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Painting a front door

2K views 17 replies 10 participants last post by  jsheridan 
#1 ·
We are getting a new front door. Not an ultra high end door. I understand that most exterior doors need quite a bit of attention. Repainting regularly. Ours faces west. I heard that trying to paint over a factory finish can be difficult. It would be great to have it painted from the factory, but then in 5 years it will be more difficult to repaint it?

Most come primed anyways and you paint them onsite. I figured I could do this without much effort. It's not expensive for us to have the door installed by a real pro, but getting it painted would be more and I can paint it. I figured since it will be getting regularly repainted I might as well get used to it?

As a broad example, I read Therma Tru's instructions (whether we get that brand or not). Clean with tsp, tape off, lay flat, out of the sun, even temperature, 4 hours to dry on each coat, foam roller, good paint.

Am I saying anything silly? Any feedback?
 
#2 ·
Tape off what? You remove the knob and the hindges, no taping needed.
Any quality latex paint will work fine. The higher the gloss the easyer to clean.
Your also going to need a good quality sash brush for touch ups.
 
#4 ·
Just use a sash brush and take your time and there should be almost no paint on the glass.
It also does no harm to have some of the paint left on around the seal, do not try and jam the blade in toward the seals just run it along it.
 
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#5 ·
painting a smooth door with panels is not easy .well no, it is easy .but getting a good finish that's a different story. I have seen painters that can not lay a nice finish on a smooth door .if your door has a grain texture that makes it a little better. you should be all right its only painting
 
#8 ·
Yeah I just talked to our contractor about it last night. He's suggesting that we get the factory finish from Weather King doors, which is a multi-layered acrylic laminate that he thinks will last quite a while.

So I guess I am leaning in this direction right now. I have been hearing different things.

Other people posting about getting a good finish are exactly the kind of thing that worries me. The factory will spray it on perfectly, but I don't have a sprayer myself and the best I could do is a careful job with foam rollers.
 
#7 ·
TSP is more than just a cleaner, it is highly Alkaline, and will chemically degloss surfaces to provide great substrate for paint. Make sure to wash it all off before you paint.

Being able to lay the door flat is a big help when it comes to getting a nice finish on a door. Gravity will help the paint settle, and you will be able to be a little more generous with the paint without having to worry about drips. Painting on a cooler/moister day will also help you here, expect dry times to be a little long.

On the subject of dry times, latex paints dry to the touch quite rapidly (~30 minutes for interior, ~1hr for exterior) when compared to oil based paints, HOWEVER they actually cure slowly. Latex paints often come with a warning that they should not be washed/scrubbed at all for the first 7 days. If at all possible, the door should not be closed tightly into a door frame during most of this period, or you may end up with the door sticking to the frame or paint ripping off around the edges. For comparison I have an oil based paint that I like that takes 5-10 hours to dry to the touch but can be used on floors and "put into use" after 48hrs

Doors shouldnt need to be painted that often, so long as they arent abused (perhaps you should invest in a kick plate up front?). Yours is facing west, so UV damage shouldn't be too terrible.
 
#9 ·
I don't like foam rollers with latex paint because of the stipple it leaves. I'd use a sprayer or a brush, simulating wood grain.

You might be overthinking it (you're right by the way that razoring off glass from paint is easier than taping off usually.) I'd get the factory finish and I'd be surprised if you felt the need to paint it in less than 5-10 years.

The post about drying/curing times is correct. Latex dries fast but cures slow, and is usually a bad choice when things will be tightly touching it (for example things sitting on a shelf.) This has improved in the last few decades though. A door closing against weather stripping is not as bad as something sitting on a shelf, but it can still peel if it hasn't been given a chance to cure hard.
 
#10 ·
I would strongly advise against removing hinges. I think we covered this a few weeks back where OP got his a$$ handed to him. Corrupt the threads, dislodge a shim and where are you? If you can't paint a door, especially one laying down, without slopping the hinges, you should hire a pro, because that's the easiest part of painting a door.

I strongly advise against removing doors and laying them flat to paint. Not only does it require space, they attract more dust because it settles, and they're heavy. When it comes time to rehang them, the amount of handling a heavy door with soft finish is almost a guaranteed screw up, like fingerprint impressions, then you're done. And I wouldn't advise a newbie to "lay it on" when painting a flat door. It may not run, but it can puddle. It could also skin and retard the full drying process. Always apply a normal, uniformly thick finish to any surface, and if it needs another coat, it needs another coat. A normal thickness coat of a quality finish will flow and level under the right circumstances, even on a hanging door.

When you paint a hanging door, remove the weather stripping and then you can close it when done. Leave the stripping out for about a day or two, then re-install it. Take a rag and some vaseline and rub it on the weather strip. Don't glob it, just rub a glaze coating on. Problem solved.
 
#18 ·
I was having a discussion about a particular plaster wall with a lifetime plaster guy. I forget what the particular problem was but he made a statement about it and I asked him how he could tell. He looked me straight in the eye, and after a short pause he said, "I can hear it". I believed him, lol.
 
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