Household woodwork fading spots

10 years ago

I have seen around my house and mostly kitchen fading spots appearing on my trim work and cabinet work.

The house was done in this shade and finish from everything to trim work every room, bathrooms, stairwell banister, doors , and cabinets.

From what it looks like it was an all in one finish on the woodwork.

I am not sure of how to fix this or if there is a fix. Hate to have the woodwork get ruined if this fading continues.

Top picture is the more common, the one with the turtle is the one were some fading is happening on top of my sink window frame

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Comments (4)

User
10 years ago
Water damage. Sand(by hand with 150 grit) to remove loose finish. Use orange shellac(to get the color matching)on the sanded areas and then two coats of poly on the entire sill/door.
Tim Farnsworth
Original Author
10 years ago
Do I have to sand the entire door or trimwork, have some of this in the bathroom as well. There are some spots on cupboards. Not sure how to get color matching. From what it looks like they used an all in one stain/poly on the woodwork.
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User
10 years ago
That damage can also result from using shellac or varnish as the final finish.

The only way to repair the damage is to remove the damaged finish, sand the wood to remove some of the discoloration(light sandings), and refinish.

Color matching is done by experimenting. Even the pros have to experiment.

Stain/wood dye will not work over a finish, those have to have bare wood. That means you cannot color match with stain/dye(unless you have experience---or get lucky).

That means the best way to color match is to use lighter coloring finishes and sneak up on the match by adding coats of the finish. Orange shellac is the easiest to get and has the same amber tone of that finish. There are several darker shades of shellac as well.

You can also tint varnish or even lacquer(which is NOT a good finish around water).

Bottom line is experiment. You can always make a color darker, but not always lighter.
Tim Farnsworth thanked User
klem1
10 years ago
What Mac suggests should give satifactory results,experimenting being the watchword. May I add a few thoughts? That isn't all in one finish,grain is too well defined. My grandson had the same thing several places in the house he purchased. I told him about the same as Mac did but he thought it was too time consuming and asked if I would do it. No,it's your house,you need to fix it but I'll help. So that he didn't have to buy multiple stains I used my collection to find a match then wrote it down for him. I knew by flaking the clear coat was water based (acrylic finish) and found sheen match for him as well. I instructed him to rub area with medium fine steel wool,tack off dust,apply MinWax oil base wood finish with secound wad of extra fine steel wool,alow to sit less than 1 minute and wipe off with dry cloth,alow to dry 6+ hours. I had good results with all MinWax clear top coats,water and oil but I suggested Wipe On Poly to fit his desire for fast and simple. Before someone start's in about useing only professional grade products,MinWax is far more user friendly,easy to find and doesn't require $2k investment in application and safty equipment. This flaking off will continue so you have two choices,completly refinish everything or fix as needed calling it routine maintinance.