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.
Follow the manufacturers instructions on the packaging, take the time needed to do a really good job and you can’t go far wrong. After all, because you use your doors dozens of times a day, it’s important to be happy with the end result. We don’t just sell all the stuff you need to make a fantastic job of maintaining and renovating wooden interior doors. We provide expert advice, too. And when you use our Freephone number, asking the experts costs nothing. Tags: interior wood doors, interior wood treatment, interior wooden doors, Wood Finishes, wood finishing products This entry was posted on Monday, September 15th, 2014 at 4:57 pm and is filed under How To Guides. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.Paint giant Dulux has been forced to pay out thousands of pounds in compensation to disgruntled DIY-ers who claimed its ‘brilliant white’ paint is neither brilliant nor white - because it fades to yellow.
Customers complained the company’s oil-based paint turns a creamy yellow colour over time - often within weeks of application.Dulux has admitted the problem was caused by new EU regulations which forced it to water down solvent levels in the paint. Lisa Winter, 35, with the doors she painted white... but have since turned yellow But customers left with yellow walls are furious they weren't warned about of the problem before they invested hours painting their homes.Lisa Winter, 35, (pictured) and her husband Martin, 36, have spent hours repainting their home in Yatton, Somerset, after the Dulux paint faded to yellow. The couple painted all the doors and skirting in the hallway, landing, bathrooms and bedrooms in Dulux white satinwood after moving in.Mum-of-two Lisa, a freelance writer, said: 'We recently had the skirting replaced in the hallway and when we put fresh white paint on there it showed up just how yellow the old paint was.'So we’ve had to repaint everything and it’s going to take ages because there are so many doors to do.
Dulux admitted new E.U. regulations have affected the 'white-ness' of its brilliant white paint 'It’s very annoying because you expect white paint to stay white for longer than a few years. Especially when you pay extra for a leading brand name like Dulux.'Colin Beare, 58, was offered £500 in compensation after 11 doors of his home and the flat he rents went yellow just weeks after he applied the paint.But the general manager at a car salvage yard, from Gillingham, Dorset, is now taking the company to the Small Claims Court - insisting it will cost £2,000 to re-paint.He said: 'I feel like I have been cheated - I was devastated when they told me what was wrong with the paint.'It is obviously something they must have known about. I first started to notice it was discolouring after a matter of just weeks.'I eventually came to the realisation that something was not quite right - at first I thought I had done something wrong - it looked horrendous.'To my surprise Dulux actually put their hand up straight away and said ‘yes we have a problem with this paint - it is a problem that we know about’.
It pulls into question why they managed to sell it to me in the first place. They have offered me £500 in compensation but I have estimated it will cost £2,120 to re-paint.The problem emerged in 2010 after the European Union forced all companies to reduce the amount of Volitle Organic Compounds (VOCs) in their oil-based paints.Firms, including Dulux, were forced to reformulate their paints, but that led to its ‘brilliant white’ substance losing its colour.Martin Horler, an expert decoration consultant, explained: 'To get rid of or reduce the amount of VOCs, you had to reduce the solvent. Lisa Winter repaints her faded doors with a fresh coat of white paint 'If you reduce the solvent you have to increase something else. So what they would have to do to keep it in liquid form would be to increase the drying oil.'To increase the drying oil unfortunately causes more rapid yellowing of the paint.'Dulux included the VOCs label on its tins - informing customers of the change - but fail to warn customers of the yellowing problem.
It even boasted that its paint was ‘long-lasting’.In contrast, rival Crown Paints put on some of its tins: 'Recent changes made to meet the reduced solvent levels...may lead to yellowing over time.'John Chesters, who was given vouchers for new paint and £250 by Dulux after doors and frames in his home turned yellow, added: 'It was if we had chosen a different colour.'It was a real shock. Also we were worried about having to do the work again. It was just totally unacceptable.'Dulux claims it has now solved the problem that had affected a 'small minority' of customers.Matt Pullen, a UK director of Dulux, speaking on BBC’s Watchdog programme which highlighted the issue, said: 'This is a problem that affected the whole industry.'We reformulated our products as did everyone else. We started to see a problem in the market in 2010 for a small minority of customers under certain conditions.'As soon as we saw that we put all our energies into solving the problem, which we did in 2011.'We focused our efforts on actually solving the problem rather than making a disclaimer against it.'All the products we have produced since 2011 - and is in the shops on sale today - is as good as it was pre-2010.'For those individuals who have had a problem and have complained to us - we’ve resolved 95 per cent of all those complaints in a fair and reasonable way.'People can have confidence in what we are doing.'