This is where I've got to so far... quite like the "Battleship Grey" undercoat... plan is to sand, re-do undercoat, sand and do Pillar Box Red.
Painting a front door
- Thread starter dpm_dpmartin
- Start date
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B
blightymam
Looking good 
Good effort.
Got there with it at about 09:00 this morning... just in time for it to seemingly dry before the rain started coming down 20 minutes ago...
It's bright! And it's shiny!
It's bright! And it's shiny!
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to prevent the door sticking to the jamb when you have to close it for the night, leave it as long as you can, then run a smear of Vaseline down the touching surfaces with your finger. Not great gobbets, just enough to make it greasy.
If you have removed the lock keep from the frame, it will let the door close with a bit of a gap, put a couple of broken matchsticks near the top and bottom to hold the surfaces apart.
If you have removed the lock keep from the frame, it will let the door close with a bit of a gap, put a couple of broken matchsticks near the top and bottom to hold the surfaces apart.
Crap! I wish I'd asked that earlier... might go back down there.
Just shot back down and done this... back now, one part along the vertical, where the hinges are, had already been damaged by sticking to some insulation strip that is in the door frame, I rubbed Vaseline everywhere it might touch. I feel better about leaving it now. Thanks for the tip.
A varnished door should be sanded down very well and an aluminium primer used especially if its a hardwood door, if you don't do this the paint has a tendency to chip off. I normally take doors like this off the hinge and sand them with an electric sander; away from where the door was hung obviously, I then thoroughly hoover all the dust off re hang the door back on the hinges and apply the ali primer, after that I give it 2 undercoats and a top coat.
Red can be an awkward colour to cover and will grin if not applied well, the only alternative after the first coat of top coat is to sand down with some fine sandpaper and apply another layer of top coat. Most people will try to thin the paint abit to make it easier to paint with, all this does is get you runs.
There isn't a 'good' fast track option to doing this type of work.
Re painting a door, a good sequence is... paint the edge of the door making sure you don't leave a raised edge of paint on the face of the door, cut any windows in; if your crap at cutting in use some Frog blue or green tape before you start painting, if you just have panels paint the edges then paint the centre of the panel, once the panels have been completed, paint the internal verticals, then the top bar, middle bar, bottom bar and finish with the outer verticals.
If all else fails phone a pro we can do it faster and better, if you add up what you could have earned in the time you've spent doing it, you could have probably paid a pro and had some cash over for a beer while you admired your glossy front door lol!
Red can be an awkward colour to cover and will grin if not applied well, the only alternative after the first coat of top coat is to sand down with some fine sandpaper and apply another layer of top coat. Most people will try to thin the paint abit to make it easier to paint with, all this does is get you runs.
There isn't a 'good' fast track option to doing this type of work.
Re painting a door, a good sequence is... paint the edge of the door making sure you don't leave a raised edge of paint on the face of the door, cut any windows in; if your crap at cutting in use some Frog blue or green tape before you start painting, if you just have panels paint the edges then paint the centre of the panel, once the panels have been completed, paint the internal verticals, then the top bar, middle bar, bottom bar and finish with the outer verticals.
If all else fails phone a pro we can do it faster and better, if you add up what you could have earned in the time you've spent doing it, you could have probably paid a pro and had some cash over for a beer while you admired your glossy front door lol!
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That would be missing the point a bit, though, as I'm trying to do as much as I can myself. Don't get me wrong, I was apprehensive about it and I did talk to a pro and it seemed like he wasn't interested in the job anyway, saying it was a 4 day job with a couple of hours here and a couple of hours there, so he'd need to arrange his time well.
What I'm frustrated with is how much of the 750ml paint tins I've got left. 2 coats of the primer and just 1, so far, of the gloss and it looks like they've not been touched.
Maybe I should do the back door as well.
Hi I'm about to repaint my front door which is almost identical to yours. The only question I have is about sanding. If you sand the door after you put the undercoat on what type of sandpaper do you use, because I don't want to take any of the paint off, or rough it up too much to leave any raised imperfections. Also I'm using wire wool and sandpaper to take off the old wood stain/varnish but find the corners of the bevels/insets hard to reach. Are there any tools which can sand into the small corners?
D
Doggit
240 grade sandpaper used between coats. You might need to find something to use as a scraper, or something small to wrap the snadpaper round.
Thanks - I got myself Shaveook http://www.wickes.co.uk/Wickes-Combination-Shavehook-57mm/p/600754 It's proved very useful getting into the corners and not bad for 2.99
A few weeks ago I got myself Sandtex 10 Year Undercoat & Primer, and the Gloss... Now probably wishing I'd stuck with Delux Weathershield after reading some comments about Sandtex, but I'll take the plunge with it. I'm planning on putting the undercoat on tomorrow, but I'm guessing I won't be able to put the gloss on until the next day... to allow enough drying time?
A few weeks ago I got myself Sandtex 10 Year Undercoat & Primer, and the Gloss... Now probably wishing I'd stuck with Delux Weathershield after reading some comments about Sandtex, but I'll take the plunge with it. I'm planning on putting the undercoat on tomorrow, but I'm guessing I won't be able to put the gloss on until the next day... to allow enough drying time?
Sandtex say that 16 hours is sufficient for the drying time.
There is an oxidising agent (that speeds up curing) called Terebene. You just mix in a small amount into the oil based paints.
It is about £6 for 500ml version sold by Rustins.
I have used it religiously since the 2010 VOC compliance regulations messed up oil based paints.
Hi I managed to put on the undercoat & primer last week, unfortunately now the weather is typically going cold again, with sub zero temps forecast overnight and not much above double digits during the day. What are the drawbacks with leaving the door for any length of time with just the undercoat on and without the gloss. I know there's the weatherproofing issue, but maybe for a few weeks it won't be so much a problem. Also I may have to sand lightly and put another undercoat on again before applying the gloss? I can see slight specs of the wood showing through the undercoat. It did take a very long time to dry completely, over a few days before it stopped sticking around the edges of the frame when installed. I should have applied the vaseline trick. I'm guessing Gloss will take even longer, so I really need those two decent dry, warm days to fully complete this task, if I need to undercoat it again.
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