My house is 71 years old, and the front door is crying out to be painted. It looks like it has many, many coats of paint, that in places can be picked off. I like the idea of removing all of the paint, and just staining the bare wood. But I’ve never done paint removal, and I won’t attempt it if there’s a chance I won’t be able to remove all the paint. Will paint removal chemicals get it all (I assume with multiple applications), or will there be stubborn paint in some of the details? If I can’t get it all off, I’d rather just paint it and forget it.
Depends, how set you are to do this? It can be a long hard road.
For speed you would have to use chemical stripper, most of the paint should come off with the first application, multiple coats of paint may slow this down. Does the door have a lot of decorative trim/panels etc? Using proper tools for these areas may be critical. If it is a flat door with little or no features, it could be fairly quick and easy. I have used many methods, none are perfect answers, especially with many coats of paint, that are probably all different. You will be in for some hard work, but it is rewarding when done. (Safety note, possible lead paint alert, even if you have the test done you should act as if it were leaded!)
If the paint is peeling, cracked, or bubbling, you will have to do the stripping even to repaint. The finished job will only be as good as the preparation. You cannot just paint over a crappy surface and have it look good.
One more thing though, It could take more than a weekend, and it is much easier to work on if the door is taken down and set up on sawhorses. No direct sunlight. So you might be looking at stripping the door one weekend ( or two ) and rehanging it in between. When my front door was kicked in, I had to cover the front entry with plywood for a few days until I could pick up a new one for installing. Removing all the paint won’t be easy, but if you keep at it it will eventually all go away.
I also believe there are places you can take the door, they will dip and soak it in a tank, remove all the paint, neutralize the stripper.
Might be expensive, but possibly worth it.
If you are wondering what, if any credentials I have, none. Just experience stripping a couple of desks, baseboards, a few old cabinets, and a house full of window trim.
I hate chemical strippers, but would use 'em in a heartbeat.
Good Luck with your project.
Thanks for the advice. I’ve resigned myself to the fact that I’ll have to remove most of the old paint, even if I want to re-paint. I’m sure the original 1938 lead paint is in there. There’s a fair amount of detail in the door, several recessed rectangles, surrounded by rectangular molding.
I’m thinking of just goinging ahead and start removing it, since I can’t do anything with it the way it is. Once I get most of the paint off, I’ll be able to evaluate where to go from there.
You can take it to places that will dip it in chemicals to remove the paint for you. A friend did that for some of his wood trim. He said it came out looking like it was new. It might not be possible for a front door, what with the C.H.U.D.s and all. I see this is mentioned directly above me.
There’s been some really good advice but one thing I didn’t see mentioned is using a heat gun.
I stripped the paint off my bannister rails on the stairs using a combination of chemical treatment and a heat gun. It was laborious work and took weeks to finish but the end result was worth it especially as I left it unpainted with just a polish as a finishing coat.
I second the heat gun. With a little instruction from someone who knew what he was doing, I was able to strip many, many layers of paint off of my porch window frames very quickly. The large flat areas were the easiest, so I’d definitely give it a try on the door. It takes all the layers off in one big wad, right down to the wood, if you do it right. I wasn’t doing it with staining in mind, so I’m not sure if there would be much more prep other than sanding necessary in order to get a nice clean wood grain.
The trick was to heat the paint to the point where it starts to bubble and soften so you can get your scraper through it, then you move the scraper and heat gun in the same direction and the same speed with the heat gun slightly ahead. Balance the speed you move and the distance between the scraper and heat gun, and you can control the temperature of the spot you’re scraping pretty well. When you get it right, the paint comes off in big satifying rubbery sheets, many of which will fall onto something you didn’t want burned.
Here’s a short video on how to use a heat gun to remove paint.
I’ve been refinishing a tiny little footstool for what feels like forever now, and I started out with the old fashioned super-poisonous stripper, thinking surely that would work better. It doesn’t. It doesn’t work worth a damn. Get that citrus strip stuff - it kicks the cancer snot’s ass six ways from Sunday.
When we moved into a 100-year old row home, all of the bedroom doors had multiple layers of paint. We took them down and tried using chemical strippers to remove it. They were mostly effective, but very, very time consuming. And, ultimately, we came to a layer of what appeared to be milk paint, which was impervious to our chemicals. We were ready to throw in the towel, when I discovered a local place that dipped large pieces of furniture to remove paint. We had three doors done for about $50 each…definitely worth it. If you need help finding a place to do this, try contacting your local historical preservation society or an antique dealer.
I’ve refinished quite a lot of 120yr old wood. My method of choice is to heat gun the bulk of the paint off, then bust out the nasty chemicals for the residue. Steel wool is usually very helpful for those last little bits and crevices. Then sand and reseal.
Heat guns are indeed awesome for removing paint, but do use caution: you can raise the grain of the wood with a heat gun if you’re not careful. (It might also depend on the type of wood; I’m not sure.) Go slow, and test some place inconspicuous first (like maybe the bottom corner, near the hinge).
A few other helpful hints:
Get yourself some dental picks to help in the crevices.
The “safe” strippers like the citrus-based and the 3M ones can be covered by plastic wrap to keep the stripper wet on the tough areas. (You have to remove the stripper while it is wet. It works better the longer you can keep it on the area.)
Once you strip the door, you can scrub it down with paint thinner and a stiff natural bristle brush. This will remove all traces of the stripper and clean out the cracks and crevices also.