apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Be really, really careful about sanding-- You'll create lead dust which is hard to get rid of. You don't want to vacuum after sanding, for instance, since that just stirs the dust into the air and you breathe it in. Don't even chance it with kids around.

Heat gun to remove the layers of paint might be an idea. That's what my dad did to our 150 year old house- everything had been painted multiple times. You just heat the surface and scape it off with a paint scraper. all windows and doors open when you do this though because it smells. a face mask is a must have too.

agree with Lcat about lead. Talk to landlord about getting it fixed.

You should always assume that interior surfaces painted before the mid-1970s have lead paint, although I vaguely remember that CA may have limited lead in paint earlier than that. It is very dangerous to remove old paint from woodwork without knowing what you are doing, and there are lots of building code provisions and EPA rules that can apply. The EPA has good information about lead paint on its website. In many cities landlords are required to abate lead paint, but in some cases only when a child lives in the dwelling. Check around your local government to see if they have tenant information about lead paint rules.

P.S. Even if you don't have kids, lead paint dust can make pets very sick.

Don't try to make the woodwork pristine; you can't do this without a huge effort. Try using an old hand wood plane to chip off the loose bits; a rigid metal putty knife will help. This way you won't kick up tons of minute dust particles. Make sure to use a drop cloth, eye protection, and face mask. You can either prime and paint from this point or rub down with some Howard's or other furniture wax and play up the "rustic" appearance as a feature.

If you're set on painting, try a mottled or drops effect to disguise the uneven surface.

clarezapata is correct, keep kids and pets out of the debris.

Since it's rental, see if the landlord will do it. If not, don't sand. It's a pain in the ass to get through all the paint that way. If the wood is rotten it won't help much anyway. Just clean it and paint over it to make it look nicer. If you really want to do work, you can scrape off the loose paint before you paint then sand to smooth it out. Of course lead risks might make this sanding option a no go. If there are lots of cracks that allow heat/cold to come it or out (the more you scrape, the more cracks with appear), you might want to do some caulking.

If you get set on removing the paint, try soygel...it's eco friendly and designed for lead abatement (it encapsulates the lead in it). I used it to strip some old furniture, and liked it. But, I agree that asking the landlord is probably the first approach!

The best way to remove lead paint is with a speedheater (expensive) and a carbide scraper. The speedheater is designed to efficient remove the paint while not overheating it and generating dangerous fumes. It will not char the wood either, unless left on too long.

I had a window in my kitchen that had real bad bubbling peeling latex type paint many layers underneath. I could even see a little bit of wood in areas and took a scraper to try to get the chips off so the paint would stop flaking everywhere. Once I peeled and chipped off the paint layers the window itself was so rotted underneath it totally crumbled to dust, so ya I would be very careful doing anything yourself...if its really bad and your landlord doesnt seem interested in helping you fix it up there could be a bigger mess under that paint if you sand and scrape too much.

Maybe just wipe down and repaint neatly? If you are ambitious get joint compound to level out and fill cracks, and a razor to scrape the glass edges to make it look neater.

I would hesitate to scrape, sand or use a heat-gun (with the exception of the specialized and expensive one lalaloveyou suggested) because of lead. Lead flakes, dust and fumes are not desirable for adults, kids or pets.

The soygel solution sounds good on first read.

Don't overthink it. Whatever problems you uncover underneath the paint are also fixable. Just scrape the paint off and see what's under there, then you'll know what needs to be done. Plus, if the wood is rotten, your landlord will feel more obligated to fix that problem than the peeling paint.

Get the paint scraped off, sand a bit with windows open and wearing a mask, possibly use some wood filler to even things out, then prime and paint. In all likelihood you won't run into any big problems and it'll be a one hour job (plus some waiting time in the middle for primer and paint to dry). If it turns out to be tougher, you can deal with it then.