Restoring front doors
After much waffling, I’ve decided that our front doors should be restored instead of replaced. They’re the original doors to the building and have seen better days, but I think there’s still hope. They’re made out of solid pine and need some pieces replaced along with new hardware and a complete refinishing. I’m looking to…
After much waffling, I’ve decided that our front doors should be restored instead of replaced. They’re the original doors to the building and have seen better days, but I think there’s still hope. They’re made out of solid pine and need some pieces replaced along with new hardware and a complete refinishing.
I’m looking to get a couple of quotes at least for the entire job – does anyone have names and numbers for talented, reliable, and reasonable door restorers?
Thanks very much!
I’m a carpenter with a bit of down time give me a call 718-406-5315
i have the same question as the original poster, any names?
Lisa has a point.
We had our heartpine doors stripped of three heavy coats of paint, the guys used a heat gun and it hurt the wood in many places.
Our contractor did best he could sanding and urethaning, but I’m thinking paint may have been better — although he said it should weather down to a nice result.
Two doors down, the carpenter used black walnut to fix a neighbor’s heart pine doors, because he said while you can’t buy heart pine any more, black walnut’s closest in grain/weight and dimensional stability. I kept a piece leftover and used it on my doors.
Yes I haven’t ruled out painting them – especially if the replaced pieces of wood aren’t going to match the original. These doors unfortunately need more than simple cosmetic work since they’ve been let go for some time. So I’d like to get them into a condition that will last for many many years hopefully.
I’m still at a loss for who to call though – this seems beyond handyman level to me. Any names and numbers? Thanks again.
If the doors are made of pine, and you need to patch them with replacement parts, I highly suggest that you paint them. Not all doors were made to be stained. Have a walk around where you live and I am sure you will see examples of where people decided to strip and polyurethane pine doors and the result is subpar (often looks like a shiny home handyman special not in keeping with the grand scale of the doors and the entrance way). Stripped and painted properly often looks better for old pine doors, especially if you are replacing rotten or damaged pieces of them. Just my opinion.
I called a couple of wood refinishing companies (can’t remember the names off the top of my head) but they all said the same thing: too busy and thousands of dollars. I wound up hiring a local contractor (Paulo Nizovitine) who stripped, sanded and polyurethaned the doors and put on a couple of kick-plates for $600. I think they look good for 100 year old doors, but they don’t look like new.