That is some nice looking floor. How bout tapeing down your dropcloths then slipping something like old style vanitian blind slats under trim. Anything falling next to wall will land on blind slat where it can be wipped up.

^^^ what he said.

You can get self-adhesive masking film for the floor, against casual drips, then apply something over it to enhance the protection right at the trim.

Look for "carpet protection strips" - I have a set of 3" wide plastic strips for protecting carper when you paint the base shoe.

I would remove the woodwork and use the dip method to remove the old paint.

Removing the woodwork would most likely damage most of it. And even if it did not, it would be a nightmare to label everything so it goes back in its spot. And if that were not a problem, the trim would not go back up on the wall as well as it is now.

Trim should have been re-finished first. But that ship has sailed.

You could invest in one of those infrared paint strippers, some good tungsten carbide strippers and heat strip the bottom the couple inches of everything where it contacts the floor. And tape and mask appropriately after that.

Looks like a daunting job... Be sure to use plastic scrapers if using the chemical strippers to minimize gouging the wood since it will be damp and soft from the chemicals.

Maybe test out that foil tape and see if it offers better bleed resistance. I've used it in critical applications before, but always removed it fairly quickly. Not sure how long it can be left up before it's difficult to remove.

I just have to ask.. At what point do homeowners think, when there is already close to a 100 coats of paint on something, "one more coat of paint will really just make this shine". How does this happen? Why do people do this?

Removing the woodwork isn't practical as this is an 785 sq ft apartment with limited space for working on projects.

I am now looking into using a heat gun (and respirators) to tackle this. There is a lot of lead paint to manage, but there are no children in the household, and our dog can be kept elsewhere while we are working on it. Fortunately, the small scale aspect of this project will keep the exposure to lead paint relatively low. And the risks to adults are minimal (so long as I take basic precautions).

As to the why? The middle of the last century wasn't kind to older homes. In our case, we are the first owner occupants of our 105 year old apartment which was converted from a rental to co-op in the 80s (but always occupied by renters until now). The neighborhood went through a rough period in the 1970s and landlords weren't choosy about tenants. Their motto... "Slap a coat of paint on and get it rented." It is a miracle that much of our original detail survived at all.

Gotta be careful with heat guns. I have one, and if the application I'm heating is attached to the house I use it on the low setting. Many a house has been burned down with a heat gun. There is the real potential it will blow a smoldering ember into a recessed area that eventually catches fire.

I was talking about the quartz bulb infrared paint remover. Doesn't blow any potentially fire starting debris into nooks and crannies.

I figured it might be an old apartment building. But I've seen old houses with that many layers of paint too. And always wondered when there was already too much paint on there, why even more was applied. It's not like it looks any better...

Peel Away will get really expensive really fast. But, I cannot imagine heat stripping that much paint off of that much wood work. You'll need an assortment of different size scrapers and and arsenal of fresh blades. Because the first four layers of lead paint, the eight layers of non lead oil paint, and the 12 layers of latex paint will dull those blades fast.

Before committing to peel away, try Citri Strip. It's a lot less expensive, and you can get it at Home Depot. From my experience it works pretty well.

Soy gel is supposed to be really good at stripping through many layers of paint.... it's non-toxic, odor-free, and allegedly works on vertical surfaces.

It will dull the blades, but that's what a file is for, making them sharp again. Dry-scraping you have to sharpen them about every 12 scrapes. With a heat gun, you prolong the sharp life. The shape of the scraper blade is important, I have only found one design that does not get hopelessly clogged with heated paint.

Winter is no time for chemical stripping unless you have a very warm climate; cold slows down the solvent's work to almost nil.

Casey

I'm too impatient to use a file. And I've grown to love the Bahco scrapers. They are not expensive on Amazon. And the amount of scraping I do doesn't impact my bottom line spending a little bit more on blades.

As far as Soygel... It's expensive, didn't seem to effectively loosen up 100 year old lead paint, and creates a goopy mess that is difficult to clean up. I've used it once (and the second and third times were no better) and eventually settled on a garden hose and scouring pad to rinse that junk off an old window sash. Never again.

And with the amount of paint on these casings that needs to come off, there is no way to get it on thick enough without it all running down to the floor.

I stripped multi-layers of paint off the newel post at the top of our stairs in our Stick-Eastlake house. Despite my efforts to protect the floors, there was some finish lifted from the adjoining floor. I re-stained and used some brown-toned Sharpies then wiped on some finish. The damage hardly shows. No one, even my husband's hyper-critical cousin has ever mentioned it.

:) I am onto other things (such as a full kitchen renovation), but this is a project that will need to be done on nine doors, and I expect it will get done over the course of a few years as we work our way through the apartment.

The floors were refinished prior to moving in because they were tired and worn, and this was the only opportunity to do the floors while the entire apartment was empty. We were very fortunate that they are in as good a condition as they are. It's very difficult to refinish floors in an occupied apartment.

I am looking at doing a multi process approach to strip the woodwork. Chemical strippers (such as Multi-strip, Peel-away, etc) for the portions above the Plinth's. And a heat gun for the bottom. I have learned that if I am careful with the heat gun, I can get a pretty focused area stripped. As this woodwork was originally painted, I intend to keep a painted finish, but it would be nice to bring the detail back. This trim work is all but irreplaceable today. The hardwood door casings are almost six inches wide. I hope to do it justice and let it live another hundred years.