Advice on Finishing an Exterior Door?
Even though we haven't finished everything that needs to be completed upstairs, we're going to spend a fair amount of time on some other projects that really need to move along. Among them: installing our new front door.
We ordered and received the replacement early this summer and it's been waiting patiently for us in the basement ever since. Now the onset of cold weather is reinvigorating our sense of urgency to get it done.
Before we start applying the finish, we figured we should take advantage of the wisdom of the visitors to this site and make sure we do things right...
First off, a quick search of other houseblogs regarding exterior doors turned up plenty of good first-hand examples. Of particular value were several posts over at Pigeon Point Project, like this one. Both Trissa's initial post and the reader comments were enlightening.
It seems that a variety of finish stains can be used as a first coat, but from most accounts it sounds like spar varnish is a good way to go for the final coat.
My questions is this: Is the interior finish coat as important as the exterior? I ask because we're using shellac for all of our interior woodwork and so my inital thought is to match that finish on the inside of the front door. However, I don't know if that's appropriate if this is an exterior door and the exterior finish coat is done with spar varnish.
Any words of wisdom would be appreciated.
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Comments
You so totally have to talk to Trissa. She's a spar-varnish-door-finishing goddess - even if she does forget to clean her brushes once in a while. Our doors couldn't have turned out any better. All I know is that it took lots of coats (not the winter kind).
Seriously, I'll send her your way...
Posted by: Nick | October 11, 2005 8:32 PM
Use shellac for the color and depth it gives to the wood and put spar varnish over it to protect the shellac from water. That's my input, but I figure you would expect that from me!
Posted by: gary | October 11, 2005 8:53 PM
The amount of protection the exterior side needs is directly proportional to the amount of exposure it gets. I had 2 doors on my last house with the same unknown factory finish. The front door - under a porch on the north side - had zero problems. The back door - no porch with a southern exposure - got beat to sh*t.
Posted by: Greg | October 11, 2005 9:54 PM
If you want to go as "hardcore" as possible (read not touch it again for many, many, years) then I would suggest looking into a two part polyurethane.
Smith&Co have some great products that I have used in the past (penetrating epoxies, etc) They also have a two part polyurethane that is used on boat decks--what gets more sun and water than wooden boat decks? A few drawbacks: (1) not as easy to use as single component systems; (2) cost. (3)Only available in a "high gloss."
But the advantages are that it will outlast virtually everything else over the long run...less maintenance. Read all about it/call them. Steve Smith is a real kick--a real "Berkeley" kind of guy...but he hasn't steered me wrong yet when it comes to wood/protection/rot. Good luck.
http://www.fiveyearclear.com/
Posted by: P | October 12, 2005 8:51 AM
This Old House covered staining and protecting an exterior door in detail in a recent issue. I think it was the August or September issue.
Posted by: Keri | October 12, 2005 9:49 AM