20 year old Poly

turbomangt

OK pro's see if you can help me here..........in our kitchen we have two wood doors athat are stained and varnished...ths inside of the doors are like new even though they have not been touched since we moved in 20 some years ago, however the ones that face the outside where the sun hits it, has faded, the wood even shows some signs of spiltting, not sure if this is the pro term for it. I don't want to deal with stripping (been there done that no thanks) and I also don't think I want to re varnish so I was considering putting on a dark brown paint just on the outside part of the doors. A friend if mine told me about a product that dulls or preps the surface so you don't have to sand. Not sure how to use that, but what do you think of the idea of painting the exterior portion, and what should I do to prep it, before paining, thats guys, G

sdsester

Personally I hate to see people paint over nice wood. Sure you don't want to pay someone else to strip the door if you don't want to do it yourself? And some of the gel strippers are not so bad. If you rent one of the newer infrared paint strippers (best investment I think I ever made) it will take you an hour or two max to strip that poly off. Isn't it going to look "goofy" when open with one side painted and the other natural?

With the finish off the door you can address the cracking or whatever which is probably just due to the wood drying out over time. Use a good epoxy wood filler, sand it, and you should be good to go for many more years with a couple coats of poly on it. Given the discoloration buy some with as much UV protection as you can find.

If you decide you just want to paint it what you are referring to is a chemical deglosser. You can get it at your paint store or I suppose (ick, argh, gasp) at a box store. It is basically a chemical etching agent that etches and roughs up the surface. You wipe it on with a soft cloth. Fine grit sandpaper is still the best though and it won't take you that much longer. Go over it with a tack cloth after you are done sanding.

That done you want to put on a quality bonding primer and two coats of paint store, not box store crap, paint.

Again though, think about this. People used to pay me a lot of money to take paint off of nice, overpainted wood trim, doors, staircases and so forth. One of the worst trends in history was to paint over beautiful oak or other hardwood trim.

turbomangt

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm, I see you are from my parts, I live in Roselle, I'm going to PM you...............gary

DrHicks

Wow. I couldn't agree more.

We're currently renovating the circa 1928 brick home we're living in. At one point, some previous owner painted EVERY inch of trim, and installed carpet over ALL the floors (at least they didn't paint most of the floors). We're talking the beautiful 10" oak baseboards, open staircase, crown molding, etc.

Stripping and refinishing has been a royal pain in the butt. Fortunately, they didn't bother using primer on most of the trim, so the paint has come off with relative ease.

What is finished, so far, is beautiful. Why anybody would ever paint over that is beyond me.