LESLIE: Alright, now we’ve got Julia from Maryland who has a question about molding. What’s going on?
JULIA: OK, I put a product called PEEL AWAY 6 around the exterior molding on my front doors and when I went to peel it away, the pediment – the top part of the decorative molding over the door – it stripped some of the surface of that molding away.
TOM: Was this a paint-stripping product?
JULIA: Yes.
TOM: OK. And it had a reaction with the decorative molding, which is probably a synthetic and caused it to deteriorate. Is that correct?
JULIA: Yes.
TOM: Hmm. Yeah.
LESLIE: Well, it could have also been that perhaps – is this an older home with older molding?
JULIA: It’s 22 years old and it’s the original molding.
TOM: Yeah, I think there was a chemical reaction and probably should have masked it off; but I guess it’s a little too late to tell you that.
JULIA: Yes. I wanted to know is there anything – I believe it was like polyurethane. I want to know if there’s anything I can put on there to fill in the little surface area that’s stripped away, so I can paint it.
LESLIE: Do you need to sort of rebuild something to bring back a little bit of the character?
JULIA: What it really looks like is a bunch of potholes in it.
TOM: Yeah, I tell you what would stick well; auto body filler.
JULIA: Uh-huh.
TOM: Because it’s designed to work on fiberglass surfaces as well as metal surfaces. And it’s sort of like a putty and it’s sandable and you can kind of work it. And so if you have some like potholes there where it’s sort of carved out, you can fill it in with that and then lightly sand it and then repaint it.
JULIA: Oh, excellent. And it’s called an automotive filler.
TOM: Yeah, auto body filler. You can get it at any automotive store like a Pep Boys or – any kind of automotive store.
JULIA: And that’s what I’ll try. Thank you very much.
TOM: You’re very welcome. Thanks so much for calling us at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.
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