Original Skirts / Picture Rails - Is it worth it ?

[Rake722]

Hi all.
The more I work / think the more I despair.

We bought large Edwardian house with big rooms and have started a sympathetic renovation and I’m now regretting the idea.

I’m faced with miles of original skirt and picture rails in mediocre condition bearing all the signs of age that come with this kind of house.

In my head I thought I’d sand down the old skirts and picture rails and now that I have started I’m regretting taking this house on in the first place. It seems like I’m going to be sanding for ever.

The rooms have been skimmed so removing the skirts now is out of question when it cost £1500 per room for plastering and repairs. They will have to be dealt with in situ.

Some sections of the skirting have areas of thick flaking paint that is coming off and I don’t think sanding will do the trick on these sections.

I’ve done a ton of reading and I take it hot air gun and scraping would be the quickest way to address these problem areas ?

I have also read about Kostic soda and wallpaper mix, but I think that is gonna get very messy and potentially dangerous.

The flaking paints actually follows the profile of the skirting board which is like a single profile with a recessed relief and then it comes out again into the flat parts of skirting. Hard to describe. I’ll try and post a picture tomorrow. The profile of the skirting board makes it difficult to use sandpaper effectively to remove a lot of paint so unless anyone could advise me of a better way I think hot air and scraper is the way forward but open to any suggestions.

Having said that is it worth going to town on the skirting boards and picture rails or is the general consensus to give it a light sand and then just paint it and keep whatever damage drips and artefacts?

Thanks ! Having a bad day I guess

 

[fernicarry]

It seems like I’m going to be sanding for ever.

Hear you on that one. I don't think this house had seen a sheet of sandpaper since the day it was built....

I generally use a combination of scraping and sanding. I've never tried a hot air gun. I'd steer clear of caustic strippers, home made or otherwise, as they can badly affect the wood and they make a right sticky mess.

If the existing coating is flaking off then just go straight to a carbide scraper on flat areas, it'll be way faster than trying to burn through with a sander. Profiles are a lot more time consuming however you go about it. If its just the odd crater here and there I try to feather out the edges by sanding lengthwise along the profile but often I end up resorting to picking the paint off with a shave hook.

I think the areas to concentrate on are the edges where things meet. I like to get the top edge of the skirting board nicely cleaned up so that there is a good straight edge to paint/paper up to and I bother less about the rest of it. Similarly where architraves meet the plaster. Past generations of decorators here seem to have had a hatred of right angles and did their best to round everything off.

 

[Drayton]

I've largely taken the 'patina' approach. A light sand then overpaint in many instances, chemical stripping back elsewhere. (Such as where a thin flex had been run along the skirting and then overpainted twice...) But even then I didn't bother going right back to bare wood.
The rest of the house is showing its age (180+) so I consider it a waste of my time to try to get the woodwork perfect; having character suits it.
You will notice the drips and imperfections while you are doing the work, with your face right up to it, not so much as time goes by.

Just paint it all and stand back and enjoy the overall effect.

 

[Rake722]

Thanks for the comments so far.
To put matters in to perspective I’ll get sole pictures tomorrow.

I had planned on getting this old house looking brand-new again but as time passes I begin to realise how difficult that might actually be.

I actually spent a few nights tossing and turning in my bed thinking that I’d bought a wreck. I haven’t but it needs soooooo much work.

Maybe I’ve been unrealistic with what I thought I could achieve on my own

Pics tomorrow and thank you

 

[Drayton]

The glory of your house is that it isn't brand new...
Embrace its wrinkles, so much more comfortable to be with than the equivalent of botox et al!

 

[Rake722]

The glory of your house is that it isn't brand new...
Embrace its wrinkles, so much more comfortable to be with than the equivalent of botox et al!

Appreciate your perspective. We haven’t moved in to the new to us house yet as I wanted to at least complete bedrooms lounge and kitchen.

We currently live in a 3 bed Victorian terrace and when I moved into the three bedroom I had a vision of what I wanted to achieve. I removed all 6 inch skirting boards and replaced with 9 inch Victorian profile skirting boards. I replaced all the floor for oak floor. I had all the walls done in a bare plaster finish. I couldn’t afford to do the kitchen and I couldn’t afford to do one reception room. I also put authentic cast iron radiators which I bought blasted and painted throughout this three bedroom house however doing that in the three story seven bedroom Edwardian house is the work of millionaires and a millionaire. I am not. So I guess there is some truth in your perspective as to enjoying the house for what it is, but I would like to achieve at least a certain standard of living in the new house.

I think rather than post a few pictures tomorrow, I’ll take a video so it encompasses a greater portion of the chunk of work I’ve taken on and gives you a better idea of what I’m talking about.

 

[Stevers]

For serious paint removal - hot air gun every time for me. Carbide scrapers also work really well in conjunction with heat. The Bahco ones with a slight camber are good for flat areas. The old fashioned hook paint scrapers are quite soft steel, so I cut, file and sharpen them to suit my own mouldings. If the existing paint finish is basically sound but has blemishes, then knocking off any lumps, filling and flatting is another way forward. In some areas I've also been able to scrape off some dodgy top layers leaving sound paint below ready for cleaning, filling and flatting.

Have been using all these methods on different parts of the big Welsh Dresser that I'm currently getting ready for base and top coats. Done well paint lasts surprisingly well, some of my dresser has never been stripped and even if only painted with two coats every twenty years that's still fourteen layers of paint over 140 years. Our home originally had six bedrooms, so is a reasonable size, and I've used a mix of these methods to paint all the rooms - though it's been a marathon not a sprint!

It's also important to degrease/clean before sanding so that any grease/dirt doesn't get ground in, and then obviously prior to painting.