Painting 6 Panel Faux Grain Interior Doors

I looked through a through threads after searching but did not see a defined answer. I am about to paint 3 doors in the house, one is a bedroom, the other to the basement, then the one to the garage from the house. The garage one is metal, the others standard interior hollow 6 panel. They are already painted and I just want to clean them up with a cover coat of semi gloss. I know to paint the bevels, then panels, then horizontals then verticals. So the questions are;

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• Is brush or roller preferred? Especially for the two that have the faux wood grain.
• I heard you are not supposed to sand down a faux grain door because you can damage the look.
• Going to be removing the doors and painting them, how long until I can flip the door and paint the other side? Basically what are drying times?
• Other tips?

 

1st you need to determine what type of paint is currently on the doors - http://www.doityourself.com/forum/pa...latex-oil.html

To use a brush, roller or roll and tip of the paint is mostly about personal preference and skill level. Sanding before painting is always a good practice! You only need to sand lightly and that won't affect the faux grain. The grain is more apt to be filled up with multiple coats of paint than to be sanded away.

The drying times of paint vary so it depends on what paint you are using. Which type of enamel to use is dependent on what type of paint is currently on the woodwork. I normally paint the doors standing up so I can do both sides.

 

If you have saw horses, you can run some screws in top and bottom and suspend the doors from those between the horses. No need to wait for drying. Thats for the interior doors of course, the steel would be too heavy.

 

I've never weighed them but most steel doors don't seem to be any heavier than masonite doors. If you do use screws in the tops/bottoms the holes should be filled with caulking or painter's putty when done to prevent any moisture intrusion into the door.

 

A Masonite hollow core is about 25 lbs, a steel door of the same size is about 50. I never did the sawhorse thing with a steel door, since the interior and exterior were often different colors anyway. Not worth the time for only one door. With interior I could prep them all and just go assembly line style.

 

I wouldn't have thought there was that much weight difference. I know the 1st steel door I took off the hinges so I could spray it - I almost threw it in the ceiling as I expected it to be heavy.
IMO it's quicker/easier to paint the doors upright. You can either **** them on the edge off of the wall or lean then directly on the wall and use a small block of wood to keep the wet side from sticking to the wall. It also helps to use a blocks of wood to raise them off the floor enough so you don't pick up any dirt.

 

All depends on construction. A fully insulated steel entry door is heavier than a basic steel utility door. That I remember from stocking untold pallets of the things at HD. More wood between the skins and heavier gauge steel I guess.

 

I thought all exterior steel doors were insulated ??

I know they come in different gauge steel, the thicker ones can be painted with oil base paint but the ones with the thinner steel must be painted with latex or you void the warranty. Before they attached that disclaimer I had the paint pop off of bunch of steel doors. They tried to say I used cheap paint but they peeled down to the bare galvanized metal. After the lawsuit was over [homeowners/builders versus the door company] I got paid to paint a bunch of new doors

 

Update:

I have one door painted, it was the door to the basement. Took me a little longer than normal but it was my first time and I ended up also doing the interior trim for the door as well because it was pretty bad. Tonight I knockout the nursery door that the prior owners were nice enough to paint around the hardware instead of just simply removing it. I won't go into detail on the room which is currently being painted as well but I will say that they painted right over old drywall screw mounts from the owner before them as well as tape on the wall, smh.

Like I said they had a medium/large dog that apparently they tolerated him scratching up the doors. Paint was still drying when I took the pics.

 

Looks good to me! Def a big improvement!

 

... and you are lucky the scratches were just in the paint and not deep into the masonite.
The main thing is to paint them correctly, speed will come with practice.