With the cost associated with replacing a front door being very high, refinishing a door quickly becomes a viable option. This is a very good and doable project for the do-it-yourself home owner. Before beginning this project evaluate what the door needs to look new and your own abilities. The custom exterior wood door on this and the following pages was refinished by Crowder Painting. To accomplish this project my brother and I first took a good look at the doors and the types of finishes previously used. We found linseed oil, tinted Danish oil and varnish. This is a bad mix of products used over many years. Needless to say these doors were begging for a proper finish. Once we figured out we were going to be removing a cocktail of finishes, a quick and easy stripping method needed to be devised. At this point you will need to decide which method will work best for you. A combination can be used if necessary. Refinishing a door is full of choices and this is the first one.
In order to keep the cost as low as possible the homeowner decided to leave the carved areas mostly untouched, without using chemical strippers. This will save time and have us concentrate on the sanding. So we started refinishing the door in earnest. Click for More Details: Part 1 – Starting the Process of Refinishing the Custom Wood Doors Before beginning the process of refinishing a door, a couple of things need to be done. The door needs to be prepared. First remove the locking mechanisms including the striker and dead bolt. Loosely reassemble these items so no parts are lost and set aside. Now remove any remaining accessories. This includes door kicks, knockers and viewers. If an item can’t be removed then it must be protected with making tape and paper. The final items are the hinges. Save all these items for reinstallation later. Now that the doors are ready the frames need a little work. If possible remove the weather stripping. The freshly refinished door could stick to soft rubber weather stripping and damage the finish.
Reinstall after the finish has fully dried, typically 2-3 days. At some point while refinishing a door the old finishes and stain will have to be removed. We decided to use power sanders and aggressively remove the old coatings. The types used are a random orbital sander and palm sander with hand sanding at the end. The following is the steps we used to prepare this custom exterior door system for staining. After the power sanding comes hand sanding. With these doors we used a combination of block sanding on the large flat areas and sponge sanding inside the carved recesses. The hand sanding is for triple checking the surfaces. No large scratches can remain before staining. The carved areas had some loose finish which was removed with sanding sponges. A few more words about sanding before we continue refinishing a door, this door is solid wood and as such can withstand an aggressive sanding. If it was covered with a wood veneer, sanding would be very problematic. In this case using a chemical stripper is best.
Follow the stripping with a light sanding using 150-grit paper then 180-grit. Be careful not to sand to deep. The veneer can be damaged if the sanding in to excessive. Click for More Details: Part 2- Sanding the Wood Doors Applying a wood stain is optional. If you like the look of the door after the stripping and sanding is finished simply move on to applying a protective clear finish. For this customer refinishing a door included the application of wood stain. It definitely makes this custom exterior door look great. A gel stain with a rich color was chosen. Any type of stain can be used depending on the look you are after. The gel stain was applied without any pre-stain conditioner. For more control on very soft woods and veneers use a pre-stain conditioner. The stain was applied with the doors installed. This way we didn’t have to handle the doors after staining. Once the stain was applied it was allowed to dry for a couple of hours before installing the lock. Since the weather stripping was removed the doors were closed and locked at night.
Using a gel stain is easy and straight forward. Use quick deliberate brush strokes in the direction of the wood grain. Start each application 2-3 inches away from a previously stained area. Then work the stain toward the previously stained wood. Use small amount of stain and blend as you go. We started staining the carved areas first then worked from the top down. Always start with the difficult areas first, such as windows and raised panels. Then tackle the styles and rails. A similar approach will be fine for most door styles. Click for More Details: Part 3 – Staining the Wood Doors The final step involved when refinishing a door is apply a clear protective coating. This is a two or more coat process with light sanding between each coat.The easiest application method is brushing with the doors installed. A marine spar varnish with a satin sheen was selected for its ease of application and resistance to the weather. The end result is a set of beautiful doors
We began applying the varnish with brushes to the carved areas first, and then progressed to the styles and rails. Always brush a finish in thin coats and in the direction of the wood grain. Click for More Details: Part 4 – Applying a Wood Varnish Tackling any refinishing project can be a very involving job for the professional painter. That is why the cost can seem high. This makes refinishing a door a very good DIY project. This project took a total of three days from the start to the final coat of varnish. Each day was just a few hours with the remaining as drying time. The first day took the longest with the sanding and staining. With taking advantage of good weather and planning, it is possible to refinish a door in one weekend if a fast drying finish is chosen, such as water based polyurethane.Interior wooden doors have a hard time of things. They have to put up with everyday knocks, bumps, shoe scuffs, greasy hand prints, dirt from passing pets and more, every day of the year, and they’re still expected to look good.
If you’ve bought a set of lovely new interior wood doors, or are thinking about renovating your existing doors, our top tips will help you bring out the best in them so they look wonderful as well as protecting and preserving them for longer. If you haven’t looked already, you’ll be amazed at the number of door sizes, styles and construction types. There are two, four, six and eight panel doors made of oak, pine, walnut and cherry, to name just a few, plus solid wood or hollow construction doors, and they all come either finished or unfinished, ie. pre-oiled, waxed or varnished… or left natural. As you can imagine making the right choice can be a challenge, and most people tend to base their final decision on the appearance and cost. If you’ve chosen pre-finished doors, you can usually find out which stain, if any, and oil, wax or varnish finish the doors have been treated with by checking the manufacturer’s paperwork. If not, it’s a good idea to ask the seller or even the manufacturer themselves.
It’s also worth asking if they can either supply the wood stain and finishing products used on the doors, or know someone who can. It comes in handy to have some handy, just in case the door ever gets damaged. Unfinished doors come with a world of possibilities aside from the door style itself. There are countless final finish choices, everything from a traditional natural oak look with a matt or soft satin sheen to something unusual, even unique. And there’s a huge variety of wood finishing products to use on interior doors, both clear and coloured, including varnishes, wood oils, waxes and stains. A common issue we encounter at Wood Finishes Direct are calls from people who’ve bought veneered wooden interior doors, only to discover the door label advises against some types of wood finish. Sometimes they warn against specific products, for example Danish Oil, Teak Oil and other types of wood oil. Other times the manufacturer’s warnings cover a range of products including oils, varnishes and waxes.
But does it really mean you can’t use the products and if so, do you risk damaging the wood? It’s an interesting point, and one worth covering. Veneered wooden doors are usually made from a hollow or solid wooden core. The core is usually particle board or medium density fibreboard, AKA MDF. A layer of high quality wood veneer is attached to the core of the door using powerful glues and bonding agents. The quality of modern veneered doors is usually down to the type of core, the type of wood and the thickness of the veneer. About 20th century mass production Wood veneers have been used for centuries to produce high quality finishes. But mass production in the mid to late 20th century saw quality take a tumble as the drive for cheaper, thinner veneers and glues took hold. This sometimes led to the veneers de-laminating, in other words peeling off the doors in extreme heat or when certain products were used. This is why so many manufacturers today include disclaimers on their products to discourage the use of products they believe might have an effect on the veneer.
It’s an historical thing. Why do manufacturers still warn against using wood finishes on veneered doors? More than 90% of veneered doors these days come from the Far East. We think it’s highly likely that all the manufacturers in the Far East have taken the lead from one large original producer, giving warnings about wood finishing products without checking whether the risk is genuine. Unlike the manufacturers, we’re well placed to talk about wood finishes – it’s our area of expertise. We supply a vast range of different products from different manufacturers, all of whom agree that stains, waxes, varnishes, oils, paints and so on DO NOT penetrate deeper than 1mm into a veneer. Why does the thickness of the veneer matter? In reality, modern veneers are rarely less than a millimetre thick and because modern wood finishes never penetrate more than a millimetre into the surface of the wood, there’s very little chance of them interacting with the glue that bonds the veneer to the core of the door.
In short, unless the veneer is very badly worn indeed, modern wood finish products simply can’t penetrate deeply enough to cause the veneer to peel off. Modern wood finishing products designed for veneers In our experience we’ve never come across anyone using a wood oil, wax or varnish that has caused the veneer to peel off a door. It just doesn’t happen. In fact companies like Osmo and our own Manns brand produce door oils and other wood finishes specifically designed for solid and veneered interior doors. There’s just one common sense thing to bear in mind: while we can say with confidence that the products we sell are perfectly fine to use on interior doors, using them against the manufacturers advice will invalidate the warranty that comes with the door. Always do a test patch first Our advice if you want to stain, oil, wax or varnish any sort of door? Always do a test area first, ideally on an edge or on the door bottom where the wood can be cleaned or sanded if the product doesn’t deliver the finish you were expecting.