Preparing skirtings etc

[EyepatchOfTravis]

I wonder if anyone can help me

I'm decorating DD's room at the moment. At some point in the next few days I'm going to have to repaint her skirtings, dado rail, window frame/sill, door and radiator.

I gather that before I do this, I need to sand down each surface to provide a key.

My house was built in the 1930s, so I don't know if there would be any lead in the layers of paint of these things. I do know that the top layer of paint won't contain lead, as exH decorated the room when DD was a baby. However, on the skirtings for example, there are a couple of places where the paint has chipped back to the wood.

If I'm just giving it a quick sand to provide a key, would that just disturb the top layer of paint, or should I be taking any precautions? I'm a novice DIYer and really don't want to be stripping paint - if I could just paint over without sanding without it all sliding off I would!!

Thanks for your help

Just sand it back a bit and paint over. Where it's chipped you will need to spot paint first so that it was won't show through (maybe even two or three times before doing two coats on the whole thing.)

Make sure you wipe everything down to get rid of any grease or dust as well.

Good luck, it's not that hard, just start somewhere not too obvious to get used to the paint and brush.

Thanks. I guess what I'm worried about is if there is any lead paint under the existing top coat that I may disturb it while I'm sanding and create lead dust (even more nerve wracking because I have nowhere to put DD's stuff so it's all still in her room covered in plastic paint sheets)

What type of paint did your dh use? Water based or oil based. If you just do a quick rub over by hand, you will not be removing much more than the top layer of paint. Fill the points where there are chips/gouges (can just spot paint if only pin holes).

If you want to switch from oil based to water based you will need to apply a decent primer like zinsser bin.

I'm using wood satin on the boards, door and sills. I think it's water based. They're dulux ones I got mixed up at Homebase. The radiator will be a gloss. Unfortunately I'm not sure what types of paint exH used. If I used a primer, would I still need to sand?

Also, should I fill chips in paint larger than a pinhole on boards - could I use Polyfilla?

Thanks btw - really appreciate advice

About to do exactly the same in my house so watching with interest

If you would prefer not to sand down, just clean the painted surfaces with a sugar soap solution (you can buy Homebase or any diy or paint shop) and then prime with a good grippy primer. I would recommend "Zinsser 123 plus" as it is water based and very easy to use.

Once primed, you can paint with any top coat you like. Dulux Satinwood will be fine.

<a class="break-all" href="https://ci6.googleusercontent.com/proxy/d2NcapvXrUisWfADO-8PkawMASRAKyq_6jgFgT6Xic9GhtG9MPLtRMdQnHuOPGpNMj4s3MiPJFvs8QYJDn4AZKaDx8rfz47idujo10fl9xMT7_bauKS2e0m054M4DTb4T4oHQHwoU4W-Jw=s0-d-e1-ft#<a class="break-all" href="https://images-eu.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/418VGy1afEL.SL500__SR290,237_.jpg"" rel="nofollow" target="blank">images-eu.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/418VGy1afEL.SL500__SR290,237.jpg" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">THIS is the stuff!

Make sure you get 123PLUS and not the oil based version, which is called bullseye 123. Then you won't have to worry about paint fumes.

That looks worth checking out - thanks for the tip!