1930's painted door stripping - and a pigs ear.

[frank999]

Something that appears really simple ... but its not.

I've had a man on a couple of solid wood doors that simply needed repainting.

They are 1930's solid timber, one side has many layers of paint on.

So far he has spent a day and a half on just one side, he has tried sanding, then paint stripping using paint stripper, then tried a hot air gun. I've also had a go, but we've ended up with something that will look worse than if we'd just slapped some gloss on it !,. and that is only half the door.

Which ever way we turn its just turned into a pigs ear, he's frustrated, I'm frustrated.

I should have ripped them both out and had new fitted at the start, but hindsight is a great thing ....., if we replace just the one door , they will look odd, door handles at different heights, panelling different, etc etc.

We need to get this done sharpish, and hence we've not sent it out for stripping, which takes well over a week.

Any tips for tools/stripping chemicals we can get our hands on to make this move along.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Have you taken the door off and outside, so it can be laid flat, much easier to strip laid flat and outdoors where fumes will not be a problem. Hot air gun should do it, in a sheltered from wind location.

 

[frank999]

Yes we have just taken the door off to do outside, with a heat gun - it stunk doing it inside - plus all the dried paint crisps everywhere.

Two of us are going to get stuck in later today, given up with the sander and paint stripper as primary stripping means.

Saying all that though, after scraping with the heat gun - seems you are left with a whole lot more to do with the sander - any tips for smoothing these areas of dried and partly stripped paint residue that are time consuming to remove - rather than going at it for hours, am thinking of using wirewool with paint stripper.

 

[Tigercubrider]

Depends on the door details but a decent sander and coarse sandpaper will do it. As will decent paint stripper.

 

[sparkymarka]

We sent ours off and had them dipped and stripped about £15 per door that was inc pick up and dropped back off ...

 

[frank999]

Took all afternoon of scraping and a heat gun, some of the trim split, but it will do, its dipping or new next time !

 

[opps]

Unless absolutely necessary, I do not strip doors. I prefer to sand as flat as possible and then back fill with two pack filler. Admittedly, hanging a new door is often cheaper but I tend to work in Victorian houses and the customers are happy for me to spend 2 days sanding and filling each side of the door.

Dipping old doors can result in the mortice and tenons opening up. It also tends to raise the grain of the timber. I would only recommend stripping and dipping if the door is to be stained or varnished. Oh and when a customer asks me to paint a door that has previously had the paint removed, I warn them that as soon as I apply the primer, they will see all the chips and gouges (which will need to be filled).