Hiring someone to clean/paint internal doors

GreeBo · 13-07-2007 02:25PM #1

Hey all,
due to getting a cheapie gang to do some work in my house I have been left with 9 internal doors that need to be stripped and repainted.
(they painted them with rollers and so the finish is crap)
Ive tried doing this myself but its taking an age to get the paint of each one.
Who would I go about making enquiries to about this?
Is it a painter job or someone else?
Any ideas of cost?
cheers.

Wertz · 14-07-2007 05:30PM

You get what you pay for, eh?
How old are the doors?
What type of wood?
Are they panelled, flush, french etc?
How many previous coats on?
What type of paint are they finished in now?
How much do you want to spend and what finish are you hoping to achieve?

If they're old old doors then acid dip is the only way to go IMO....no amount of stripping and sanding will do what 30 minutes in an acid bath can....as for where you'd get that done I can't really say.

If they're relatively new and have just been spoiled by sh*tty workmanship, then some work with a few different grades of sandpaper on an electric sander and some judicious use of chemical stripper, followed by BRUSHED ON undercoat/top coat system should bring them back to an acceptable standard.

The latter is a painter's job, the former would need to be done by someone who specialises in dipping (I don't know if there's even a name for that trade).

As for cost...couldn't even say without seeing just how much prep they'd need...if it were me, I'd be doing a sample door on time, bringing it up to the level of finish the client wanted and then multiplying that time by my rate, times the no of doors, plus materials, paint etc.
I'll say this much; it's going to cost you more to get them re-done than it would have to get them done right in the get go.
Also there's nothing wrong with rolling doors....once they are then laid off with a brush in the direction of the grain

GreeBo · 15-07-2007 06:07PM

Wertz wrote:

You get what you pay for, eh?

Who knew

Wertz wrote:

How old are the doors?
What type of wood?
Are they panelled, flush, french etc?
How many previous coats on?
What type of paint are they finished in now?
How much do you want to spend and what finish are you hoping to achieve?

solid pine, 4 panel, oil based primer with water based satin wood finish.
Dont want to spend hundreds of hundreds as it would be easier to buy new doors at that stage.

Wertz wrote:

If they're old old doors then acid dip is the only way to go IMO....no amount of stripping and sanding will do what 30 minutes in an acid bath can....as for where you'd get that done I can't really say.

have a place that does that but the doors are new so no good. Not sure why though...

Wertz wrote:

If they're relatively new and have just been spoiled by sh*tty workmanship, then some work with a few different grades of sandpaper on an electric sander and some judicious use of chemical stripper, followed by BRUSHED ON undercoat/top coat system should bring them back to an acceptable standard.

Wertz wrote:

I'll say this much; it's going to cost you more to get them re-done than it would have to get them done right in the get go.
Also there's nothing wrong with rolling doors....once they are then laid off with a brush in the direction of the grain

The original guys were doing other stuff and that fine (plastering, etc)so it just appeared to be a good deal. Applying paint with a roller is fine, painting with a roller (on wood) is not good.

Wertz · 15-07-2007 07:21PM

GreeBo wrote:

solid pine, 4 panel, oil based primer with water based satin wood finish.
Dont want to spend hundreds of hundreds as it would be easier to buy new doors at that stage.

Shouldn't be that hard to get them back to an acceptable finish.
3 or 4 different grades of sandpaper and a random orbital sander. Since it's roller marks that are offending you, you'll really only need to go over the flats of the panels, so time consuming places like the moulding won't need to get sanded up.

GreeBo wrote:

have a place that does that but the doors are new so no good. Not sure why though...

Could be either to do with the paint or whatever way doors are made these days (glues instead of proper jonts etc)
Anyway dipping is really only for digging through decades worth of layers.

GreeBo wrote:

The original guys were doing other stuff and that fine (plastering, etc)so it just appeared to be a good deal. Applying paint with a roller is fine, painting with a roller (on wood) is not good.

I have to emphasise how much difference a dedicated painter/decorator will make over the usual jack of all trades we seem to have going in ireland at the moment. I wouldn't for a minute dream of going in and attempting to plaster someone's house (although with the amount of filling that needs to be done after many "plasterers" these days, I may as well be one myself).

Again I'd have to disagree with the rolling wood thing; in the wrong hands a roller is a dangerous tool and can make sh*te of anything it touches....once you're quick enough at using it and experienced enough to know when to stop rolling and start laying off with a brush, it saves considerable time and is indiscernible from a normally brushed on coat.
There's nothing worse than the orange peel effect or that spongey look that an overloaded roller leaves, especially on wood.

I'm sorry I can't give you even a vague cost....I'd really need to see them in the flesh and see what it'd entail and how far you wanted them taken back.
Put it this way, most firms will charge about €80-100 to take doors from bare to paint finish. That is usually made up of 30 minutes to prime, 40 to fill/sand/dust, 40 to u/c, 30 to gloss/satinwood, 20 to fit handles/keepers, so roughly 3 hours total work per door. I'd say you'd be looking at in and around that time to get them sanded and apply 2 coats so the figures would be around that. You might get it done for less if you get the right guy(s)

GreeBo · 16-07-2007 10:40AM

Wertz wrote:

Shouldn't be that hard to get them back to an acceptable finish.
3 or 4 different grades of sandpaper and a random orbital sander. Since it's roller marks that are offending you, you'll really only need to go over the flats of the panels, so time consuming places like the moulding won't need to get sanded up.

I have sanded one of the doors pretty much right back to the wood, the moulding still looked terrible so I had to take that back down aswell.
It now has two layers of waterbased undercoat/primer and already looks 10 times better than the others.

The did the same job on all my skirting/frames/architraves, I have brought them back to life but doing the 9 doors would kill me

Thx for your comments.

Wertz · 16-07-2007 06:20PM

No bother. In your situation I'd DIY it myself, the old "If you want something done right..." thing. Just take it a door at a time.
Have you tried chemical stripper at all? The acrylic coats would come off pretty sharpish and if you timed it right you'd not effect the primer much (can always spot prime them, anyway). Best of luck with it anyhow...

GreeBo · 16-07-2007 06:38PM

Wertz wrote:

No bother. In your situation I'd DIY it myself, the old "If you want something done right..." thing. Just take it a door at a time.
Have you tried chemical stripper at all? The acrylic coats would come off pretty sharpish and if you timed it right you'd not effect the primer much (can always spot prime them, anyway). Best of luck with it anyhow...

Yeah, I should have just painted the damn things myself...I thought a tradesman would do a better job than I would...little did I know.

I have tried Nitormors but wasnt too impressed to be honest...a heavy grit sandpaper seemed to be best.
I was going to try a heat gun and scraper next...

Wertz · 16-07-2007 07:06PM

Heat gun on a large area like that would take an age...lots of nasty plastic fumes too...it's not too bad with oil paints. I'd say acrylic ends up like mozarella after you melt it...

GreeBo · 17-07-2007 05:28PM

Would you say orbital sander or belt?
Orbital will probably give a better finish (without having too much manual sanding) belt would be faster (take off more)
right?

mad m · 17-07-2007 08:31PM

I'd go with the belt for all the flats of the door,used an orbital on occasion and I don't like the way it leaves circular cuts in the wood.I'd rub down the mouldings with some rough steel wool...

Wertz · 17-07-2007 08:31PM

A decent random orbital not an orbital/disc type one....belt tends to rip into surfaces a bit too much and the leading edge can dig grooves into anything it contacts. They're also a heavy bastard to be holding up against a door for any length of time.

GreeBo · 18-07-2007 11:17AM

yeah I was going to go for a random one alright, just concerned that it will take an age (still shorter than manual though)

I'm not sure if steel wool will have any effect on the paint, Ive tried it in combination with nitromors and it wasn't too effective at all...a rolled piece of sandpaper seemed to work better...

jos28 · 18-07-2007 12:29PM

An easy way out would be to have them dipped. I had it done years ago and was amazed at the results. All traces of paint gone, all I had to do was sanding. It was a long time ago and I got them done by one of the furniture restorers around Francis St. They had a huge metal bath of acid, dipped them in it and I collected them a couple of days later. Was not expensive either.
I have tried all the other methods, Nitromoors, heat gun etc. A lot of hard work involved and the results were not as good.

NextSteps · 18-07-2007 01:13PM

You know you can get 4 panel pine doors for €69 at the Dublin Door Store, and it's buy one get one free. Just a thought!

GreeBo · 18-07-2007 02:00PM

jos28 wrote:

An easy way out would be to have them dipped. I had it done years ago and was amazed at the results. All traces of paint gone, all I had to do was sanding. It was a long time ago and I got them done by one of the furniture restorers around Francis St. They had a huge metal bath of acid, dipped them in it and I collected them a couple of days later. Was not expensive either.
I have tried all the other methods, Nitromoors, heat gun etc. A lot of hard work involved and the results were not as good.

unfortunately dipping doesnt work on newer doors...

GreeBo · 18-07-2007 02:02PM

UB wrote:

You know you can get 4 panel pine doors for €69 at the Dublin Door Store, and it's buy one get one free. Just a thought!

Clear pine or knotty pine?
thats where I got them originally btw

Hiring someone to clean/paint internal doors

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