Unhappy surprise--fake wood trim

14583 Views 5 Replies 3 Participants Last post by chrisn, Jun 13, 2009

sarcare

Discussion Starter · Jun 12, 2009

Hi Folks,
I have been reading on this forum to research my current painting projects. The information has been very helpful, and steared me away from getting poor quality paint. Anyway, I just encountered a problem that I'm not sure how to fix and I thought someone here might have an idea.

I just bought a house built in 1940, it has had some work done to it, so all I am really working on is painting it new colors (it had been painted flat white throughout), working on the landscape, and perhaps replacing windows. I bought Benjamin Moore Regal paint after reading here about the other choices I was considering, and painted two rooms a yellow color.

Everything went well until I was uncovering the windows after I painted. The blue painting tape I'd used (because I'm messy) pulled off a lot of the paint from the molding under the window. I thought it was original wood molding like the windows, but it turns out it is something synthetic. I'm not sure if it is vinyl or some other kind of plastic. It has a hard shiny light ugly color under the white paint.

Anyways, my questions are:

1. How can I paint this plastic--do I need to use some special paint or prep?

and

2. How long do I need to wait before I can tape on the newly painted walls to paint the moldings?

Any help would be appreciated!

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sarcare

Discussion Starter · #2 · Jun 12, 2009

Ok, to show what an idiot I am, I called my mom who said that the fake wood sounded insane. She said it is probably just an oil primer. But what idiot puts an oil primer down and then paints latex over it?

So now I need to know what I can do--should I just do the trim in oil based paint (something I don't want to do, as I hate working with oil based paints) or is there someway to prime it or something so I can paint over it with latex? I could sand it?

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chrisn

· #3 · Jun 12, 2009

But what idiot puts an oil primer down and then paints latex over it?

This is the proper procedure for painting. You can top coat a PRIMER with either latex or oil.

If the trim is indeed plastic( and I find this hard to believe) a coat of Fresh Start primer and a finish coat should do the trick.

Get yourself a GOOD small brush and paint the trim, forget the tape.If you must tape the latex paint will take 30 days to fully cure.

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sarcare

Discussion Starter · #4 · Jun 12, 2009

Well the latex that was over what ever is down there, which I admitted is probably not plastic, is coming off in sheets. like where one small bit came off with the tape it is now all falling off around it. Which leads me to think that if I went out and bought more latex paint and painted it after pealing off the rest of the paint it would do the same thing?

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Matthewt1970

· #5 · Jun 12, 2009

You absolutely could have plastic trim, but odds are it is oil based paint on wood. Wihout the proper primer, then it will peel right off. We just did a house where the previous people just painted over a glossy oil with latex. Scrape off everything you can, sand it smooth and prime with a good oil based primer. From there you can topcoat with whatever you want.

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chrisn

· #6 · Jun 13, 2009

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