What to Use to Re-Paint a Faded Front Door

The doorway at the front of your house is usually subjected to wind, rain and the harsh rays of sunlight. While exterior doors are designed to be durable, over time these components can cause the paint to fade. To make the door look new again, you need to refinish it, and this also requires a variety of tools, such as sandpaper, paint scrapers and quality exterior primer and paint, to ensure the newest finish lasts for years.

Insert a screwdriver at the bottom of the among the door’s hinge pins and then tap the end of the screwdriver with a hammer to loosen the pin so you can pull it up and out of the hinge. Do the same for the remaining hinges and lift the door away from the door frame.

Put the door at the top of two saw horses or another flat surface, such as a work table covered with a drop cloth or a tarp.

Remove all the hardware and put on safety glasses, gloves and a dust mask.

Scrape off loose or peeling paint using a paint scraper, then sand the surface of the doorway using 120-grit sandpaper. Sand wood doors a second time using a finer grit sandpaper, such as 180-grit. In case you have a steel door, then sand rust patches and dents down to the bare metal with 60-grit sandpaper.

Smooth the surface of a hardwood door by sanding it with 220-grit into 320-grit sandpaper. In case you have a steel door, then smooth only the places where you eliminated rust patches, using 150-grit or finer sandpaper.

Fill cracks, dents or gouges in wood doors by applying wood putty to the damaged areas with a putty knife. Permit the putty to dry and then sand the patch smooth with fine-grit sandpaper.

Fix steel door dents by pressing auto-body filler into the damaged region using a plastic putty knife. Smooth the filler until the patch is slightly higher than the surface of the doorway. Leave it to cure for 30 minutes, then sand the patch using a rubber sanding block covered with 80-grit sandpaper. Sand again with 150-grit paper before the patch is nearly level to the surrounding metal, then complete sanding using 400-grit wet/dry sandpaper.

Turn the door over and repeat scraping, patching and sanding the interior side.

Wipe sanding dust from a hardwood door with a tack cloth dampened with mineral spirits. Wipe steel doors using a dry tack cloth, then wash the doorway with light soap and water.

Apply an excellent latex exterior primer for your doorway with a broad paint brush. Cover the front of the doorway in addition to the sides. If your door has lifted inset panels, paint those first, then paint the area encompassing the panels. For a metal door, then use a primer labeled for use on alloy.

Catch the door to dry for about four hours. Turn it over to apply primer to the other hand.

Permit the primer to dry, then apply an excellent exterior latex paint, starting at the peak of the doorway and working your way down. It is OK to use latex paint to refinish doors previously covered using striped finishes.

Wash the first coat to dry for at least 2 hours, then apply another coat. Once the paint is dry, do exactly the same on the opposite side of the doorway.

Catch the door to dry for at least 3 hours, then replace the hardware and then reinstall the doorway.

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