A trap for the unwary

I had occasion this morning, in the course of a bit of occasional maintenance, to take one of the side architraves off one of our interior doors.

The lock nail tying it to the top architrave was expected and did not prove a problem.

What was not expected was a couple of cut nails tying it into the adjacent masonry. Which took chunks of plaster with them when the architrave was, I thought, gently lifted with the wrecking bar. As if it were so much skirting, for which cut nails are the norm. Not at all the custom for architrave in my days as a second fix snagger in Kings Cross in the early 1970's. In a police section house of all places. And would not have done at all in the tower blocks of the now demolished Chingford Hall Estate, where most of  the adjacent masonry was actually concrete.

So what started as a relatively straightforward bit of carpentry has now expanded to include some making good to the plaster. And to the ancient wallpaper which was covering it. Might even necessitate a visit to Wickes.

PS: fortunately, not as complicated as that snapped above, so putting back the old architrave will not be a problem. Spot of Polyfilla here and there, spot of sanding and job nearly done.