I'm looking to replace the interior doors in the house we're moving in to. We are buying glazed and unglazed knotted pine doors and having a joiner fit them.
I am considering a stain or combined varnish and stain to enhance the appearance of the doors. I am looking for a lightish stain, or even a cherry wood type effect.
Any advice or recommendations?
K
I'd aggree with Jerry on that.. We had to take the ones we got from B&Q back they were so bad. Went to Magnet in the end and got the their clear pine ones. Much better and not much more expensive if you chat them up to get the trade price..
You can get "clear" doors from B&Q it or whoever at about double the cost of knotty pine ones - they do look better (=A340-ish instead of =A320-ish). If you varnish the door, and then don't like it, you can always paint it (although you need to apply knotting appropriately first). Note - in the past, I've been able to get white gloss off varnished boards using a steam wallpaper stripper and a filling knife!
J.B.
. Look at the position of the knots,
The day has come to buy the doors, can you explain the above a little more please?
The original post was asking about choosing Knotted pine doors for internal use.
K
OK. Look at the door, and you will see that the members that "frame" the panels are made out of (say) 1 1/4" x 4" timbers. The stiles are the long timbers at the edges - the cross-pieces are the rails. Now, the stiles are the most important, but the top and bottom rails are important too, followed by the centre rail(s). Take the stiles first, and look at where (and how big) the knots are. If a knot on the wide surface of a stile goes straight through, more or less straight, it's unlikely to cause the door to distort. A knot that goes through but has been cut through on one edge of the stile, and exposed, is probably OK too - but a similar knot on the wide face of the stile will cause distortion as the timber dries (which it will). I'll try some ASCII art, prepare to adjust your font:
___________ / /| / / | /__________/ | | | | | | | | | | | O | |
a small percentage of knots shrink at a different rate to the rest of the wood, resulting in warping.
My experience with stains is mixed. Preferred method is to paint the raw pine with shellac to stop the wood absorbing too much stain then use a darker stain than usual - like mahogany colour. Very little stain will actually soak in, giving the nice bland knotty pine look just like you see in the kitchen showrooms, which will also darken over time. If the stain is used directly on pine the final result looks like black pudding IMHO.
luggsie
That must ahve taken you a while, thank you for your effort and help. I now have 8 doors, 4 glazed and 4 unglazed in the garage. At this stage I'm planning to varnish (not water based varnish) the top and bottom surfaces of the doors prior to hanging. Then varnishing the rest of the doors after the joiner has hung the doors. Any more tips from the group?
Thanks JB.
K
Sound cobblers to me. Knots that shrink just fall out.
Waroing is simply caused by differential expansion of the wood, and is almost inevitable with crap like Pine.
Unless you carefully select quarter sawn planks (which don't actully look good grain wise) you wll get warping between summer and winter humidity levels.
The reaosn teh victorians paibnted pine is because its crap. It moves, it has knots that bleed resin, requiring knottong to be applied, and its very poor n abrasion resistance.
If they wanted a decent wood, they used mahogany. Oak isn't bad either, and things like Maplem Yew, Elm, Cherry and Pear are all much better loolking and more stable than Pine.
Ther is only ONE reason people use pine, and thats cos its cheap and grows fast.
As for staining it? Shudder. Just a stupid fashion.
Avocado bath suite anyone?
that occurs too, but most often pine bends at a knot due to differential expansion of knot vs the rest of the wood. But bear in mind only a minority of knots cause warping, most never do.
not with pine indoors.
only needed if youre painting it, and it looks far nicer clear varnished.
and looks absolutely lovely! - as long as you dont stain it.
NT
Definitely with ANY wood indoors, pine more than most.
Summer humidity levels in yer average temperate zone house are 70-90%.
Winter is down at 15-25%.
One my pine matchboard I get distinct cupping and about 2mm shrinkage PER BOARD across the grain in winter: Its all gone by the summer...
Guess why its painted...
Matter of opinion., Its about the worst wood for appearance I can think of.
Oh, and the knots will still bleed under the varnish. If they don't fall out.
I knitted and filled all my T & G. So far touch wood (but NOT pine) the paint surface is stable.
Looks crap at best, vile if you stain it.
Knots don't generally fall out of redwood, which is why it can be machined to fine detail on mouldings. Whitewood knots are far less stable.
here its damper in winter, due to more rain and less ventilation. I dont know where you live of course.
Lets agree then: youve had problems with it, I never have.
Regards, NT
Not indoors. It doesn't rain in MY house. Only outside, and by the time the CH has lifted the temp from 5C to 20C, the RH is way....down.
Perhaps you had better study a little on humidity indoors in winter.
Not problems. Just it happens. I used standard carpentry techniques to minimise the effects.
no, I do know what goes on in this house, and there is quite enough evidence in the house for it. I dont think such condescension will convince.
Well, buy a humidity meter then.
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