The exterior was very weathered when I bought the house nearly 10 years ago. At that time the owners had had a screen door in front of it. I put up the storm door at that time and left it go at that. The storm door did protect the wood from weathering and the lamination I put on the glass of the storm door cut down a LOT of the UV. But the old varnish was really flaking now and it was time to fix it.
The interior of the door was in good shape, but the dark color sucked up all of the light in the foyer and since the only source of light IN the foyer for natural light is the teeny tiny window in the door. The dark had to go.
I used 60 grit on the ROS to remove both sides of varnish. For the exterior I borrowed Craig's finish sander to get around all the decorative hardware. The exterior took almost 2 hours to finish. The interior gave me nothing but grief. I was trying to get down to bare wood, but the friction from the sander kept melting the old varnish and it would clump into sticky putty-like stuff that clogged the sander and gummed up on the door. *angst*
I asked Craig that, since I was going to paint the interior side, did I need to go down to bare wood to prime? Or could I just score up all the varnish so the primer would stick/cover that? He said yes, so I put on a clean sanding disk, eased up on the pressure, and scored up all the varnish.
Even though it was mid-March, the sun was blasting down on the porch by then and I had to put up an umbrella so my brain wouldn't melt in the blast. How festive! (The umbrella, not my melting grey matter.)
The primer went on great and it was dry to the touch before an hour. We rehung the door.
The exterior side still needs to be stained (I'm thinking walnut) and sealed (I'm thinking ext. satin latex polyurethane.) The inside is primed and already the foyer is no longer the light-sucking black hole it used to be. Ambient light bounces around in their now and it's a lot more pleasant to look at.
Well, there. Done - ish. LOL And lest you think that only the front door got attention that day.... ha! Stay tuned. :-D
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2 comments:
Glad you kept the door; it is very unique. I think these details are what make a house interesting.
Great job on refinishing it!
The door is in very good condition and didn't need replacing, just freshened up. I'll stain the outside before sealing it. And I can do both while the door is hanging. Sanding, however, was best done outside and where I could lean on over for best results. Now I just wait for another spate of warm weather.
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