

[Anonymous]

We bought a small attached house in DC. It’s about 100 years old. Trying to elevate it (beyond decor) and it seems like bringing out the historic character could help. All the interior trim and moulding, including on the bay window, was painted white by the previous owners.

Did you decide to strip paint off of interior trim? Did you do it yourself? Was it worth it?

[Anonymous]

You have to make sure there is no lead paint underneath layers of paint. It can be expensive and dangerous.

[Anonymous]

I did this project on interior windows in our 100-yr-old row house using peel away. Took a year going slowly room by room (corner row house, 16 windows). But paint doesn’t go airborne so great way to handle lead based paint, which I suspect is in your house. Windows look amazing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You have to make sure there is no lead paint underneath layers of paint. It can be expensive and dangerous.

There is definitely lead paint. It’s 100 years old. Looking to hear from people that have done it. I thought the chemicals actually are pretty safe because they adhere and do not cause dust.

[Anonymous]

We tried and it was hard and the under layer was lead. We removed and replaced.

[Anonymous]

I've done it. Unless the underlying wood is something really special it's just not worth it. One thing you'll find is that over the course of 100 years the wood will get lots of holes in it from things like doorstops being put in, wiring, just dings. They all get filled with putty and painted and looks fine. Then you strip the paint and you realize there are all kids of putty-filled holes.

That said, in my old house (c. 1875) there was a wainscotting in the entry hall that had been painted purple. I stripped all the paint and underneath it was black walnut and oak. Looked great. But it was a lot of work.

[Anonymous]

I sort of doubt anything spectacular was put in originally. If you have some historic old takoma house with pictures of the original stained oak, maybe you bother. For a basic rowhojse it’s probably better to just pull and replace it with something with the same profile.

[Anonymous]

Do you have pictures of the house from previous real estate listings (ie, was it unpainted before the previous owners?). I would make 100% sure you really want wood before you go down this road. A lot of people with wood trim feel bad about the idea of painting it but are conflicted about whether they really like the darkness of it. It's restrictive from a color palette perspective and can look dour.

[Anonymous]

You’d be better off just replacing the trim with new wood if you like that look.