Painting over previously oiled or waxed interior doors.

[James Carmichael]

Hi,

We have interior Edwardian pine doors that have been dipped by a previous owner and then tinted with either an oil or a wax - given the finish, most likely a tinted danish oil type of product. Either way, they look carp.

I want to return the doors to white, using water based paint (averse to oil based - wish to avoid fumes with a baby in the house). As I have with all my other woodwork, I'll be using Dulux trade undercoat and satin topcoat.

Removing all of the previous oil coating is going to be impractical. The doors have deep mouldings. I can sand to create a basic key, but inevitably will be painting over what's there in places.

Would priming with Zinsser Bulls-eye 123 after sanding and before painting be the right way to prepare? Is it even necessary to sand?

Thanks

James

 

[opps]

If they have been waxed NO paint will adhere properly. If they have been finished with danish oil, sanding should be fine.

Have a butchers at the following link, it should help you to determine which finish was used.

http://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/forums/painting-over-wax-t57178.html.

 

[James Carmichael]

Thanks, that's really helpful.

I've used the little flowchart provided about half way through the thread. Whatever it is, it is definitely coming off with white spirit soaked wire wool (either that or the doors are also soaked in nicotine stains - could be, previous owner was a heavy smoker). I think I can scrape flakes with my fingernail too. That, I guess, points me in the direction of wax. I am now wondering if it is wax over a wood stain, or if he used a variety of different things on different doors, as there are definitely areas on some of the doors with noticeable sticky runs - too runny to be wax - of whatever-it-is-that's-creating-the-colour dribbling down them.

I guess my options are:
(1) Suck it and see - sand a bit, add paint, see if it comes off again.
(2) Spend the rest of my life failing to strip the wax.
(3) Swallow my pride and principles and take them back to the caustic soda dipping people.