would you strip this door?

[keith ouellette]

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I want to strip off the paint so it can be stained. is this an impossible project?

[Von Bickley]

It will probably be a beautiful door. You may want to check with a local restoration company to see what they would charge you to strip it.

[Larry Fox]

Not impossible but I would not do it. WAY too much time involved. A lot of paint strippers will darken the wood and make it so you have to paint it again (PeelAway 1 for example).

Von might be on to something, I know that you can take things and have them dipped but it might not be able to be stained.

[keith ouellette]

how about bix paint stripper.

[Phil Phelps]

Whatever you use it's messy. How many layers of paint are on it now? Panels, OMG!! I'm with the pro stripper.

[Neal Clayton]

21 panel door. awesome ;).

i've used a couple of the commercial dippers, charged about 50 bucks per door, and both used a hot bath followed by a pressure washer. not exactly gentle, but if it's old growth wood of a species resistant to rot, they usually survive.

then you have the three holes to perfectly grain match that careless people apparently drilled for not one or two but three cheapo borg locks.

actually from the looks of it you might be able to put in something with a large lockplate to cover the bottom two, and then just fill the one on top. i'm assuming from its likely age it has a hole for a proper mortise lock in the side? if so you could fit it with a replacement.

either way, have fun! (sarcastic)

[Howard Acheson]

What is the species of wood?

I would take it to a commercial stripper and let them clean it up. You will need to do some touchup cleaning and then sand it completely.

Sanding or scraping will not get the finish out of the pores and tight spots. Stain would not evenly penetrate leaving a splotchy appearence.

[keith ouellette]

I gave it a try and after using a bad batch of stripper and then trying a different stripper it seemed hopeless. I didn't look into dipping it because we wanted to keep the finish on the inside of the door.

so it is getting washed, sanded and sprayed with paint. 21 panels is just to much to strip. The nays were right.

[Neal Clayton]

yeah unfortunately keeping the original finish is all but impossible. you can get it bare if you work at it long enough, but can't pick and choose what you remove.