Wood door refinishing is the core of Door Renew’s business. While we also do fiberglass and steel front doors, wood entry doors comprise the bulk of our restoration. Homeowners often ask how we go about refurbishing doors. Below is a quick look at Door Renew’s process.
Whether the door is wood, fiberglass or steel, we refinish them in our shop. That way we work on them in a controlled environment while they’re in a horizontal position. The stain and varnish is usually peeling, flaking or completely gone. Once in our shop we remove all the hardware, mask windows and protect areas we aren’t refurbishing.
Refurbishing and repairing loose trim.
We then strip existing finishes off the door to expose the bare wood or fiberglass. Minor repairs are then made, such as filling cracks, re-attaching laminate that has come loose, fixing loose trim and so on. The door is then sanded, using various grits of sand paper. This removes any residual finish and opens the grain to receive stain. Once sanded we then clean the surface with denatured alcohol or acetone.
Stripped, cleaned and ready for stain.
Staining the door is the next step in our process. We use high quality stains such as Old Masters, General Finishes, Mohawk or Minwax. After the stain cures we begin the varnishing process. The high-grade varnish we use contains a very high level of UV inhibitors which provide protection from the sun. To make the finish last even longer we apply 6 applications of varnish. After the varnish dries the door is re-installed, to the delight of the homeowner.
