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Discussion Forum

crackling paint on old doors

DebbyM | Posted in General Discussion on September 5, 2007 04:01am

Hello again,

A while back I sought advice for fixing the musty smell in an old dirt floored basement and the advice about moisture barriers and cement floors was right on the money. Thanks very much for your input, you pointed us in the right direction.

Now I have a new one. You may recall that we bought a 75 year old house in Nova Scotia. Well, the trim had never been painted, just the original varnish from the looks of it. So I sanded everything and then bought a primer, that is supposed to go over everything in preparation for using an acrylic paint. After one coat of primer, then three coats of the new white, the paint on the bedroom doors is still cracking.

Do I have to sand all the new paint off and get down to bare wood to fix this problem, and what do I do with the downstairs trim that I haven’t touched yet. What about using an alkyd paint on the downstairs when I get to that area of the house? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

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  1. GRCourter | Sep 05, 2007 04:28pm | #1

    Don't know if this is part of your problem, but when I bought our 1906 house 12 years ago the previous flipper had painted all of the wood work (much of it for the first time) and the paint was not just crackling, I actually pulled a complete panel of paint off one of the door panels.  Took it to my local paintolgist (not a box store) and they said that they had seen this quite a few times in town (I live in the oldest city in the US).  Their exp was that this was from the original owners who varnished all of the wood and smoked.  The nicotine adheres to the varnish and sanding alone will not cure the problem, after sanding wipe with mineral spirits and use a good primer (I am hooked on Zinzar) but many also use Kilz with good results.  The shellac base in these products seems to solve the problem.

    Sorry for the lengthy post, but I just finished my second cup of coffee!



    Edited 9/5/2007 9:29 am ET by GRCourter

    1. BryanSayer | Sep 05, 2007 04:57pm | #2

      I think it is Zinser, but more to the point, not all of their products are alcohol based. This is specific to white pigmented shellac, which is a great stain blocker, etc.It is likely that the original finish was shellac (probably orange) rather than varnish.No matter what you use for a covering, the surface must be clean and free of oil, grease, tar, dirt etc.Of course my question to the original poster is why in the world did you paint 100 year old natural trim? You just devalued the price of your house by a significant amount, and eliminated as a potential buyer anyone looking for a house with an historic look.

      1. GRCourter | Sep 05, 2007 05:03pm | #3

        I think that the less that a house flipper knows about painting the better, off the the Heart Pine trim in our house had been painted by the previous owner and I have pealed the paint off about  80% of the woodwork so far. Great wood underneath, now I am in the process of bring back the exterior Heart Pine lap siding the was covered with Asbestos shingles in the 50's.

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