Repainting recently painted front door

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Hi,

I need some help and advice. I recently painted my front door (1 week ago). It was originally a wood stained door and I painted over it with a gloss paint. However the colour didn't really turn out to be what I wanted.

I know have the perfect paint colour I want. My question is, what do I do for preparing the door.

Do I have to sand the door, if so, which grit sandpaper and do I sand back down to the wood? Or just enough to scuff the gloss off and provide a key.

Also would you recommend to have a layer of primer after sanding and then paint my new colour, which is also gloss.

Appreciate the help
 
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You should give the surface a light sand down all over to ensure the new paint adheres well.

An undercoat, not primer, is recommended, and should be a similar colour to the new gloss you will be using.

Since the paint you applied a week ago is still 'new', an undercoat may not be essential, as you are effectively applying a second coat, but essential if the new finish is a very different colour.

If you see what I mean.
 
Thank you, I really appreciate the help.

What grit level sand paper do you recommend to use?

The colour on the door at the moment is a brown/green but I'm going for a chestnut brown.
 
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If the gloss was oil based you can just apply another oil based gloss straight over the top without needing to sand it. If it is only 7 days old sandpaper might rip the surface.

If you do decide to sand it, use 240(ish) grit silicone carbide paper rather than aluminium oxide.

As mentioned above, if the colour change is significant you may want to use an appropriately coloured emulsion, eg grey for green gloss, red for red gloss and so on.

edit- oh, I posted before noticing that you had replied.

Definitely provide a key given that it is waterbased. The paint will have started to cure already.

Not intended as a criticism but in future it would help if you mention whether the paints used are oil or waterbased.
 
Thank you the reply and definitely will take note and try to give all the details so you experienced guys can give the best advice as possible.

Will pick up some 240 grade sand paper tomorrow and get started on some sanding!

Much appreciated guys, it's helped me out a lot as I don't want to ruin my front door trying to do DIY whilst in lockdown.
 
Oil based paints take much longer to cure and accordingly you can go longer between coats without needing to provide a key.

One thing to be aware of is that some colours take much longer to cure. When a store mixes the paint for you they normally use universal pigment (in both oil and water based paints). The more universal pigment used the longer the paint takes to cure. Last summer I painted a client's door with signal red oil based eggshell. After 3 weeks the paint was still clogging my festool granat mesh sandpaper (240 grit) whilst i was sanding it.

Another thing to watch out for is the dust left on the surface after sanding. Depending on the degree to which the paint has cured, it can be a mare. Sometimes it just wants to cling to the surface. There have been occasions where I have used a dusting brush, followed by compressed air, then vacuumed, repeated the whole process and then wiped it with a tack cloth followed by a lint free cloth... and there was still dust on the surface. Again, it seems to be more of an issue when using paints with more pigments. On the last occasion I was spraying a dark blue 2k paint. Although it was only a 10% sheen level the dust was visible in the finish.

An advantage of undercoat is that it "absorbs" any fine dust. When glossing doors with oil based paint I always use two coats of gloss and make sure that I do not need to sand in between coats (thereby avoiding any sticky dust issues).

Good luck with the door and remember to not paint it in direct sunlight now that the weather is getting hotter. If you find it dries too quickly you can add some Floetrol- it helps you to keep a wet edge and minimise tramlines (brushmarks). Not cheap, but a brilliant additive for waterbased paints.
 

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