The white trim is wood, its just painted white. I assume you're talking about interior trim (RB3 casing, window trim, crown molding, etc.).

My experience has been that stained trim is more expensive than painted trim because of the need to use stain-grade lumber, which is a continuous piece of wood rather than a piece that has been finger-jointed in numerous places.

Stain-grade trim can be more difficult/expensive to finish, especially if you are working with pine, which tends not to take stain evenly. It can be difficult to get a good result if the painters do not routinely work with staining pine trim.

Hope this helps.

Totally Confused

Complete opposite advice from our builder! Our white trim will be MDF, which is way less expensive than wood, hence the white, since you can only paint mdf, not stain it. We wanted wood doors, which means wood trim, so there's an up charge for that. Can painting be more expensive than staining, if you already have to have the crew out there to paint? Our guy is up-charging $60 per interior door stained!

Not all woods take all finishes equally well. Poplar should be painted; oak should have a clear finish. Stain changes the color and darkness of wood before a clear finish is applied but it takes some skill to make it work on softwoods because, unless treated, they absorb too much stain unevenly and too much variation in the grain can be unattractive.

I would expect a professionally applied stain and clear finish to be more expensive than a paint finish on window trim (windows should be factory finished if possible) but there are too many variables involved.

Joyce, we have stained trim on the first floor and white painted upstairs. My builder's painters didn't have much experience staining pine and it took them a really long time and lots of trial and error to finally get a satisfactory result. The painted trim they had done in no time, as they knew how to do that.

Totally Confused

Don't let the finishers experiment with your trim. If they don't know how to prepare pine for stain hire someone else or lend them your copy of Bob Flexner's "Understanding Wood Finishing"

Here is a link that might be useful: Understanding Wood Finishing

I have painted trim in all but my kitchen, dining, den area. At one time, it was all stained, but previous owners decided to paint it, and oh how, I wish they had left it alone. Our previous house, we replaced all the trim, with stained, but in this house, they painted even the windows, and bedroom, and bath, and other doors even on the inside. We have been in this house 15 months, and are older people, so very careful with things, and I still have had to touch up numerous times. If I were 20yrs younger, every bit of this white would be stripped.

"Just had this conversation with our builder yesterday, and he told us white trim is more expensive. I asked him "how much more expensive", and his answer was "thousands". He said trim to stain is more expensive to buy, but the labor is much more expensive to paint."

Sounds like he is comparing pre-finished stained wood with unfinished painted wood.

A lot of the 'pre-finished' trim is not finished wood, but printed on to the wood like cheap paneling.

Stain grade wood (oak is most common) is more expensive for the raw trim, takes more care and labor to install correctly, and then more labor to stain and finish.

Pre-finishing stain grade wood can help, but removes the opportunity to alter the color slightly to get things to match better.
The result is the need for even more material.

MDF trim can be the lowest cost, followed by pine, and then poplar.

A lot of modern trim is very undersized compared to historic widths and thicknesses.

Old trim was made from raw lumber that went to the trim mill at least a full inch thick, and often slightly more.

Modern wood trim is generally made from 3/4 inch thick already surfaced boards, so the final thickness is often around 5/8 inch.

Even quarter round falls victim.
It used to be 3/4 inch quarter round was the 'standard.'
Now it is down to 5/8 inch so it can be made form 3/4 inch material.

After reading all these responses, it is clear you have to be careful you're comparing apples to apples, etc.

Brickeyee.. you made the assumption we are going with a trim that is not really wood, but a cheap pre-printed product to look like wood. Sorry, that is not the case. I live in a small town in northern WI and we are getting the trim from a local lumber mill, doors and trim will be oak (5 1/4" base, with the usual plinth block on door trim, and stop and crown on the windows). I've questioned the builder 3 different times on his statement that paint is more expensive, and I get the same answer each time. Again, I suppose it comes down to comparing those apples.

I hate stained wood trim. There I said it. That being said, in these parts, stained wood is far more expensive. I'm with others who fail to see how stain is easier/faster/cheaper than paint. I assume you stain and then urethane with a few coats. Also stain grade wood is twice the price of paint grade.

But may WI is different? Painters are expensive and wood stainers are not? Here they are the same people. I do have to say that for our stained pine porch ceilings, there was no difference in price between paint and stain. But - the wood is not of a quality you'd want in the inside as trim (b/c it is really paint grade but that works fine on a high ceiling).

It is reasonable to assume the stained/clear finish trim is not a high quality wood simply because your contractor said it would be much cheaper than painted trim.

Something is very wrong with your contractor's response but without more information all anyone can do is guess what it is.

I don't like stained clear finished trim unless it is really done well and I find that it rarely is simply because the cost is too high. If you can't afford to do it right at least avoid plastic film finishes like polyurethane especially the water-borne type.

I mixed both in the house I'm building and the wood trim is costing my way more than the white. I used poplar for the white and clear pine for the wood stain since my actual window wood is clear pine. The stainers applied sealer, 2 coats of stain and a clear finish on top to replica the walnut theme I have in those rooms. It took over a week to stain 5 windows and 2 doors. I love the look of it but I'm glad I decided to do white trim everywhere else or it would have cost a fortune. As well, my stainers are NOT my painters. They're experienced only with stain.

To answer the basic question, I would bet most make the decision based on decor issues. Both stain and paint have a variety of price points. Most probably decide on one or the other than select a price point. I think white trim is currently more popular. I don't like most stained trims either. In my house, the previous owner painted the trim cream and within a year or two I had repainted or replaced it all to white. Ultimately, I think it goes back to the what wall colors are popular and how the trim goes with it.

Our house is 'traditional' in style. We wanted painted trim.

We are happy with our MDF doors, mouldings, baseboards and window casings. Not as happy with the MDF door casings because they get more dings. (If we had kids here, the baseboards would probably also be in trouble.) We saved a lot with the doors. MDF was MUCH less than paint-quality solid wood for 36" wide three panel doors. (They ARE heavy; we needed 3 sets of hinges per door.)

Our builder and architect also told us that stained trim would be far more expensive than painted, so we conceded that early in the design process.

chisue, Would you mind sharing info for the 3-panel doors you chose? Right now we have CraftMaster Crossmore spec'd as they came in cheapest but I was hoping for straight sticking and these have a small ogee sticking. It wasn't worth it to me considering the total savings.

Sorry, OP for the hijack.

We will not be painting them blue. :)

"you made the assumption we are going with a trim that is not really wood, but a cheap pre-printed product to look like wood. Sorry, that is not the case."

The only way that stained wood is cheaper than painted is if the wood is very low quality, or not real wood.

Stain grade trim costs more than paint grade, and the finishing difference is not that much (primer and two coats of paint or stain and two coats of finish).

If they start cutting corners (no primer, one coat of paint, etc) the work is already not being well done.

There are alot of conflicting opinions here. From my experience a quality painted trim package is more expensive than a stained trim package. I don't think many of you realize the difference in labor between the two. Stained trim can be finished off site prior to being cut and installed. Once installed you fill the nail holes with a wax filler and you are done. A quality paint job is not so easy. First you need to prime all of the trim then sand the primer. Then you install the trim. Next you need to fill all of the nail holes and sand them smooth. Then you caulk all of the joints and where the top of the base meets the wall. Now two more coats of oil based semi gloss paint for a durable finish. Trust me, it's much more time consuming.

cintijen -- Ours wouldn't work with a Craftsman look. Ours are more 'formal/traditional' -- large rectangle top; small horizontal rectagangle middle, where the lever is placed; medium, almost square, rectangle lower portion; sort of French door look flush bottom.

(Yeah, that blue might get a wee bit tiresome! LOL)

chisue,

Of course there are OTHER 3-panel styles, LOL. I'm so deep in working out these details I didn't even consider you might be using a different style, LOL!

cintijen

General trend is for white trim - I (and a lot of other folks) think it simply looks better (crisper, fresher, cleaner, more light, modern yet classic, etc). To me, there is nothing like a nice beefy 6 to 8 inch white baseboard.

IMHO, stained oak can tend to look a bit dated, and country.

Just my two cents...

It's interesting because, a big reason a lot of people buy old houses is because of the fantastic woodwork (trim, floors, molding, etc.)!

I agree that much of the trim work in newer houses, especially spec houses, if it isn't white, is stained that horrible honey color. Yuck! That screams country.

A beautiful dark stain on nice 6" baseboards though really makes a huge difference and adds a touch of class, IMHO.

krycek - I think you are right. And I think that kind of woodwork costs so much money now that it is rarely done. Everyonce in a while on a $3 million parade home, is some nicely done wood trim (usually not throughout the house).

I'm sure it is a regional thing. There are so few nice old houses in my area to see such things. When I lived in Buffalo, we all lived in mansions that were built in the 1920s (when Buffalo was the place to be). Fantastic woodwork - half way up the wall. Not much else to say positive about those houses, but the woodwork was amazing.

Krycek, I also wanted a lot of stained wood until I learned how expensive it would be to purchase that grade of wood and have it stained on site. I have to say I was disappointed at first but adjusted. Especially in these times, it seems most of us have to adjust our "dream houses" to the actual cost. I'm sure when our houses are completed, we will all relax, enjoy and love our homes!

Thanks, Trinintybay, I needed to hear that. I have already given up many things I wanted in my “dream home” due to cost. I think my natural wood trim may be next. The problem is that you really can’t get a definitive cost difference. I guess no one’s will to do that level of cost estimating - or things change - or whatever.