Refinish My Front Door?

[Icehorn]

My front door is blistered and weathered from the Texas sun. It is one of those wooden decorator doors. Does anyone know how I would go about trying to restore it to something close to its original luster or am I better off buying a new door?

 

[ths71]

If you want a wood finish you will probably have to strip the finish and refinish with a varnish that contains UV protection like marine or spar varnish.

An easier method would be to paint it.

 

[horn4life]

Sounds like the varnished is shot. You can take the door off and apply a chemical solvent to remove the varnish/paint. they wrok well but you have to let them sit a while and they do raise the grain. Get some good gloves that are suitible to resist the solvent and use one of those "grill pads" that are slightly flexible but like a big brillo pad.

I would also suggest a small hand sander for post solvent finishing. I actually ended up not repainint my door as I liked the distressed look achieved via the solvent and sanding.

Buying a new door is all well and good, but unless you buy a door with the fram included sometimes the trouble fitting a new door in an exisiting opening is worse than the labor of refinishing the old one if it's still sound.

 

[Icehorn]

Thanks so much for your help.