Large Interior Trim Job in Fishers

Ryan and I just finished up a large interior trim project that took us 4 days. It was over 900 lineal feet and included crown molding, baseboards, and door and window trim. We were going from a brown stain to extra white latex semi-gloss.

We used a low odor oil-base primer from Sherwin Williams to knock down the brown and then we put a finish coat of Sherwin Williams ProClassic, the expensive but high quality trim and door paint.

Steps:

1. Caulked all cracks between wall and trim. We ended up caulking almost all of the baseboards.
2. Used FrogTape where the trim met the wall since we were not painting the walls. Also, it makes it easier to cut in and keep paint off the walls.
3. Removed all doors with electric drill for ease of painting.
4. Put primer coat on.
5. Put finish coat on.
6. Removed FrogTape.
7. Reinstalled doors.
8. Minor touch-up and cleanup.

Lessons learned:
1. Use oil-base primer when converting stain to a latex finish.
2. Take off doors by the hinges in order to get a better finish on the hinges side plus you can paint the door trim in about half the time.
3. When using FrogTape with an oil base paint or primer, lightly hit the tape with a wet rag before painting in order to activate the "Paintblock", which is normally activated with the water-based latex paint. If you don't do this, you will get some seepage.
4. When only painting trim (and a lot of it) and you do not have the wall paint, taping is probably prudent. To cut in twice, is very time consuming and will take more time than if you tape.