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Painting a front door...

10 years ago

We bought a front door that was primed ready to paint. It is a Masonite Craftsmen Style door with a smooth finish and a dentil shelf. The guy at Home Depot told us to buy an exterior paint to use on the door. We bought Behr exterior finish paint in Ruby Ring which is a red color. We painted 2 or 3 coats with plenty of time to dry in between coats and would hand sand it. It still was not getting smooth. Finally we used a sander, but big flakes was chipping right off. I started examining further, and along the shelf I can leave an imprint of my fingernail in the paint that was painted over a month ago. We're in the process of building. We decided to put the door aside and deal with it later, but the later is coming up fast.... So is there is a hardener for paint? Any suggestions? My husband does construction for a living but has never dealt with a paint issue like what we have with this door. How do we get this issue right? I do have the smooth rollers for doors and cabinets for what's that worth on the main parts of the doors. I know that doesn't matter on all the detailed portions though. Anyways... I see beautiful red doors all the time, so why are we having such an issue with getting a nice smooth finish?

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Comments (4)

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Christopher Nelson Wallcovering and Painting
10 years ago
so why are we having such an issue with getting a nice smooth finish?

I would suspect your choice in paint and also not priming first.
graywings123
10 years ago
In my very un-expert opinion, semi-gloss or glossy acrylic paints in deep colors take FOREVER to dry and cure - I'm talking weeks and weeks.

Using a sander on paint that hasn't cured yet sounds like a bad idea.
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All your complaints really sound legit and the painters should address all of them to make you happy. I prefer to remove hardware but I guess some guys don't. It doesn't really matter....getting the door to look good no matter how you get there is what is important. The door should be clean and any rough spots smooth by sanding. Also, rusty areas should be treated with a primer designed for rust or those spots will just come back. They should also leave you touch up paint at your request.
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Acrylic paints should stick just fine to plastic. Usually when people struggle with painting steel doors, it is because they are not keeping a wet edge. You have to break the door down into sections and when you are working in one section, you can't really get paint outside of that area and then brush back through it minutes later. If you brush through paint that is already starting to set, that is when you will pull at it which will look like hell. Do your panels first and keep the paint in the panels. Then do your horizontals, then the left and right sides. You may want to switch to using a small roller if you struggle with getting the door to look good by painting it with a brush.
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Comments (9)
What's the doors' construction....all wood, fiberglass, or metal-skinned, etc.? Yes....black will get marginally hotter than a dark green, believe-it-or-no! Ideally- * Take off the door and paint it horizontally. * Use a PRE-TINTED Black "from the factory". The pre-tints use black POWDERED pigments, not the liquid colorants at the store. These are much "Blacker", and cure faster. * After the prep., apply 2 coats of your black, about 2-3 hours apart. * Wait as long as possible b4 re-hanging & closing it for the night! * If ya get the coats on b4 noon, wait 'til 10pm to reinstall if ya can!! * ALSO: very-very lightly dust the door-JAMB, NOT the door itself, with some talcum-powder/similiar. This keeps curing paint from sticking to the surface it closes against under pressure. It's the same reason you'd dust a cake-pan! * FULL cure-out MAY take a month. >> Faron
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It's unnecessary to use exterior paint for this. Not only is exterior paint more expensive, but usually isn't zero VOC like some interior paints. There's no color difference between interior and exterior paint.
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paintguy22
10 years ago
Yea, they take longer to dry because of the huge amounts of colorants added to make the color. Don't leave the door outside overnight with temperatures dipping at night and dew forming, this could re-wet the paint and then it will never cure.
Faron79
10 years ago
Yes-

A deep-tinted color (meaning: high LIQUID colorant-load) will take many WEEKS to harden-off. Even then, it'll never be "hard".
* If many light coats are sprayed on, you have a chance at better hardness, because thinner coats dry faster.
* To properly atomize paint like that (modern latexes), it takes a GOOD gun & technique.
* HO's rarely have this kind of equipment & knowledge.
* A good additive for latex paints that will aid in leveling is XIM's Latex X-tender.
* If you could find an acceptable Factory PRE-tinted "Red", this would help the final cured hardness & reduce cure-time.
* This is because POWDERED pigments are added @ the plants, instead of lotsa LIQUID colorant added @ the store.

If you wanted to "up" your game, FPE makes some drool-worthy stuff that gets HARD. Their colorants are a different makeup too. In the Gloss Hollandlac, you can read a newspaper...

Faron

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