Suggestions to remove drywall mud from unfinished window frames

[jkust]

So we are having our basement finished and to save money I opted to do all the priming and painting of the walls and ceilings and stain and finish just the window frames. I had stained the window frames prematurely because we ended up going with a much darker walnut stain than the Early American stain I stained the windows with. I now will have to darken the frames up then to come close to the walnut stain but the drywall mudder came in but didn't cover anything and got mud all over the window frames. Its thick globs from flinging on and smoothed over window trim edges as he troweled it on without regards to the windows and I need to now restain them to darken them and put a poly on them as well given the trim is going up this week but not sure how to get all of the mud off the wood. Basically then the frames are stained but still untreated and don't think I can really scrub them with water. I hate to have to resand them. Anybody have any ideas?

 

[JASinIL2006]

A wet cloth should do the trick. Maybe use a putty knife a pry the biggest blobs off first, then wipe. Drywall mud is pretty easy to remove. If you have to restain, it won't hurt anything. Just be sure to let the wood dry well before applying stain.

 

[Boomyal]

A wet cloth should do the trick. Maybe use a putty knife a pry the biggest blobs off first, then wipe. Drywall mud is pretty easy to remove. If you have to restain, it won't hurt anything. Just be sure to let the wood dry well before applying stain.

Yeah! What he said.

 

[FunInDuhSun]

Tell the drywall finisher to fix his mess or you won't pay him. I'm a general contractor and those guys should know better.

 

[Gibsonman2005]

I'm a painting contractor, and yes they should have known better but that doesn't change anything at this point. Use a putty knife to gently pry away dried mud. Use a wet rag folded over twice or thrice and wrap putty knife and scrub. Let dry thoroughly. Sand if needed. Dust. Apply new stain color. Let dry for over 24hrs. Apply clear.
If they did a shitty job already, I can't see how having them come back and **** it up more is going to help.
Good luck.

 

[redneck joe]

I'm a painting contractor, and yes they should have known better but that doesn't change anything at this point. Use a putty knife to gently pry away dried mud. Use a wet rag folded over twice or thrice and wrap putty knife and scrub. Let dry thoroughly. Sand if needed. Dust. Apply new stain color. Let dry for over 24hrs. Apply clear.
If they did a ****ty job already, I can't see how having them come back and **** it up more is going to help.
Good luck.

This

 

[MTboatguy]

Wet cloth, putty knife an patience, it will melt the putty off and then let the frames dry real good and re-stain.

 

[jkust]

Thanks guys....of course I got home from work yesterday and the contractor trimmed out the windows so now I have to deal with working around the finished trim.
I hope I can darken the frames enough to come close to matching.

 

[Tnstratofam]

As a side note if you have a general contractor supervising sub contractors like the dry wall people, you really need to have a long heart to heart with him or her.

First a general contractor should be watchimg out for subs who make and leave a mess, and second he or she shouldn't be putting up trim over work that obviously needs cleaning up before final finish.

Sounds to me like you've got some real amatures or some people who are trying to hurry to get paid. I would be making Them clean the window frames and would probably start going over things every evening with the general contractor so they're on the same page as you. The one with the check book!

Just my .02 cents.


Oh and I most certainly wouldn't try to work around finished trim, I'd be making them take it back off.

 

[jkust]

As a side note if you have a general contractor supervising sub contractors like the dry wall people, you really need to have a long heart to heart with him or her.

First a general contractor should be watchimg out for subs who make and leave a mess, and second he or she shouldn't be putting up trim over work that obviously needs cleaning up before final finish.

Sounds to me like you've got some real amatures or some people who are trying to hurry to get paid. I would be making Them clean the window frames and would probably start going over things every evening with the general contractor so they're on the same page as you. The one with the check book!

Just my .02 cents.


Oh and I most certainly wouldn't try to work around finished trim, I'd be making them take it back off.

Thanks, yes I'm not happy. I have a GC. I will have to address the situation with the final payment. I'm trying to take the good with the bad but this is a bit annoying and honestly don't know why I opted to finish the window frames myself. The painting was a huge net savings of about $1,400 after I bought the materials but it was dumb on my part to do the raw frames of a walkout basement with a lot of large windows.

 

[rbh]

Since you said that you had already Pre Stained the window frames, you may be in luck as the mud will not go through the stain.
After you get the excess mud off, take a tooth brush or any brush with nylon fine (plastic) bristles?, moisten the area and apply a scrubbing to the areas effected.

 

[sphelps]

Just like the rest have said . Water , wet rag , A plastic putty knife works good or carefully with a 5 in one tool ... Get it good and wet ...
Drywall guy should have taped it with blue tape first ... Make a pre punch list list for the contractor and put that at the top of the list ...

 

[redneck joe]

And sand after the water application

 

[jkust]

Ok I tackled the windows after work yesterday. I sacrificed a new boat microfiber and just went to town with it soaked in water. There was only one spot that had 'stained' from the mud sitting. I think the fact that I had previously stained and pre conditioned the wood helped a lot. I let it all dry for a while and went round and started staining to darken. It's not like it would be had it been raw wood but did a respectable job of coming close to the walnut stained trim.

 

[Tnstratofam]

Good to hear it cleaned up. Also good to know how to clean the mud off for future reference.

 

[Gibsonman2005]

Honestly, I hope not to offend to much, I think by trying to save money you created a situation destined for failure. By allowing the paint contractor to really be in control of his expertise has a lot to do with the outcome. We can blame the GC for oversight, but at $1400 savings I ponder the overall benefit. We have a case here where likely 3 parties are unhappy with each other.

 

[redneck joe]

Not agreeing. A GC should hire qualified people. A homeowner saving some dollars by doing work themselves does not affect the quality of the people he hires in other trades.

 

[Gibsonman2005]

I agree GC should hire quality people. I guess what I was getting at was that a painting company (at least one like mine) would have gracefully handled the issue in a timely and professional manner. Drywall on the Windows, while sloppy and unprofessional, should not be a show stopper.

 

[jkust]

The GC himself did the trim work. He is meticulous with the work that he performs as in his finishing carpentry is well done but some of the other details seem to escape him. Looks like the Tile work is the next thing to slow us down as we are low on the list of projects ad the tiler is planning to stop over in the evenings after a full day at a larger project to fit us in though of course we accepted his bid months ago. The project is really starting to drag on us.

 

[sphelps]

Our drywall finishers are responsible for cleaning any door/window frames ,trim , floors that they get mud on ... The labors usually take care of scraping the floors though .. They clean right after they sand before the painters unless the painters jump in there before we can get to it .. In that case we clean after the primer has dried ...