Old Houses...never a dull baseboard...

[jwesevich]

Hmmm...
Just when I was patting myself on the back for making good progress in the basement, my wife called me up to the dining room, and a big chung of paint had fallen from the baseboard. Basically, there was a big bubble, and I was easily able to break off a number of chunks:


Underlying wood wasn't wet or damp. The opposite side of the bay also had bubbles, though not as bad:


Otherwise, no issues on the wall or other baseboards in the room:


I'm thinking this has to be moisture, but I checked outside again, and things are pretty solid. Given that the ancient oil paint came off as well, I'm a little concerned. Any thoughts?

thanks!
jeff

[cadrad]

how recently did you paint it? how humid was the day? I have had this happen on the walls at one of my other houses right after I painted, But once it was completely dry I t went back down. Something about the underlying payers being loosened by the moisture in the new paint.

[jwesevich]

This was painting the POs had done (maybe a year ago?). I repainted the rad in the summer, and didn't notice anything. No rain lately either...odd.

jeff

[mross_pitt]

You could check it with a moisture meter to get a better idea if water is somehow getting in around the windows.
Otherwise, I would just sand, prime, and paint(don't inhale in the lead paint dust or eat the paint chips).

[jwesevich]

Yeah, I'm going to pick one up this afternoon.

jeff

[mfglickman]

Take a chip to the paint store and ask. This happened to me in 2 houses on walls, not woodwork, and was not a water issue - though for the life of me I don't remember now what it was.

With that in mind...I'd be tempted to strip all that white if I had that pretty wood underneath...hint hint.

[mross_pitt]

Perhaps the oil and latex paint combinations are not happy.
However, it would seem odd to not have a moisture related issue since both problems spots are directly under windows.

You can use an oil based primer on the bare spots and more latex on top of that.

[jwesevich]

Turned out to be 3-->4% moisture in the wood, which was lower than any other place I tried in the house. Shrug...I've tried stripping that same oil off trim near the basement, and it's like pulling teethh, and yet here it comes off of its own accord...

Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure we have pine here, but I wanted to strip it anyway because it has that "ten coats of paint" look to it.

Thanks for the suggestions,
jeff

[cs]

Could it have been originally varnished or shellacked and then poorly prepped when someone decided to paint? The way it's failing looks very similar to what my baseboards looked like when we moved in. As the temperature changed and the wood expanded and contracted, the paint would just loose adhesion, because the old varnish was never removed or even roughed up prior to the PO's paint-o-palozza. The good news was that it made it much easier to strip when we decided to go that rout.

Just a thought.

Chris
http://www.saracenihouse.com

[MrGrady]

I've had Behr paint do this to me many times, especially when painting over an already painted surface.