Thread: Painting Interior Doors

Roll your doors then lay off with a good quality brush ,this takes out most of the mottled effect left by rollers ,I would leave it overnight to dry.

I agree with coastie,

Roll with a 4 inch foam roller and then lay off with a brush. Do this while they are still hanging after the door handles are removed. This is a bit quicker than removing it.

I tried painting a few doors and then loaded them in the trailer after 48 hours with terry towels between.... gave a nice a stippled effect, also left finger prints when I carried them!!!

cheers
pulse

Pulses last sentence is an important one. The enamel dries pretty slow.

First rule read the instructions: they should tell you recommended drying times and how much if any turps to add, if you have to add any take it slow a small amount of turps will reduce enamel real quick. You can always add a bit more but its harder to get it out of the mix.

Get yourself a test panel and paint it with the roller and brush, if its lousy use a rag with turps and wash it off, you can then make alterations and try again - saves doing lots of test panels. You can also use the turps to wash off the door if you mess it up also. Use lots of turps on one rag and use a clean dry rag to follow up and wipe the thinned paint. You may have to keep renewing the rags once the paint saturates the rags.

It will depend on the temperature how long the paint takes to dry, the colder the longer it will be. Enamel reacts with the oxygen in the air so the top will be a lot drier than underneath, (thats why you get a skin in a closed tin) With the test panel after the recommended drying time (usually about 24 hours) press a finger into the paint, if you get a finger print you will have to leave it longer.

If I was going to do this job and I wanted the best finish I could get I would be planning on putting one coat on one side and leaving the other side till the next weekend. If its too soft as pulse mentioned handling them will only ruin the effort you have put into it.

If you have a front side or more noticable side do it last, you not only won't have to risk it being damaged when you turn it over but you will have the process down a lot better with all the practice you have had.

Tyro,
I was concentrating on answering your questions and never gave a thought to a way you can paint both sides of the door at once.

You state you have saw horses so you can possibly do the following. This will depend on the type of doors but as they are interior doors you should be OK.

Place a long screw or nail in the bottom and top of the door edges on each end. Suspend the door between the saw horses resting on the nails/screws. If they are light in weight a nail should be all right but if they are heavy a good long screw would be better.

This way you can paint the first side and then lift one end and swing it over to the other side. If you have clamped a length of wood on the horses you can probably do it by yourself but if you get another person to hold the nail on the other side to help steady the door you can easily lift the door to the vertical position and then swing it along the horse and lower it down onto the other side.

You can probably pick them up and move them to somewhere else by holding onto the nails.

Excuse me lads but what do you mean when you say "lay off" with a brush?

Cheers
MH

I painted all my doors off.

I cut up a heap of small blocks and nailed two to the bottom, then made some crosses and nailed two to the top of each door. This gives the door something to stand on and to hold it off the wall while you paint. You do one side, leaving the edges, then flip it, paint the edges and the other side. You can carry them by the crosses at the top. I painted about 30 doors this way. I reckon the time it took to take each door off the hinges and nail on these crosses (I used my finish nailer) was worth it in the speed to paint them all in one hit lined up down both sides of the garage.

Laying off just means to work over the surface of the paint with the brush while it is still wet.

SilentC, laying off is a bit more than working over the surface while wet.

To paint with a brush you first load up the brush with paint and set about "laying on" as you a moving at a slower rate than spraying and the brush enamel dries a lot slower you need time to cover the area first. Not much use doing a good job on one section if you later are going to put paint along side and joining you finished work.

Once you have paint over the area you then wipe out the excess paint from the brush and proceed to "Lay off" the paint. As you already have the surface covered you can concentrate on wiping the paint out evenly so the area has an even coat. This should always be done vertically to prevent runs. You may have to wipe excess paint out of the brush as you Lay Off

Brush painting done correctly looks the same as if sprayed ( no brush marks) it just takes a lot longer and you have to have the paint mixed properly and a good brush and technique.

Same thing, more words