Hardwood Door shall I stain?

[Szgany]

I have a hardwood door with side panels. It has a dark oak effect and I'd like to stain it to a slightly lighter shade. I only wish to stain the interior.

What stain should I use and where is the best place to buy it? Will I need to laboriously sand it before applying the stain?

Whats the best thing todo other than paint it?

 

[JohnD]

Is it an external door or internal?

If external, is it fully exposed to the weather, or in a porch or something?

Is it new, or has it been treated before? What with?

 

[Szgany]

The door is a front door, it is the interior of the door I wish to stain. Very little moisture if any seems to show all through the year.

It has been treated before, not really touched since installed in 1989, maybe one coat since then but can't be too sure about that. We moved here a year ago.

 

[JohnD]

If you want it to be paler than it is now, you will have to sand off the existing stain (assuming it is a coloured one that is giving the dark shade). You will find this hard work, especially if it has fancy mouldings since a power sander can't get into these so you will have to do them by hand.

Try this on a small section first (e.g. the top of the door) to see how dark is the wood's naturalcolour. You cannot make it lighter than it is naturally (unless you paint it white).

 

[Szgany]

I have sanded one of the exterior doors and found it rather light underneath, the current colour is a reddish dark brown, I guess I could live with this colour.

Is there then a stain I can apply ontop of this? There are slight gaps where the wood joins, what would you suggest to fill these giving the same colour and without any sanding needed?

 

[Szgany]

Any ideas?

 

[spice]

If your not going to shange the colour now, then you could either wipe over the gaps that are showing with a wood dye of the colour nearest to the door, or buy a wood/stain all in one varnish again with the colour nearest to the door colour.