There are other posts on this blog about the foreclosure we bought in Buckhead. Our lives seem to be focused on different renovation projects each weekend. This weekend I decided to refinish the stained front door.
Living under Atlanta’s hot, summer sun, with a front door that faces west, is about the worst case scenario for a stained front door. After quite a bit of research, I learned there is no perfect solution for staining and finishing a front door that gets baked by the Atlanta summer sun. If you want a stained front door, be prepared to add a new coating of finish every year or two, and probably a total refinish, complete with sanding down to the bare wood, every five or six years. If you don’t maintain the coating, with regular topcoats, you’ll be re-staining more quickly.
So the first question, when facing a stained door with washed-out pigment and peeling finish, is do you go through the effort, and upkeep, of staining or add a relatively easy coat of paint. If you want low maintance and easy upkeep, then paint is your best option. Since I’ve never been one to take the easy route, I decided to refinish the door with stain. If things went wrong with the project, or I don’t like the future upkeep, the paint is waiting as an easy backup.
I removed the door and put it on two saw horses, with towels wrapped around the top of them to protect the underside of the door. I cut out a piece of plywood, the size of the door opening, to protect the entrance from the elements and provide a minimum amount of security. Ultimately, I took 3 days to refinish the door, but it should have taken at least 5 days (I didn’t allow the stain to dry long enough), so you’ll need something covering the opening with a little permanence. You don’t want to cover the door with a simple tarp.
The first step is sanding. I spent about 12 hours sanding the door, because you want to get down to the raw wood, so the stain is applied uniformly. While I bought a bunch of different tools, the three I found most effective were the random orbit sander, for the large flat surfaces; a scraper, for some of the smaller areas; and good old fashion sand paper for the corners. 
Everything was relatively easy, except for the corners and the tight trim areas. It takes a lot of elbow grease.
The hardest part is getting into the corners. I thought I did a good job of sanding the corners, but I could have done better. After applying the stain, there were a few areas that are lighter, where the new stain didn’t absorb as well.
Then you apply the stain. I applied a “Java” gel stain made by General Finishes. It was literally like hair gel. 
I used some rags, made from old t-shirts, to apply the stain and wipe it off. I bought the stain from Highland Woodworking.
After letting the stain dry, you appply the coating. One of the mistakes I think I made was not giving the stain enough dry-time. I let it dry for 8 hours and it was bone dry to the touch, but I read later that it should have dried for 48 to 72 hours before the coating application. When I applied the coating it seemed to liquify the stain, so there are some slight brush strokes in the stain.
In researching the coatings, I didn’t want the door to have the plastic look with a polyurethane coating. Although polyurethane is probably the best coating to withstand the harsh UV rays. I did a lot of research on the internet and settled on two choices: marine spar varnish and tung oil. The advantage to the marine varnish is that it’s supposed to last a little longer, but the tung oil looks a little more natural and the upkeep is fairly simple; just periodically pour some on a rag and wipe the door. I decided to get some advice from Highland Woodworking, located in the Virginia Highlands section of Atlanta.
I wanted the door to be a masterpiece, so I needed counsel from expert woodworkers, not whatever random employee at the big box store happened to be working in the coatings section. The guys at Highland Woodworking are awesome. They really took the time to ask about the door, what direction it faced, what sort of overhang it had, etc… It’s a really neat store and if you’re not careful you’ll walk out of there with a new hobby.
The salesman thought the door would dry-out too quickly with a tung oil finish, so he recommended a marine spar varnish from Waterlox. It’s technically a pre-finish, but I was told that it’s the same thing as the sealer, only cut with thinner. The salesman told me if I bought the “Original” coating, you’d want to mix it with half thinner, because it would help the first coat to soak into the wood. I liked the thinner version, because it is easier to apply and the smudges tend to level out. The disadvantge is that it requires more coats to give the same level of protection as the “Original” version. It said on the label it was unecessary to sand between finishes, so sometimes I sanded and other times I did not. All together, I applied 5 coats of finish.
I bought a gallon, which was way too much for a door. The quart size would have been more than enough for 5 coats.
I was happy with the appearance of the finished door. The two things I would have done differently is sand the corners even better and let the stain dry longer. This DIY project saved me a lot of money and it’s nice know what’s involved in a top door finish. I had some quotes as low as $500, but at that price I don’t see how they would been thorough as me. Unfortunately, nothing holds up to the sun forever. If I’m lucky I’ll get 2 years out of the coating.
For more information, I found this article on This Old House, this article on a house painting website and the employees at Highland Woodworking, in Atlanta, to be very helpful.
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