Front door removal repaint question
Does anyone have an idea how heavy the front doors are? I plan to repaint the original front door on my Eichler. But first I want to use Jasco to strip all 5 or 6 layers of paint off it. And I was thinking of taking the door off the hinges if it makes it easier to work on the door.
My sense is it's a pretty heavy door for one person to remove!
Thanks, Nelson
I stripped and painted my original door. It's light enough to be carried by one person but two is easier. I used aircraft stripper to strip 4-5 layers of paint. Before you lay on the stripper, use a coarse 36 grit sand paper to score the paint so the stripper has a better opportunity to get under the paint. (But don't sand to the bare wood, just heavy scratches on the paint)
The door even had the original door handle escutcheon under 3 layers of paint but scratched and oxidized. I stripped then mounted the escutcheon on an arbor and drill, then sanded it back to the brushed finish then clear coated it. Start to finish, the project took a whole day.
http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?mode=fromshare&Uc=2oluvbtz.469...
For anyone who want's to know how to restore their door handle escutcheon, let me know, I could do a quick writeup.
Good Luck!
Nick
Thanks for the reply and the link to your photos! House looks great, the door turned out great! Wish I had that view!
You could also buy a new door rather than dealing with having to strip the paint off your old door (although Nick clearly did a great job stripping and restoring his door).
Many lumber companies offer 'door matching' - you take in your old door and they trim a new door to match the dimensions and mortise for the hinges as well.
You could get a new door but keep your old HW.
The weight of the door depends on whether it is hollow or solid core.
Good luck.
Yes, in the middle of stripping that door, I seriously considered buying a new solid core door. But the more I stripped the paint off, I found the wood was in good condition. There were a few spots on the bottom where the laminate lifted and a piece was missing. I wood glued the lifted piece and used Bondo to patch the missing piece.
I could only suggest, restore what you can and replace with current technology when you can't.
Nick
Thanks for the info guys!
I agree with you Nick, I try to restore what I have. My door sounds like it's in the same shape as yours, a slight delamination in the lower 1/3, very small, about 8" around, the edges are still good. But once the paint's off, maybe there's trouble to be found!
My door gets full sun all day, it's south facing. And there's a very slight warp in the bottom 1/3, so I have to pull hard to close it.
I'd like to try to fix it before I buy a new one.
