Looking for an opinion on which sequence I should utilize to spray new wood trim:
1. Paint trim in place:
a. Install unprimed wood trim
b. Sand, fill nail holes & caulk trim to wall
c. Remove doors and paint on horses
c. Mask walls
d. Prime
e. Check for remaining inperfections
f. Paint
2. Pre-paint trim:
a. Paint wood floors
b. Paint wood trim and doors on saw horses
c. Install painted wood trim
d. Fill nail holes/imperfections & caulk trim to wall
e. Touch up filled areas
I see either as not being ideal. To paint the trim in place means there will be a ton of masking required. I’ve had significant problems in the past getting the brand name blue tape to stick to the knock down texture. Figure on having to touch up a few spots due to tape adhesion issues. The carpenter won’t complain about having to work with painted trim as I’ll be the carpenter as well. Of course, pre painting the trim means I’ll want to paint the floors first which means they could sustain some damage. Right now, I’m favoring pre-painting the trim, but I wanted to get your opinion.
Replies
1110
Never caulk unprimed or unpainted trim. The wood will suck out the moisture in the caulk-causing it to crack and recede down the line.
Me?
Not a painter.
I'd prime the trim if it's easy to do-a lot of trim on horses is a nightmare-but can be done. I would not do the final coat or coats which I'd brush and cut in once the trim was hung.
But, I'm just a dumb carpenter that knows good painters and they are old and cut in all trims. Doors? they do spray those.
Your suggestion to wait before caulking poses a problem. If the trim is painted in place it could only be caulked after the trim is primed. However, the masking would need to be removed so the caulk could be applied. I guess the solution would be to prime the trim before installing it. For the record, I don't think caulk is desirable with stained trim, but should be used with painted as it eliminates the black line between the trim and the wall. I don't mind cutting in trim, but there is a LOT to do.
I have some 800' of casing to paint and several hundred feet base, top cap, door head, window stool to paint. Just added it all up... almost a quarter mile of mill work. Yea, it's going to be a bear on saw horses. Will need help just to move the pieces on/off the horses. Even then, I don't know where to put it all while it dries.
On most projects you'll get the most bang for your buck by prefinishing all the trim and simply caulking and touching up the paint after the fact.
Having said that, the best trim work is finished in place and goes something like this:
Sand & prime (no color coat because that's much more difficult to sand if joints need to be touched up/smoothed out. Then install and fill nail holes. Sand filler on nail holes THEN caulk. Pull off all door hardware and paint doors with them held in a zig-zag with short metal clips made for such things (google if you aren't familar with what I'm talking about). The floors, windows and whatnot are masked off well. Trim is sprayed with a layer of primer then a couple good layers of finish color (allowed to overlap onto the wall paint which will get repainted after the trim is dry). Overlapping the trim paint onto the wall makes a nice smooth transition between the trim and wall, which is also easy to mask to.
When masking it's much easier if the trim is sprayed, then the trim is masked off and the walls are sprayed, then the walls are masked and the ceiling is sprayed.
Any painter that wanted to paint installed trim by hand would be shown the door on most projects I've been involved with, with the exception of touching up areas.
To be done well either method requires a lot of work and attention to detail.
You'll kill yourself for putting up trim and then painting it. Always paint first before putting up trim if you have the chance.
Well, we've decided to paint the trim in place. I think some of the replies were thinking of brushing/rolling the paint, but we will be spraying so application will be quick and easy. Masking will be the time burner. I came to this conclusion because I trimmed out two windows in the stair and then painted them so I could get the scaffolding out right away. I found that I was wanting to sand the edges to get them perfectly aligned and knew that I couldn't do this if the pieces were pre painted.
Question: When we masked off to paint the ceiling we had a heck of a time getting the tape to stick. We were using fresh Scotch blue tape, 2" width. Frequently the 2mil plastic would fall after 15-20 minutes. I believe the problem is the knock-down texture just isn't providing enough contact area. Any suggestions? I don't mind coming back to cut an edge in, but I'd prefer to avoid it if possible.
2 mil plastic is pretty heavy.....definitely use painters plastic, which is less than a half a mil. I'm guessing you haven't picked up a masking unit that uses rolls of different length plastic - defininetly a must have. Also, if you notice most professionally painted celing/wall joints are not jagged for a reason - painters want a surface that will hold paint and produce a clean paint line. A thin coat of painter's caulking can dramatically smooth out that corner and produce better results.
I typically caulk the trim to wall joint to eliminate the black line. You can see in the caulk in the one photo against the vertical piece of casing. Now, I've seen a "how to" video on this site that talks about caulking over the painters tape to give a perfect cut line. This job is going to take every bit of a day to mask, so I don't know if that's the correct tecnique to use. Which were you refering to?