I live in an old house. The trim and mouldings around the doors, walls, etc. needs to be sanded down and re-finished. The wood (it’s REAL wood!) itself is in very good condition and I want to do as much as I can, to keep as much original material as possible.
Here is my problem: I need to detach the wood from the walls etc, to sand it down and so on. But how can I pull it away from the wall or whatever, without (a)damaging the wood by prying (b)causing the finishing nails to pull through the wood out the backside of the pieces that I will be pulling???
Well, you may not have to remove the moulding from the wall at all. Sometimes iit is possible to sand it in place, prime and repaint. This is a good course of action if the wood is old, brittle or damaged (but not rotted). Of course, it can be much more difficult to sand and finish the material in place.
If you want to remove the moulding there are a couple of steps that can make it much easier.
1- Take a razor knife and cut the paintline where the moulding and wall meet. This will prevent damage to the trim and the wall.
2- Use a nail punch to punch through any nails you can find. It is OK to punch through the wood…you end up doing much less damage than trying to pull the old, rusty nails through the outside.
3- Use a wide bladed putty knife to work under the edge of the trim to pry it up. Don’t try to pry it off the wall, only loosen it up. If you have gotten the majority of the nails it should pop right off. If not, you will need to work it a little more. Don’t use something thick like a chisel or screwdriver to pry it off as you will certainly damage the wall and trim.
That should get the trim off the wall. Make sure you label everything in so you know how it goes back up.
I hope this helps!
Do you really want to sand it? Maybe you could just prime and paint over it. Or, how about trying to strip the paint from the wood instead of taking it down and sanding it?
I will ask the boyfriend, he works in the paint department @ Home Depot. He may be able to help.
Oh cool a “This Old House” project. Keep in mind you will be doing this for a while. Just do one room at a time, maybe even one wall or door at a time. This will minimize the disruption and help to reduce the comments about hiring a pro from any SO.
I have found driving the nails through works well with base molding, door and window trim and chair rails however crown molding is often applied with an angled wooden cleat which goes on behind the molding in between the molding and the wall. If this is the case, it may be next to impossible to drive the nails through. In that instance I would suggest removing the molding with a pry bar. Make that removing it very, very, very carefully with a pry bar. Use a piece of 1/4-inch thick plywood or Plexiglas to protect the wall surface when prying. Like Obidiah said, use a putty knife to slip in between the molding and the wall to get some room for the tip of the pry bar.
Leaving the molding in place is often the best option for a do it yourselfer. New stripping agents make it possible to pull several layers of paint off in one application. Several of the new ones are water based and don’t require chemical masks. As far as re-finishing, one of the major stain makers (Minwax I think) has come up with a jell for staining. You squirt it on then spread it out with a foam brush. Some how the jell makes the stain’s release into the wood in made more uniform. It also helps prevent drips and drops. I do it before you paint the walls. Stain goes right through masking tape. It’s easier to carefully cut back in around the molding.
One important thing occurs to me as I write this. If this molding was installed more than 30 years ago and was painted, odds are it has one or more layers of lead paint! If you have children in the house sanding of any type is not an option. I suggest you simply rip the wood off and go to Home Depot and get new molding. It won’t be as nice but there’s no risk to the little ones. If the wood is just stained there is no risk of lead.
The nails are supposed to pull out the back. That’s one reason they have such tiny heads. Using a nail set to push them in will help get the trim off. Any nails that are still sticking out of the trim can be pulled through from the back with a pair of end-nippers and it won’t mar the surface. (This has got to be my favorite trick that I learned early in my carpentry career.)
And echoing what Jimson Jim said - if the trim is painted and has lead in it (get a testing kit) your best thing is to paint over them. If you want natural wood and they have lead, you will need to remove them, strip them, sand and refinish them.
The general advice for people who have lead-coated trim in their house is get rid of it and replace it - unless you really like it, then you have to do all that work.