{"id":244161,"date":"2011-02-04T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-02-04T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/house-calls-the-five-fallacies-of-wood-refinishing\/"},"modified":"2011-02-04T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2011-02-04T08:00:00","slug":"house-calls-the-five-fallacies-of-wood-refinishing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/house-calls-the-five-fallacies-of-wood-refinishing\/","title":{"rendered":"House Calls: The five fallacies of wood refinishing"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Michael Good | SDUN Columnist<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"House<\/a>
Highly-figured Red Gum from a house in Mission Hills. (Michael Good\/SDUN)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

People working in the building trades have colorful imaginations, to put it politely. Provide a topic (nail guns, for example), a victim (itinerate non-English-speaking worker from a far-off land), add a social lubricant (beer!), then stand back and listen\u2014the lies will fly faster than fasteners from an out-of-control Senco nailer. As many a prophet has learned, it\u2019s hard to compete against the bright and shining lie, especially when it\u2019s being colorfully told by a dusty guy in a hardhat. Nevertheless, like Moses in the wilderness, I offer this list of the top five wood whoppers.<\/p>\n

1. SORRY, WHAT YOU HAVE THERE IS PAINT GRADE WOOD <\/strong><\/p>\n

When your house was born, they graded roads, they graded report cards, they even graded wood, but they didn\u2019t designate one species \u201cstain grade\u201d and another \u201cpaint grade.\u201d With very few exceptions, all houses built before 1940 were trimmed\u2014in every room\u2014with what we would today call \u201cstain grade\u201d wood.<\/p>\n

Pre-World War I and II housing was built with clear, old-growth heartwood, meaning the lumber was free of knots and came from the center of the tree, which is dry and dense and hundreds of years old. In the early days of logging, the sapwood, cambium layer and bark were discarded, leaving the heartwood for baseboards, casings, doors, china cabinets, bookcases, mantels and so on. The wood used in framing was usually also heartwood, though it may have had some knots.<\/p>\n

The popular misconception about the quality of wood used in painted trim, and therefore the advisability of stripping it, or even keeping it, comes from the assumption that Douglas fir is not worth staining. In San Diego, Douglas fir was the principal trim material in most formal rooms built between 1900 and 1915. It is the quintessential arts-and-crafts wood trim. Fir fell out of fashion because of fashion, not because of anything intrinsically wrong with the wood.<\/p>\n

Once hardwoods became popular for clear trim in the 1920s, builders continued to use finish-quality Douglas fir in the back of the house. There were practical as well as financial reasons for this: Fir was softer and easier on tools (and most trim carpentry was done with hand tools, including chisels). It was readily available. Lumberyards in San Diego were always stocked with it, so work delays because someone hadn\u2019t ordered enough trim weren\u2019t a problem. Builders put up houses quickly (in three weeks) and built several at a time, so using the most plentiful wood just made sense.<\/p>\n

Today, Old Growth Douglas fir is more expensive than tropical hardwood. If you have it, maintain it. Like an antique, it\u2019s getting more valuable every day.<\/p>\n

2. DON\u2019T WORRY: WE ONLY USE THAT SAFE STRIPPER <\/strong><\/p>\n

You won\u2019t find safe stripper at Home Depot for the same reason you won\u2019t find a \u201csafe\u201d hammer. In order to be effective, strippers (and hammers) have to be strong enough to hurt people. Both methyl chloride and N-methyl pyrrolidone, the two active ingredients in most paint strippers, pose health risks. Products using pyrrolidone can claim to be safer because methyl chloride has been found to cause cancer in one particular strain of lab mice (but not in people). Stripper\u2014like most adhesives, finishes, solvents and, well, just about everything used in construction\u2014is bad for you. Wear protection!<\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"House<\/a>
Refinished Red Gum wainscoting, circa 1920. (Photo by Zack Gemmell)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

3. GUMWOOD IS EUCALYPTUS <\/strong><\/p>\n

Though we\u2019ve covered this subject before, apparently not enough of the 30,000 or so people who faithfully read Uptown News <\/em>got the message, told their friends, jumped on the Internet and created the sort of viral sensation necessary to squash this widely held myth. The fact that Eucalyptus had been planted for lumber in Southern California, plus the fact that in Australia they are called \u201cgum trees,\u201d combined long ago in the popular mind to form the now ubiquitous assumption that there is some connection between the trees that grow in our canyons and the wood that graces our china cabinets. Actually, the source for gumwood can be found even closer to home. It is Liquidambar styraciflua, a popular San Diego street tree that often grows right in front of gumwood-trimmed houses. Although much loved in San\u00a0Diego, gumwood is reviled in the South, where it grows wild. In the 1920s, an association of Southern lumber producers started marketing Red gum, or Gumwood as they decided to call it, to Southern California homeowners and builders. Their loss was our gain.<\/p>\n

4. JUST A LITTLE LIGHT SANDING, AND WE\u2019LL BE DONE<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wood refinishers love to sand. It creates a lot of dust, makes a lot of noise and creates the illusion that you\u2019re really doing something important. But sanding removes the oxidized layer that gives old wood that old-wood patina. It makes something old look brand new, which is not the goal. It\u2019s also a lousy way to strip wood. It\u2019s more likely to liquefy the paint and force it back into the grain of the wood than it is to remove it. You have to sand away the wood to remove the paint. And destroying the wood is also not the goal.<\/p>\n

But sometimes sanding can\u2019t be avoided. Particularly when wood is damaged, either by exposure to water, sunlight or angry people with power tools (sanders, for example).<\/p>\n

5. THE STRIPPER BURNED DOWN THE HOUSE <\/strong><\/p>\n

This sounds like a Charlie Sheen tabloid headline, but it\u2019s actually an abbreviated version of a recent article in a local newspaper (not this one), which blamed a house fire on \u201cstripping materials.\u201d Paint stripper isn\u2019t flammable. Many other materials used in refinishing are, however. Lacquer thinner is highly flammable. It won\u2019t just burn down the house, it will blow it up as well. Rags soaked in linseed oil (which is used in stain and varnish) can spontaneously combust. Alcohol will burn, as will mineral spirits. Even sawdust can spontaneously ignite. But methyl chloride stripper, despite what you may have read, doesn\u2019t cause fires. (It just feels like you\u2019re on fire when you get it on your skin.) Wear protection!<\/p>\n

If you seek further enlightenment on the subject, read Bob Flexner\u2019s \u201cUnderstanding Wood Refinishing.\u201d Then read it again. For in-person wood advice, or to swap colorful stories, contact me at housecallssdun@gmail.com.<\/p>\n

MORE FINISHING FIBS:<\/strong><\/p>\n

In addition to the five fallacies, here are some smaller sins to consider:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do it just like they did in the old days.\u201d <\/em>Well, if you do, then you\u2019re an idiot. Finishes today are superior to those of 100 years ago. Why not use them? (The exception is shellac made from flakes, which is authentic and performs well in most situations.)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe make this stuff up in our shop.\u201d <\/em>And you, sir, are a nincompoop. Unless you\u2019re a chemist, with a well-outfitted lab, then you\u2019re still a little strange.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have this trick I learned.\u201d <\/em>There isn\u2019t one trick to wood refinishing. There aren\u2019t even 10 tricks. There are an endless variety of problems to solve based on knowledge, skill and a willingness to keep trying.<\/p>\n

\u201cI learned this in the old country.\u201d <\/em>There are no handed-down-through-the-ages trade secrets in wood refinishing. All that\u2019s required is the ability to read. Again, you can\u2019t go wrong with Bob Flexner\u2019s \u201cUnderstanding Wood Refinishing.\u201d When your project doesn\u2019t turn out the way you planned, it\u2019s usually something you\u2019ve done, not something to do with your ancestry.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re very economical.\u201d <\/em>There\u2019s nothing cheap, fast or reasonable about restoring your woodwork\u2014not if you do it right, that is. It takes time. And time is money. The alternative\u2014doing it on the cheap\u2014 isn\u2019t very economical either, because you risk destroying your valuable investment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will last the life of the house.\u201d <\/em>Nothing lasts the life of a Redwood house, certainly not varnish. The life of a clear finish should be measured in dog years, not tree years. If your finish has lasted more than a decade, throw it a birthday party, then clean it and recoat. After all these years, it deserves it.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Michael Good | SDUN Columnist People working in the building trades have colorful imaginations, to put it politely. Provide a topic (nail guns, for example), a victim (itinerate non-English-speaking worker from a far-off land), add a social lubricant (beer!), then stand back and listen\u2014the lies will fly faster than fasteners from an out-of-control Senco […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1306,"featured_media":244162,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"House Calls: The five fallacies of wood refinishing","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11551,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-244161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1306"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}