We have a Therma-Tru fiber glass front door that looks pinkish. That's just the way they come. We're staining ours. The guy who sold us the door also sold us the stain. Check with the place you bought it from; they should be able to tell you if it can be stained.

Anne

Yup you absolutely can stain it! We also have Therma-Tru and I stained it myself! It was pinkish tan when we got it. I actually got a sample piece from Therma-Tru to test stain on before I actually stained the door so I would know what color I would like. Here is a picture:

holly - did the "oak" (they look real) pieces b/t the door and sidelights come with the door? Builder knew I wanted all stained trim interior, my jambs are primed white!

I haven't stained the (tan, not really pink) door yet, a little afraid of testing things (esp. the trim around the sidelight glass). Did Thermatru send you the sample piece for free?

Did you stain it after it was installed? How long did it take to dry? I'm assuming you used a gel stain and then Thermatru's top coat? Again, I ordered my door prefinished but it didn't come that way so I'm stuck doing it myself.

Finally, what did you use to clean the door b4 you stained? I have dirt and tape residue from the plastic they had taped over the door. Thanks

We also have a therma tru door with 2 sidelights and transom. The pine jambs were pre-primed white, but they took the same stain as the door. The entire stain kit came from Therma tru along with directions on how to clean the door and then stain it. We had our door professionally stained though by the finish painters. One word: although the jambs used the same stain as the door, they do not look like a stain...it ended up looking like the same color paint. Not a bad thing, but there is no way that it will show grain. Our door was stained following installation.

Holly what a beautiful door!!!! That is almost exactly my front door and it's a beauty in real life. Great job by the way. Can you share which stain color you used? It's amazing!!!

Dreamywhite - The stain is True Hue wood stain in golden maple. I got this from Repcolite which is a local paint store so I'm not sure if that brand is nationwide? It was a gel stain and then I sealed it with a clear poly from Sikkens.

Ajsmama - I think the jambs around mine were acutally wood because they came natural--like natural wood ready to be stained and then felt like wood and stained like wood. Although when you look at the picture and in real life you can tell slightly that one is wood and one is fiberglass because they stained slightly different grain. Bummer that yours came white! Not sure what to tell you to do with that! :(

As far as the sample piece of the door...I went to my local door company where I bought the door from and they called their supplier and got a sample. So I didn't deal directly with ThermaTru but maybe they did. I just had to visualize stain on it so I took the sample and stained like 6 different colors on it and took it out to the house and held it up to the siding etc. That really helped and I would highly recommend doing that. Try your door company or call ThermaTru directly.

I stained the door before it was on and let it dry a good 48 hours before I did anything else with it. I will say that the staining was a little tricky because if you let any area set too long and then went back over it, it would stain funny. I found working in a small area was best and using a short bristled brush to 'fan' it out worked best. ThermaTru has a great 'how to' video on their website that really helped.

I can't really remember how I cleaned it? It might have been with mineral spirits? I think the video shows you how to do that too.

Good luck with your door. We have been very happy with ours and we live in Michigan so with shifting temperatures we are glad we went with fiberglass.
Thanks for the comments! :)

Just thought I would post a picture of how mine came for your reference:

Sorry, I just looked at that picture and it was in our barn which is full of spider webs and hay! The door isn't really that dirty! It gives a visual though of what I started with!
Hope that helps!

Hi all.

Helpful thread as I am trying to choose a stain color for our fiberglass Therma Tru front door (Arts & Crafts/Mission style) with white trim & 6 grille sidelites.

We are choosing from Therma Tru's options. Anyone have photos of the Oak or Light Oak options? Actually photos of any of Therma Tru's stains would help....my dh really wants me to choose soon!
Thanks,
Katie

My door came like that also except my fiberglass came pink. I haven't actually seen my real door because they popped in a construction door in it's place and it's sitting at our lumber yard waiting for us to get it. I think after drywall I will be ready for it. My door is by Western a local company here in Milwaukee. Everyone keeps mentioning using ThermaTru stains, why is that stain recommended over the minwax stains locally?

Thanks holly, Nice door (and jambs). We have white trim on outside of house, so that's not a problem (though I'm not sure whether to paint the parts b/t the door and sidelights a brown to match the door stain, make it look like one big unit, or leave them white to match the surround and other trim). The big problem is the inside - since I have all stained pine trim.

{{gwi:1487341}}

I need to take some closeups of outside so you can see the jambs and the splotch of tan paint from our old house I was testing. Also some pics of inside.

ajsmama very nice house. i totally see your front door popping from the street with a nice bright/dark color. have you considered painting it instead? that would pop it on the outside and on the inside it would not affect your pine trim. i would say something in the red family but I am in love with red front doors. your siding is pretty light so you might want something to stand out on the porch. if you plan on doing shutters later on you could match the front door to the shutters.

dreamywhite - can you post a pic of your house (with siding? Is it done yet?) Since yours is like holly's and katie's we can figure out a color that goes with your siding.

I don't know about red - I'm not a fan of red doors. Last house was originally gray weathered cedar that we painted tan (hence the leftover tan solid-color stain I tried a splotch on the jamb), with a red or fuscia door that had faded to hot pink, so I painted it green. New owners have added shutters but kept the old wood door (that I would have replaced with insulated FG).

dixie - can you post pics of your door and jambs? Are you sure they used a stain (gel stain?) on the white primed jambs? I'd like to see how that came out.

Do you have those little "plugs" to cover screws in sidelight frames? Did you stain the sidelights with the plugs in place (and how did you keep the stain from collecting around each plug), or did you stain and poly all the plugs separately from the door and then put them in when dry? Thanks

Ha Ha! I'm laughing because when we installed and stained the door, we didn't have the plugs so they were put in later. So now we have a nice stained door with natural plugs in it! They still have to be stained...its one of my summer projects but I was so sick of building I took time off from everything! So I'm not sure how I will keep stain from the other area! The other area is already polyed so maybe that will help with that. I guess I should have stained them before they went in...I guess I would recommend that if you still have a choice.

After I posted that I looked and the plugs are only on the inside - so maybe I won't stain the inside (see my new thread, I didn't want to hijack this one any more)? I'd think you could stain them one at a time (with a Q-tip?) and when they were dry, put them in. No need for poly if they're inside.

Yep, I'm sure that they stained the primed pine jambs (outside, inside the house the jambs are painted white to match the rest of our trim). In fact, I think I still have the email from Thermatru technical support explaining to me that the jambs were stainable even though they were pre-primed...after I emailed them with the same questions that you have! I just purchased a new computer and all of my house pictures are on our old one so I'll have to snap a pic and post it a bit later. Like I said earlier though, the jambs do not necessarily look like a stain...more like a paint job...but it does exactly match the door, sidelight, and transom stain, which is what we wanted.

My siding is well underway and looks very nice on the front of the house. I still need to post a pic later this week. When I drove up to the house my first thought was stain that front door and jambs. The siding color, and trim color really work well together now and I think that a stained front door would look fantastic. We also have a beadboard front porch ceiling that I wasn't sure if I should stain or paint white but I think I want to stain it to match my door. My Hardie Shingled Siding started to go up yesterday on my peaks and it's so cute. So glad I added this feature since stone was not an option for me at this point. I will post a photo later this week, the siding guys took a couple days off so I need to wait until they finish.

I'm a little late to this thread, but here's an example of Thermatru's walnut stain on a mahogony collection door and walnut stain on oak grain thermatru garage doors. really hard to see the door, but looks very similar to garage - I'll take another picture and post a close up of the door! and btw, the door was literally PINK when it came unfinished :)