Moldings/Mouldings? Do you guys repair/refinish or replace?

[BAM6I4]

I am tired of my trim/moldings being all beat up and even though I put a fresh coat on them a few years back it did little in my mind to make it all nice and done.

So what do you guys do? My crown molding around the ceiling is fine, but the door/floor/window trim is beat up and just bleh from years of repaints and misc crap before I bought the house and probably during my ownership as well.

All my trim is white, so what would you do? Spend hours refinishing it or just replace it? And if you refinish it do you remove it to do so or do it in place?

**Also, just because I'm curious, does anyone have or know of any houses that DO NOT have interior trim? Just wondering...

[Heathcliff Huxtable]

depends on the year/style of your house. if they are the original moldings, the years of paint softens the edges and gives them character. if you are updating everything else and/or they are damaged beyond repair, then replace them.

[barry2952]

The problem with replacement is you'd have a bunch of nail holes to fill and you'd have to re-caulk, unless using prefinished wood moldings. You's still have to caulk if there are gaps, but you can cover the nail holes with colored putty.

[Jettavr666]

depends solely on the age of the home to me. I would NEVER remove the mouldings in my home because it was built in 1936.

In my brothers house, and my parents house however because they were both built in the 1970's they have or will replace all the moulding with better/newer ones

[Phatbastard]

My answer is yes, all of the above.

I'm installing new hardwood floors in the dining room and 2 bedrooms in our 1911 Craftsman. I've already put hardwood in the kitchen so, with the exception of the bathroom all downstairs is HW. As part of the process and part of the replacement windows I put in last summer I decided to insulate the living room and dining room - it's an un-reinforced masonry house, 2 layers of brick, 0 insulation. All the moldings came off all doors, windows and base in the dining/living room. The base is newer so I will sand and re-use. The verticle door casing was pretty beat up so I will replace that with new and replace the window verticle to match. The casing over the windows and doors (head casing?) has some interesting detail so I will get those dipped at a local strip shop and refinish.

In the bedrooms the previous owner painted all the trim with an epoxy (No FVkcING idea why) and didn't use any primer so it's just cracking off in sheets. I have to replace all the verticle and I'm going to strip the head casing and re-use. The base I just surface sanded and I'll prime and paint.

PSA: I hate Home and Garden and DIY TV. My wife watches those shows and has no idea how come they only take a weekend to do this kind of work and I'm at 6 weeks and counting

[speedn16v]

If you have an older house the woodwork will be much thicker manterial, and you should probably refinish.

A brad gun and finish nailer makes it easier. They leave small marks that you can fill in with wax crayons that are made to a similar color.

[GeoffD]

If you have an older house the woodwork will be much thicker manterial, and you should probably refinish.

A brad gun and finish nailer makes it easier. They leave small marks that you can fill in with wax crayons that are made to a similar color.

An older house? My window, door, and baseboard trim all went in the dumpster. It's the only way to know for sure you have gotten rid of all the lead paint.

I have one bedroom left to go. After that, the only likely lead paint problem I have is one exterior door and the built-in bookcases and woodwork around the fireplace.

[dunhamjr]

i would say that a lot of it depends on the style and the age of the house.

you mentioned that your trim is white, so that right there to me says your house is newer or someone ruined the nice original wood trim by painting it.

either way.
if it bothers you enough to ask here, then you need to do something about it.

if its really nice wood trim and you have the ability/patience just refinish it.
if this is your plan pulling the trim and doing the work in a designated 'work area' will probably help you come up with a better finished product. yes you will have to fill nail holes and re-caulk. but oh well, when its all said and done if you THEN don't like the look/results, the only person you can blame is yourself.

if its just crap non-descript mdf trim, then i would just replace it.

[Mk1Racer]

Unless it's solid hardwood trim, or some unusual pattern, I wouldn't spend the time to refinish it. And the comment about the lead-based paint is valid, if it's an older house. The other issue w/ removing and re-using trim, is that you will usually ding up the miters.

Taking the old trim off gives you the ability to change the look of your house w/ new or wider profiles. Lots of very nice designs out there, from simple to ornate.

One thing I will also recommend, stay away from MDF moulding. If you don't like the way the current stuff gets dinged up, you'll hate MDF moulding. That stuff dings if you look at it sideways. It's fine for places where it's never going to get touched (like crown), but I would never use it for base or casing. I saw one job where they used MDF for chair rail. Boy, was that a disaster.

I would recommend going w/ poplar moulding, if you're going to paint it, as it tends to hold up better, and you'll most likely have more profile options. It will cost more than PFJ pine, but I think the result looks nicer. If you're going to stain it, go w/ whatever wood species that fits w/ your decor. I would suggest that you finish it before it goes up though, and fill the nail holes w/ a color-matched fill stick. If you have to caulk, you can use clear if you don't want any color on the moulding. Keep in mind that if you go w/ stain-grade trim, it usually comes in random lengths, and you may have more waste and seams than if you get stuff that comes in standard 8', 12', or 16' lengths. My rule of thumb is to figure 20% extra for waste.

As someone else mentioned, put it up w/ pneumatic nail guns. 15ga. and 18ga. are what I use. I use 2" 16ga. for base and the outside edge of casing, and 1 1/4" 18ga. for shoe and the inside edge of the casing where it gets nailed to the jamb. The shorter, thinner nail makes splitting less likely. And get a good blade (60 tooth min.) for your chop saw. I like Freud blades.

To answer your question about houses w/o interior trim, I've never seen a house w/ no interior trim. You can have sheetrock wrapped openings (hole in the wall separate two rooms w/ no door), and sheetrock returns on windows, but I've never seen a door that didn't have casing around it. I also can't ever remember seeing a house w/o baseboard, although I guess it's possible.