Removing *some of* the paint from a wooden door, smoothing the surface for new paint

Not exactly woodworking, but ...

Two custom-built wooden exterior doors have developed cracks in the paint, mostly where the original pieces of wood were joined. The paint has flaked off to bare wood in those areas, leaving maybe 1" exposed, but the rest of the paint is in reasonable shape.

We're having a guy come paint the door (this is a commercial building, not my house), but he's a handyman at best (I didn't pick the workman). We'll have to guide him.

After scraping away the cracked paint, what can we do to smooth the edges that are left, and prep the door for (primer and) paint? Do we sand down the edges? Or "putty up" the low spots? Hand sanding? Sander? Grinder with flap disk? Something else?

Reply to
Greg Guarino
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Bondo wood filler, applied, sanded and painted, is usually what my painters use to repair those type areas in doors.

Robert might have some other tricks up his sleeve, so hope he'll chime in.

YMMV ...

Reply to
Swingman

Swingman wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:

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[note to self; never ever trust any of this clowns repair advice]

Reply to
Mr. 2 Cents

Hear that Karl? Apparently you're a clown...

Reply to
Mike Marlow

Nah, it's Mr. Non-Cents that's the clown.

His video response is an apples-to-crocodiles comparison.

Reply to
DerbyDad03

  1. Hand sand the areas with a hard rubber sanding block. The goal is twofold: 1, accomplish some but not all feathering and 2, primarily, to renew the weathered surface of the exposed wood.
  2. Get a tube of fairing/body purtty at Napa or other similar. You could use Bondo but the putty is easier to work with and MUCH easier to sand. It is basically talc and lacquer so if you have the ingredients you can make your own.
  3. Apply the putty with one of those credit card size, flexible plastic spatulas used for bondo. The goal is to fill low areas. When dry, hand sand the areas with a hard rubber sanding block. Repeat if necessar.
  4. Prime and paint.

BTW, the paint will probably eventually crack again at the joints

Reply to
dadiOH

I save my hotel card keys for things like spreading bondo, mixing small batches of epoxy (JB Weld, etc.), even shims in some cases.

...snip...

Reply to
DerbyDad03

Rock Hard makes a great wood filler that can be painted.

Reply to
Leon

Even though Bondo wood repair did not last long, it did last longer that what you suggested.

Reply to
Leon

Be MUCH better to prime the bare wood and sand the solid paint down to match the level of the primer, then repaint to match. Polyester filler is not designed for use on wood.

Reply to
clare

Even better would be to sand the bad areas down to feather edges, then prime the bare wood to build up a primer layer, which may take a couple of coats of primer. Then sand this primer area down to flat with the existing paint, and finish paint. Just feathering out the damaged area will most likely result in the repair showing.

Reply to
Mike Marlow

My experience is feathering paint to bare wood generally doesn.t work too well. Prime the wood, - several coats if necessary, then feather the repair - then paint.

This way you do not have a "raw" paint edge to work with - the paint is always "sealead" to the wood when you are sanding and painting.so the edges won't lift, cut, or curl.

Reply to
clare

Mixes with water no nasty fumes.

+2
Reply to
Markem

You can save some money by buying a bag of setting dry wall compound. It is gypsum - like Rock Hard - too.

Reply to
dadiOH

The poster and video people were shills for "Better to use Abatron."

Reply to
OFWW

I wouldn't want to guess just how stupid you could be as that well probably has no bottom. But how you could compare filling a few cracks and low spo ts to someone that attempted to literally replace entire rotted areas and r ebuild rotted boards is beyond me.

So you found a video by some other nitwit (no doubt of your same intellectu al caliber) that had no idea what he was looking at and decided to compare it to a dissimilar situation. The Bondo was not only the wrong stuff, but it had no reinforcement nor was it anchored properly.

Idiot.

Anyway... Greg when I try to read the whole post and match the repair to th e capability of the repair guy. You have a some good thoughts, so this is only my personal way of handling the repairs you are talking about.

Sand the whole door to make sure there is no other loose paint, no scale, n o damage you didn't see (if it cracks where you are describing, there is mo vement in the joints so what you see won't be all of it until you have fini shed the prep)and determine if there needs to be actual repair work instead of just fill and paint.

The danger of putting new paint over old paint is that the paint holds well enough to hang onto the surface, but the new paint can loosen the previous coats, even if it is oil based.

That's why I power wash the exterior surfaces, then prep. If the paint is going to come off it will come off when sprayed. Then sand. Then examine the damage.

So for an exterior wood door (I am keeping in mind that you are talking abo ut an handyman doing these repairs) I wash and sand, and if there are repai rs needed I do them at that time. If the rails and stiles have separated, t hen I scrape out the rotten or soft wood on the joints, fill them with wood glue (I usually open them a bit more) and clamp. Then I use an 7" gutter screw (or something similar from Fastenal) driven at a 45 degree angle from the stile into the rail. Try to find a screw that is threaded the entire length if you can. These aren't, but work fine.

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If I find the screws with a head less than 1/2" diameter, I use a washer, t oo. Counter sink the head of the screw, and fill with acrylic caulk after the screw is in place. Do both sides and as well as the top and bottom of the door. I like gutter screws because they come with some kind of epoxy b ased powder coat on them so they won't rust over the long haul.

Now the door is more stabilized. BTW, most doors fail because of wood move ment, and that is usually caused by the painters not painting the door top and bottom. They wick water and start to fail immediately due to the absor ption of water causing swelling/movement.

Rock Hard is great for filling holes, some deep scratches, leveling out a s urface, etc. It is not good for small cracks as it needs to have more mass to hold together than you can get with a small crack. I usually do a two step process on a door that I am picturing as you described.

Fill all the holes and dents with Rock Hard. I use an 1/8" to 1/4" bit to drill into the center of the dents and holes to give the Rock Hard better b ite. With a bunch of holes in a damaged area, you can lay that stuff on pr etty thick and sand it smooth. Be aware that Rock Hard has almost not weat her resistance; if you start the job using that product plan on working it to finish. You can also get it pretty thin too, (think feathered edges) as long as you paint as soon as possible.

For cracks along the joints I use a good acrylic caulk. For cracks in face s, if they are fine cracks I use the same thing. I apply it as close as po ssible with a tool, then smooth it a bit with a wet paper towel.

I use caulk because it penetrates the rough surface of the joints and seals them against further deterioration. As noted above, most likely these cra cks will come back, but if the raw edges are sealed up with caulk it will s low down the process quite a bit. I use caulk on the joinery because doors always flex at the joints. Maybe not a lot, but always, and with all that I have repaired that is almost always "the scene of the crime". Rock Hard will break apart after a while due to this flexing and it offers no protec tion to the surface it is attached to. It isn't made to do that; it is a f iller.

Prime and paint!

Now... if the handyman of choice can't do that, skip the repairs, and apply Rock Hard and caulk, then paint.

Robert

Reply to
nailshooter41

Then why does the manufacturer call it "wood filler"?

Reply to
J. Clarke

And if you look at their bad example of Bondo, it's pretty clear that it's really a bad example of surface prep.

Reply to
J. Clarke

Perhaps for the same reason TB III claims to be water proof.

Reply to
Leon

That and the fact that it was used so extensively. Bondo works well for smallish areas but over large areas it will eventually fail. It fails because the wood expands and contracts differentially to the Bondo. The epoxy material material they promote will do the same thing, just slower; it is slower because epoxy has a stronger bond than does the polyester resin used in Bondo.

The exception is plywood and it is an exception because ply doesn't respond to weather/humidity changes as much as solid wood.

Time was that many home built boats, usually trimarans, were built with plywood which was then covered with layers of fiberglass all of which were adhered with polyester resin. In fact, I have a pram I built eleven years ago in that manner; it is still good as gold. Numerous commercial boats were built in the same manner; the Newport 40 ketch was one.

Other than just replacing the rotted wood in the video, the guy would have done better by cutting it out to good wood, then building it up with plywood.

Reply to
dadiOH

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