I have a house built in 1989 and all the trim is stained builder grade that is looking pretty worn. The last few months I've been painting the trim white. Process is cleaning, filling nail holes and nicks with wood filler, lightly sanding, priming, and finally paint.


I've been using zinsser 123 water based primer and Sherwin Williams pro-classic latex enamel I went to SW yesterday to pick up another gallon of proclassic. They were out of the latex enamel but the worker said he has another proclassic that is actually better and will lay down better. So on his advice I went with it. I now notice that it is a water based acrylic-alkyd enamel. I know there might be issues with oil based alkyd not playing nice with latex paints/primers, is the same true with this waterbased product? I want to be able and still use water based primer. Also since I'm doing this with the trim still on the walls I'm getting some paint on the wall, which doesn't matter since the walls will also be painted once the trim is done. I would assume it shouldn’t be any issue since I’m only getting a little paint on the walls but I want to be sure that this PC paint adheres to the current paint so there won’t be any issues later on. Any input is appreciated.

 

Welcome to the forums.

Third person that I've seen now to bring up that kind of product, though the first two were Benjamin Moore.

As near as I've been able to tell, this should work just fine for you. The normal issue is a water based paint over an oil based one but either type paint works fine over either primer so I think you'll be fine.

 

There shouldn't be any issues with the proclassic over latex primer, even oil base over latex primer is ok. My only concern would the latex primer over the poly/varnish. I know they say some latex primers will adhere ok to sanded oil [enamel or poly] but I'm old school and only trust using a solvent based primer over poly or varnish.

 

All of the trim is dull and lost any sheen it probably had at one point in it's life. The only wood that is glossy are the doors and the window casings. If I dig a finger nail hard into the paint I can start a chip but it takes a decent amount of work. There has been a couple of spots that once I make the chip I'm able to get my finger under the paint and scrape off a small section. I'm not sure if this is normal or not since I've never tried to scrap the paint off trim at other houses I've lived in. My 4 year son is very rough with toys and thus very rough on the baseboard. So far he's managed to chip the paint twice but each time it was because the wood dented or took a piece of wood with the paint.


I also did a test in the dinning room by skipping the sanding on the crown molding and the paint seemed to stick just as good if not better than the areas that were sanded. Also the one door that I tested the paint has stuck extremely well.

This is the first time painting wood trim so I hope it turns out ok. It sounds like it might have been better to use a oil or shellac primer but I was wanting to start this during the winter and opening the house for ventilation wasn't an option. My worst fear on this is having to do it all over, which at that point I'd probably replace all the trim with new.

 

Paints, especially latex coatings take some time to cure and get both the best adhesion and film hardness. I wouldn't be overly concerned if the paint scrapes off easily in a day or two, only if it chips, peels or scrapes off after a few weeks.

It's almost always a good idea to sand first as it both promotes good adhesion and helps to eliminate or reduce any defects in the previous coating.

 

I'm in exactly the same process. I ran into a professional painter at the store, he suggested I use Zinsser "Bondz". I'll try it out next week.

 

I don't think I've ever used Zinnser's Bondz. Personally I feel safer using the proven method of using a solvent based primer over the poly/varnish .... but then I am an old school painter
Bondz might be ok. I just can't say for sure

 

I'm back, I haven't tried the proclassic alkyd yet but do have another question. I have the laundry room, kitchen, and dinning room trim done. I think that I might switch gears and put the wall color on before doing any more trim. However I still need to do all the doors, just debating If I should take them off and spray or leaving them hanging and roll/brush.

I've been cleaning all the trim with TSP but it is a pain to go back and rinse all the TSP residue off. Are any of the no rinse TSP substitutes any good such as krud cutter?

There is one area that I'm going to have to go back and scrape all the primer and paint off. The paint scrapes off the sliding glass door and trim around the door. I'm not sure what happened since I did the same exact prep.

I would love to use a oil primer but I have 2 small kids and the 20 month old has her fair share of breathing issues and I have a feeling that the fumes from an oil base would irritate her lungs.

 

I mostly use TSP on the exterior where it's easy to rinse off. Best I can recall, I've never used any of the TSP substitutes. The woodwork doesn't need to be spotless before you repaint, the main thing is to remove any built up grime. Sanding helps up a lot towards making marginal coatings adhere well.

I rarely do any spraying in occupied dwellings, generally the prep to contain the overspray eats up any time savings. Whether to paint the doors in place or take them down to paint elsewhere boils down to what works best for the job at hand.