# will painting my oak baseboard reduce the value of my home?



## LawnGuyLandSparky (Nov 18, 2007)

Leave it alone. It's solid wood trim. A potential buyer will appreciate it and understand it's paintable.


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## mark942 (Feb 2, 2008)

IMO Leave it alone/Well not entirely.I would give it a coat of Polyurethane or Varnish.That would be a great thing to do for that tight grained Oak baseboard.It would be making a definitive line between the floor and wall........................:thumbsup:

If your really wanting to paint it,first I would get a piece of Oak trim and paint it the color you want it to be.Then line it up to the wall and see if it is some thing you really want to do.That way your not
committed to some thing that will be a ugly job to fix.


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## AtlanticWBConst. (May 12, 2006)

3rd vote: Leave it.

If anything, consider changing your paint schemes, to better "work" with the wood, to bring the charm of such craftmanship and design out - tastefully.


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## justdon (Nov 16, 2005)

It would for ME. I think painted trim is butt ugly. Would take it out and replace it with nice varnished oak ANY day!! Oak doesnt really dent or marr too much so it SHOULD be in great shape!! saw on tv how they really clean it up and make it look NEW,,,now I forgot!!


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## skymaster (Jun 6, 2007)

Painting oak trim is one of the original sins!!!!!!!!! Since resale is so important I will guarantee that if you do paint it you WILL DEVALUE this house. To those that hunt for this rare trim and then find it painted you will lose thousands of dollars in resale value and many potiental buyers will walk on bye
IMHO


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## braedo (Mar 7, 2008)

wow! 

thanks for all the input guys, I guess I know my answer!! 
I will be keeping it the original finish. so the floors and baseboard will be coated with water based Polyurethane. (well the floors already have been done!) I think if it was any other trim I would go with white, but since the high quality thick oak is a find in itself I will try to showcase it!

thanks again for the input. I havent looked if you can post pictures, but if you can I will try to put some up.

-Brady


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## braedo (Mar 7, 2008)

one more question...

since I am leaving the baseboard clear (covered with water poly)
would it look weird to have white crown moulding??
I was also thinking about replacing alll the doors (which are wood grained hollow core ones at the moment, but are super orange and need to be redone) with white six panel doors.

any suggestions?


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## LawnGuyLandSparky (Nov 18, 2007)

I think you've been watching HGTV too much. Your goal shouldn't be to increase the price of the house as much as possible, it shoud be to profit as much as you can from the sale. If your house is worth 300,000.00 in a 300,000.00 neighborhood, you're good to go. 

Curb appeal is one thing, but slapping in every recent trendy cookie cutter improvement isn't going to fool anyone with 1/2 a brain. 

If the house has refinished floors, fresh paint and is "turn key," that is, nothing looks "neglected" or in immediate need of attention or investment, then you are at the point where nothing you add is going to increase the value of the home more than that additional work is going to cost you.


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## braedo (Mar 7, 2008)

hmm, yes. that makes good sense...

its hard to know when enough is enough when improving things in the house!!


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## Double A (Sep 10, 2006)

braedo said:


> hmm, yes. that makes good sense...
> 
> its hard to know when enough is enough when improving things in the house!!


Ten good ways to tell you're overdoing the DIY thing as far as home improvements.

1) The guy at the paint store knows more about your husband and his shortcomings than your hair dresser.

2) You're planning a nursery and you and your husband have been retired empty-nesters for 15 years now.

3) You want to install crown moulding in the outbuilding because you're afraid the chickens you bought from Martha Stewart Living might be ashamed of their home without it.

4) You find yourself saying, "Go for the Hilti. No one every regretted buying a Hilti" to the guy shopping for a screw gun at the local Home Depot.

5) You have an extra garbage disposer because your husband insisted on having one for each bowl of the sink before you could stop him.

6) You traded your minivan in for a Ford F250 Crew Cab pick-up because you needed a truck with some ass and a ladder rack.

7) You find yourself dissing the guy fixing the roof next door because he has a pancake compressor while yours is a twin-bore hot dog that will run on 120/240V.

8) Your coil-nail gun is bigger than his.

9) Hasn't that dumb sumbeetch ever heard of toe-boards?

and my all time favorite....

10) You buy a new leather tool belt to wear for your husband on your anniversary night instead of a peek-a-boo teddy.


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## LawnGuyLandSparky (Nov 18, 2007)

braedo said:


> hmm, yes. that makes good sense...
> 
> its hard to know when enough is enough when improving things in the house!!


Which is how so many people got burned trying to "flip this house." You can't just dump a mess of improvements into a house and expect 100% or better return.


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