Crusty old woodwork in my house

[GoodDaughter]

My house is old. It's an old turn of the century farm house that was added on to. It's in good shape, and it's the right size, and I have tried to be true to the spirit of the place in keeping the decor and furnishings simple and farm house-like. It's not something you'd see in Country Living magazine. I see a lot of old houses that have been gutted and remodeled with all the latest, cutting edge technology. $50,000.00 kitchens with chef quality ranges and glass front refrigerators, bathrooms that look like something from the French Riviera. Houses that look like old German farm houses on the outside but have interiors that are the polar opposite with granite counters and high tech pendant lights and chrome everything.

This place? I have an old clawfoot tub which the feet brokel off of so I made a wood cradle for it and boxed it in with beadboard. The only thing French here are the French doors that lead out to the deck. I wanted to reuse the old wood trim and baseboards instead of buying new. I really can't afford to buy new baseboards, even though they may, in the long run, look nicer, newer, cleaner, than the ones I have reused. They are old and crusty. I tried sanding some of them smooth when I removed some from a room I was working on. Bad mistake. There was so many layers of paint on them, chipped and stained and runs in the finish, just painted over again and again... Layer after layer of paint. So I just got them semi smooth and repainted and put them back down. So, they still look old and crusty. You can still see where some of the chips are under the fresh, bright white paint, where I tried to fill some of the dents and nail holes.

I'm not sure if it bothers me or not. I mean, this is an old house. I keep it neat as a pin, things are kept clean with plenty of elbow grease. A place for everything and all that.... just that the woodwork is kind of crusty and old looking in places...

[Deberosa]

Your place sounds great even if it is old.

One thing that occurred to me as I was reading this is that some of that paint is likely to have lead in it. Be careful in stripping it! Given that I would just paint it over and leave it or just get simple one by lumber and use it for baseboard. If it's really old it is the really wide stuff, right?

My parents got one of those old farm houses when I was a kid. We all pitched in to clean it out - an old bachelor lived there and it was filthy! It had old horse hair plaster and once the black soot came off the walls there was old fashioned wall paper! The baseboards were as you describe - icky. They tore it all out and put in drywall and new wiring though. The lead paint was a concern.

[GoodDaughter]

Yes, they are wide baseboards, I think about 5". I did think about the possibility of old lead paint, which is another reason I stopped trying to get them completely smooth. I guess I'll just live with them, I can't afford new baseboards and trim. I priced woodwork at Home Depot and was shocked at how expensive it has gotten! It would cost a fortune to replace all the baseboards and trim in the house!

I could leave some old country house magazines laying around, open to strategic pages..... ::)

[mom]

best thing in the world I have found to strip paint is Greased Lightning. Found out by accident when I had a cloth saturated with it that I was cleaning with and left the wet saturated cloth on a painted surface. The paint just pealed off.

I took the old doors in our house - same condition as your woodwork - laid the doors on saw horses, and then dipped a rag in greased lightning and then pressed it onto the door and walked away - after a while the paint literally lifted off and rolled up. by the way, you could bathe in Greased Lighting. I use it on greasy stains on laundry, cleaning the bath tub, wipping down the stove and oven - have even used it as oven cleaner in the same way. I get it in gallon sizes at Lowe's or Home Depot - every once in a while Wallmart has the large sizes. It is the best all around grease cleaner I have ever found.

Baring that - use a heat gun and a putty knife.

[ryanmercer]

best thing in the world I have found to strip paint is Greased Lightning. *Found out by accident when I had a cloth saturated with it that I was cleaning with and left the wet saturated cloth on a painted surface. *The paint just pealed off.

I took the old doors in our house - same condition as your woodwork - laid the doors on saw horses, and then dipped a rag in greased lightning and then pressed it onto the door and walked away - after a while the paint literally lifted off and rolled up. *by the way, you could bathe in Greased Lighting. *I use it on greasy stains on laundry, cleaning the bath tub, wipping down the stove and oven - have even used it as oven cleaner in the same way. *I get it in gallon sizes at Lowe's or Home Depot - every once in a while Wallmart has the large sizes. *It is the best all around grease cleaner I have ever found.

Baring that - use a heat gun and a putty knife.

Like I don't have enough to do after work you have to tell me things like this... so now I have to go buy some grease lightning at Lowes on the way home and try it :)

[mom]

Ryan, no home is complete without it. Cleans white T-shoes - used to have to fight x=husband for it - he used it to clean motor parts

My sister used to own an antique store - she used it all the time to strip paint.

[Lake_Lady]

mom Thanks for the Greased Lightning tip. I hadn't heard of it before now. I'll be getting some along with that hand washer thingy you posted some time ago. You are certainly keeping my 'things to buy' list active.

[Deberosa]

Yes, they are wide baseboards, I think about 5". *I did think about the possibility of old lead paint, which is another reason I stopped trying to get them completely smooth. I guess I'll just live with them, I can't afford new baseboards and trim. I priced woodwork at Home Depot and was shocked at how expensive it has gotten! It would cost a fortune to replace all the baseboards and trim in the house!

I could leave some old country house magazines laying around, open to strategic pages..... ::)

I was thinking you could use just plain old 1 by 4 lumber instead of the regular trim. I know regular trim is really expensive, we did part of my tiny house last summer since it never had any baseboard. If you got the 1 by 4 or 1 by 6 lumber which can be pretty cheap, you could even put a curve on the top of it with a router and those can be gotten pretty cheap also... Just an idea.

Another thing I found for the trim around the top of the room was wall paper border. There are web sites with more kinds of wall paper borders than you can imagine and very inexpensive if you check out their bargain bins. That's what I did in the main area, my office and the hallway here and it turned out great. It's amazing what the trim does to brighten up a place for sure.

Debbie

[Gracie]

Your home sounds lovely. Gooddaughter, if there is a hard way to do things, I'm going to figure out how to do it. This may be way off base, but wonder if there is some kind of inexpensive putty-like compound that you could apply with a putty knife, to 'smooth out' your crusty baseboards and then repaint them. Just a thought. Gracie

[ryanmercer]

Ryan, no home is complete without it. *Cleans white T-shoes - used to have to fight x=husband for it - he used it to clean motor parts

My sister used to own an antique store - she used it all the time to strip paint.

I am 23... I haven't owned or worn t-shoes in... 18 years? Heh... I wear combat boots, and int he past few weeks I bought a pair of timberlands and have worn them a time or two but don't much care for them. Heh.

I know it's good stuff though, when I worked at Lowes we could barely ever keep those 5 gallon jugs of the stuff in.

[flatwater]

Does the crusty old wood work effect your health ?
Does it effect your pride ?
Does it effect your friendship with others ?
Does it embarrass you ?
If you can answer no to any of these questions , don't let it bother you.
Flatwater

[Catalpa]

Old woodwork is great, even when it's crusty. You can't get the old, slow growth lumber like that anymore.

My house was built in the '20s, and has wonderful old southern yellow pine throughout. It also had multiple coats of paint, with the topmost being what I call 'dead people green'. It's that limey/bluish light green that was popular in the 30s, and I call it that because when I worked on the ambulance and we'd get a call for an elderly person down in their home, there'd be nothing we could do for them, and it always seemed that they had that particular green on the walls.

Anyways, the paint is almost impossible to remove, and it is all lead paint. I've never heard of greased lighting before; I'll have to try it sometime. I used a heat gun and a putty knife on all of it, all through the house. It took me a solid month just on the fireplace mantel alone.

Don't worry about replacing the woodwork, just give it a fresh coat of paint, if you don't want to get into stripping it, and consider it well-earned character in your amazing old house!

[GoodDaughter]

You know, I kind of like that 'dead people green' color. :D

I was talking to my sister in law last night (the level headed one, not the pointy-headed one) and she said she thought the woodwork and old door knobs and light fixtures makes the place look more like an authentically old house (which it is) than if I would replace the woodwork and get new knobs and fixtures. She kept using the word 'patina'. Here I was just calling it all crusty...