Painting bare wood doors

Painting new bare wood doors for a professional finish.

Wooden doors have a variety of faces and conflicting grain patterns, all of which need to be painted seperately, however the end result must look even in colour and texture, especially when painting a new wooden door, with some careful preparation a new wood door can easily be painted to give that professional look.

A guide to Painting a door step by step

Begin by rubbing medium grade sandpaper in the direction of the grain to ‘key’ the bare wood surface.

Wipe dust away using white spirit and a cloth.

Any cracks, voids or holes should be filled with cellulose filler, woodfiller or putty. The filler should be left slightly proud of the hole and then sanded back with fine sandpaper to achieve a really smooth finish.
If your door is to be painted in a clear varnish or waxed, it will be important to match the colour of filler or putty to that of the door. If no exact match is available in a pre-mixed form, purchase small quantities of both light and dark colours and mix your own.

Paint Knotting Fluid over any knots in the wood, this helps to avoid stains on your paintwork caused by resin slowly bleeding out of the wood. You can get knotting fluid from B&Q or Screwfix shellac grades which still contains wax, which ought to be "dewaxed" before fine finishing work.

Finally remove all dust and debris by wiping the door down, including the edges, with white spirit and a clean cloth.

A good coat of primer should always be apply to bare wood. Make sure this is worked well into the woodgrain and covers any knots thoroughly. When the primer has dried, rub the door down with fine sandpaper and then a clean cloth to remove any dust.

Now apply a layer of undercoat, preferably by the same manufacturer and in the same colour as the top coat will be. Again, once dry, sand this layer down with fine sandpaper and wipe away dust. You may need to repeat this step to get a solid undercoat to cover a dark wood door.

The top coat of gloss or vinyl satin can now be applied, taking care to check over completed areas to remove drips and paint build-ups.

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