Question about painting over old gloss trim without sanding

Spent Saturday trying to paint my hallway baseboards and realized half the people online say you have to sand everything first and the other half say just use a bonding primer. I tried the primer route on one door frame and it peeled off with a fingernail test. Has anyone actually gotten the no-sand method to stick long term?

3 comments

3 Comments

linda1147d ago

Well that's annoying. I've had the same thing happen with bonding primer on glossy trim, it just doesn't grab right. You really have to scuff it up first or nothing sticks long term. I'd just grab a sanding sponge and spend the 10 minutes doing it, it's way less work than repainting everything again in a few months.

victorh817d ago

Wait, have you tried the liquid sander deglosser stuff instead? @finley_gonzalez49 mentioned the magic eraser trick, which I haven't tried, but I will say the liquid deglosser worked pretty well for me on some sticky old trim. You just wipe it on with a cloth and wait a few minutes, then rinse it off, and the surface gets that dull, grippy feel without any dust. It's not as fast as a sanding sponge, but it saved me from having to buy extra supplies since I already had it in the garage. I'd still recommend scuffing it up physically if you've got a lot of old gloss on there, that stuff can be stubborn. But for a quick fix on one or two spots, the liquid route was a decent trade off.

finley_gonzalez497d ago

Saw a video where a painter actually used a magic eraser to scuff up trim instead of sandpaper, swears by it for saving time. Might be worth a shot if you hate sanding dust everywhere, just gotta rinse it really good after. Heard it works cause the melamine foam does the same thing as fine grit sandpaper but with less elbow grease.