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Replacing Lost WoodworkBy Jim Sulski Summary: Unfortunately, many homeowners in the 50s and 60s removed a lot of the woodwork in older homes. Now, new homeowners are faced with the job of returning their old homes to their former glory. Jim helps you think through how to best find and replace your home's woodwork. During the 1950s and 1960s, many owners of older homes went through a period
of modernization, "updating" their properties to make them look more
contemporary. The result was the removal of numerous pieces of ornate interior woodwork. Trim around doors and windows, baseboards, chair rails, crown moldings, picture rails and even wainscoting was discarded to achieve a more streamlined look. Today, as homeowners try to restore their older homes to their original 'old' look, there's a search on for these missing pieces of woodwork. And home improvers are discovering there are several options available. The bottom line is it's going to take a bit of detective work. In addition to modernizing, woodwork is sometimes missing from a home because it was damaged in fires or floods or in household accidents. And wood trim was also removed so that people could install furniture, cabinetry, bookcases or window treatments. To get furniture flush to the wall, the trim as discarded. There are numerous ways to replace those missing pieces, said the woodworking experts. The most inexpensive method is to rob Peter to pay Paul. For example, if you're missing a piece of baseboard from your living room, possibly there is a piece from a closet or an unused bedroom that you can replace it with. Or maybe you can remove an unseen strip from behind a large piece of furniture to replace a piece missing in an exposed area. Another inexpensive option is to explore the home's nooks and crannies to see if any of the missing pieces of wood have been stored away over the years. Often times, however, a new - albeit not necessarily unused - piece of trim is required. Before you track down that replacement wood, however, you need to determine the parameters of the missing or damaged piece. For example, if the top piece of doorway trim is missing, is there another doorway with a similar piece in the home? Or if the right side of the window trim is missing, is the left side a mirror image? The safest way to remove existing trim pieces is to take two wide putty knives and gently force them behind the molding, about a foot apart. Place a pry bar in between the putty knives and use that to pull the molding away from the wall. Repeat the procedure at different points of the trim. That distributes the pressure and tends to minimize damage to the wall and to the trim. Once the molding is an inch or so from the wall, the woodworkers suggested using a hacksaw blade to cut the nails, to prevent any further damage to the trim. Trim pieces in old homes are usually nailed in fairly well and you have to be extremely careful taking them off because you'll split them. If you're removing more than one piece of trim, mark the backsides so you know specifically where they came from. Even if you have a similar piece, measure the area of the missing piece. As houses settle over the years, the piece of trim on one side of a doorway may be a half-inch longer than the other side. If you can't remove a piece of wood, carefully measure every dimension and make a tracing of the wood to capture its design. A photograph of the piece would also be helpful. If you have no idea what type of wood trim was removed from a room, don't fret. Often times, you can replace the missing piece with woodwork that coordinates perfectly with your existing trim. If you're looking to replace only one or two pieces, your best bet is to look
for a piece of used trim from a salvage house. The advantage to using an existing
piece is that they're usually less expensive than having new woodwork made. © by Jim Sulski. All rights reserved. February 15, 2005. NOTE: This column is distributed by Real Estate Matters Syndicate, PO Box 366, Glencoe, Illinois, 60022. This column may not be resold, reprinted, resyndicated or redistributed without written permission from the publisher. © 2005 by Ilyce R. Glink. Distributed by Real Estate Matters Syndicate. |
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