Easy way to finish/paint house doors

[Tom King]

Even if you just have one door that needs finishing, do yourself a favor and build a rotisserie.   A screw is the pivot.  Make the bars that you screw to the ends of the door some narrower than the door thickness.  These are something over 30 years old.  I don't bother to keep stretchers for them, but just use whatever is laying around.

Anyone can spray like an expert when the surface is horizontal.  With these, you spray one side, let it tack up, and spin the door over to do the other side.

I have enough of these to do a whole house full of doors, but was only painting two this evening.

 

[wtnhighlander]

Now THAT is a tipworth saving!

[Tom King]

I may lose those two doors.  I probably waited too late to start painting them. It must have been after 7 when I started.  The big mistake was doing it a different way than I have always done it.  There was some water based primer left from another job-Sherwin-Wiliams Wall & Wood, so I used that.  This was the first time using water based primer on doors.

Our humidity was still high near dark, and it hadn't done much drying.  We've been pushing hard to get the changes made before we go pick up my 104 year old Mother, to bring her home tomorrow at 10:30 in the morning.  Everything is not going to get done.  I still have handrails to put up in the bathroom, and a pocket door to hang, and trim out.

I just turned these two doors up on edge, to have a little possibility of protection from dew, or rain.  We'll see in the morning if they are trash, or can be sanded out.

 

[Coop]

Tom, do you use a leveling agent such as Floetrol when you spray? 

[Tom King]

No need for anything added with airless.  Straight out of the can.

The doors made it just fine.  They really look like that coat could not have been better, and hardy need any sanding.  Will spray the top coat at about 8 this morning, and hope I can hang them before we leave.

[Tom King]

We got lucky.  No rain, and there were only three tiny sets of insect tracks.  I had them sprayed a little before 8:30, and hung before 10.  Not my normal fastidious system, but the rotisseries, and airless rig got the job done before it could have been done any other way.  We installed the four handrails in the bathroom, and shower while the paint was drying.

Pam went to pick up my Mother, while I stayed home, cleaned up, and picked up all the tools.

All settled in now, but I still have a truck load of tools to put away, and the airless rig to clean.  I'm going to wait on the sprayer until the shade gets around there late this evening.  The pickup, and gun are in a bucket of water.

This was while the paint was still wet.  Good enough for fast work.  I hate deadlines, and don't normally do them, but this was different than paying work anyway.

 

[legenddc]

@Tom KingThank you for sharing this. I read it back in August and apparently it made enough of an impression on me that I remembered it months later as I'm planning to redo all of our doors here soon. Unfortunately it will be too cold to paint them outside so I guess I'll be painting them all by hand inside for a while.

[VizslaDad]

23 hours ago, legenddc said:

@Tom KingThank you for sharing this. I read it back in August and apparently it made enough of an impression on me that I remembered it months later as I'm planning to redo all of our doors here soon. Unfortunately it will be too cold to paint them outside so I guess I'll be painting them all by hand inside for a while.

Sherwin Williams snapdry is a good option for quick indoor door painting.

[legenddc]

16 minutes ago, VizslaDad said:

Sherwin Williams snapdry is a good option for quick indoor door painting.

That's real interesting and would certainly speed things up. I'm basically planning to take out flat slab doors and attach some 1/4 plywood to them so it looks like 3 panel doors. I figure coating the plywood will be 2 coats of decent primer so the wood doesn't bleed through. This Snapdry would save a ton of time assuming I can get it to match the rest of the trim.

[VizslaDad]

6 hours ago, legenddc said:

That's real interesting and would certainly speed things up. I'm basically planning to take out flat slab doors and attach some 1/4 plywood to them so it looks like 3 panel doors. I figure coating the plywood will be 2 coats of decent primer so the wood doesn't bleed through. This Snapdry would save a ton of time assuming I can get it to match the rest of the trim.

Sounds like a solid plan. My wife painted our doors with the Snapdry product with them still hung on the hinges on a not-too-hot, not too humid summer day. I was surprised by how well they came out (my wife is an excellent painter, but I was skeptical about paint that kicks so quickly). So long as you can get the Sherwin-Williams name or number for your trim color it should match just fine. I am not aware of limitations in color matching for that product (though I am by no means an expert on their or any other paint product line).