# Custom Wood Carriage Garage Door, How to Refinish?



## MNBENZ (Aug 18, 2012)

Hi all, I found this forum because I recently bought a house with a beautiful set of custom wood carriage garage doors (found the receipt for $5,000).

I bought the house on a short sale and not everything was kept up well, unfortunately this includes the doors. Here in Minnesota we have some harsh weather and I need to get these doors with a new finish on them before the weather turns.

I've attached a few photos of the doors, it's towards the bottom where the finish has worn off. I am looking for any and all advice on how to fix this. Can I sand where the finish has worn and restain/put on a hard finish? Thanks for your advice!


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## Dave Paine (May 30, 2012)

You do need to sand to get back to bare/clean wood. Not going to be easy, especially getting in between the boards.

This looks like it had an original hard finish. I think the lack of gutter across the top contributed to the water stain.

There are many good hard finishes on the market.

I made a sidelight for my front door and finished this with Sikkens. A two part system. Not cheap, but this is holding up well.

Meant to be available at Home Depot now. Used to be only at real paint distributors.

http://www.sikkens.us/en/Products/HomeDepot/Pages/default.aspx


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## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

I think the only way you would be happy with the outcome is if you completely refinish the doors. You could sand the spots and touch up the finish but the color on the spots you work on will never match. I would start with Kleen Strip paint and varnish remover working on a area about 3'x3' at a time and strip the finish off down to the bare wood. What I normally do is put a plastic drop cloth under where I'm working and cover it with cardboard or newspapers to absorb what falls. Since the doors are next to a painted jamb it would be helpful if you could take them down and strip them elsewhere or it might be easier to touch up the paint on the jamb if you get stripper in it. The stripper is a semi-paste remover and will stick to verticle surfaces. Let it set for about 10 to 15 minutes keeping it wet with the remover and then take a broad knife and see if the finish strips off clean. You may have to soak it a little longer. If it comes off scrape the finish off and either rince it with lacquer thinner or water. What I like to use is a power washer to wash the remover off however I have one that is low pressure. It is only about 1000 psi and won't damage or roughen the wood other than being wet. If you used one that is 3000 psi or more it would roughen the wood by eating away at the soft part of the wood. After the door is stripped the areas that have mold I would use a little bleach on to kill it. Then once the door is dry it could be sanded and finished. It appears there is really no color so if you wanted the same appearance you could use some golden oak stain to restore the color and then topcoat with a spar varnish. More than likely the doors are just a little yellow from the old varnish yellowing.


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

*For extreme locations I'd use a penetrating stain*

I would not use a film based product, like a varnish since after a few years it will scale and flake. The log home folks have some products just suited for exterior wood preservation:
http://www.twincreeksloghomes.com/detail.aspx?ID=32


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## cabinetman (Jul 5, 2007)

I would not use a power washer. After stripping (using a methylene chloride based stripper), and sanding, I would use an oil type finish, not a film finish like a spar type. Film finish will fail and will be a PITA to refinish.


I would use Penofin Red Label, an oil type finish.













 







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## slevapaul (Aug 25, 2012)

The wooden doors needs proper finishing otherwise they may get spoiled with in a short time. The oil based finishing gives the pretty good finishing and is most suggestible to the furniture and the doors.


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## Rick Mosher (Feb 26, 2009)

My suggestion for what it's worth would be to use Sikkens Cetol1 and Cetol23. That bottom edge is damaged more because snow sits there and absorbs into the lower areas. I always use West System epoxy on the bottoms of boards that sit on the ground especially end grain. Do some samples on some scrap wood before trying to tackle the real thing. (looks like oak to me in the picture) Good luck on your project and post some pictures when you're done.


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## HowardAcheson (Nov 25, 2011)

It looks like the original finish may have been a polyurethane. Poly is not a long lasting finish when use where the UV from sunlight can get to it. It becomes cloudy and then begins to crack and peel. When that happens near the bottom, rainwater splashing up onto the surface causes the finish to come completely off. This allows the water to get into the wood and causes the black stain.

I agree that the best solution is to remove the doors (one at a time) strip off the remaining finish using a chemical stripper containing methylene chloride. Once the old finish is off, bleach the doors using oxalic acid. This bleach will remove most of the stain from the water. Now sand the surfaces and then prime with a dewaxed shellac (Zinsser SealCoat) and apply 4-6 coats (or the number of coats called for on the label) of a non-poly real marine exterior varnish. Go to a real boat store and look for brands like Pettit, Interlux, Valspar or, best of all, Epifanes. Big box "spar" varnishes will not last.

Finally be sure to coat all six surfaces of the doors (inside, outside, top, bottom and both edges. You don't need to apply as many coats as you do on the outside. But, apply as many coats on the exterior lower areas where the water can splash up.


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## cabinetman (Jul 5, 2007)

HowardAcheson said:


> Poly is not a long lasting finish when use where the UV from sunlight can get to it. It becomes cloudy and then begins to crack and peel. When that happens near the bottom, rainwater splashing up onto the surface causes the finish to come completely off. This allows the water to get into the wood and causes the black stain.


This is what happens to any film finish. Refurbishing that finish is one major PITA. It requires stripping and sanding to redo. The quality of the finish may last longer, but the degradation is eminent. The finish seals the wood and traps it, and can break down and destroy itself from the inside, as wood tends to expel moisture/air with climate changes. It can be as simple as heat variation.

And you suggest below to use the high price finish, which is not only going to be a labor intensive finish to refinish, but a dent in the wallet besides. A UV penetrating oil sure won't have that plastic look, but will be a lot easier to maintain, by just a quick cleaning and reapplication. This perspective is JMO, as having done it both ways.



HowardAcheson said:


> I agree that the best solution is to remove the doors (one at a time) strip off the remaining finish using a chemical stripper containing methylene chloride. Once the old finish is off, bleach the doors using oxalic acid. This bleach will remove most of the stain from the water. Now sand the surfaces and then prime with a dewaxed shellac (Zinsser SealCoat) and apply 4-6 coats (or the number of coats called for on the label) of a non-poly real marine exterior varnish. Go to a real boat store and look for brands like Pettit, Interlux, Valspar or, best of all, Epifanes. Big box "spar" varnishes will not last.
> 
> Finally be sure to coat all six surfaces of the doors (inside, outside, top, bottom and both edges. You don't need to apply as many coats as you do on the outside. But, apply as many coats on the exterior lower areas where the water can splash up.












 







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## IanZachary (Oct 31, 2012)

MNBENZ you should really follow the advice of sanding and varnishing your wooden carriage garage door... this will not only enhance the life of the door but also make it look more beautiful...
Best quality wooden paint will also make it look more classy.


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## MNBENZ (Aug 18, 2012)

*Doors are Refinished*

Well it only took me a year  but I finally got around to refinishing the doors. Thank you everyone for your help!

I first stripped the doors using Behr deck finish remover, I did several coats keeping it wet during the process. Then I used Behr wood cleaner/brightener to neutralize the wood and clean up the dark spots.

After several days of drying I sanded with several grits of paper. And finally I had a very nice bare, clean wood to work with. I did not remove the doors, I was able to do it in place. Next time I probably will remove because I want eventually to make them swing outward.

Finally I applied the recommended Sikkens oil based finish. It turned out darker than I was expecting, but I think they do look quite good. Thanks again for all the advice.

Anyone have any recommendations on upkeep? Now that I have used Sikkens oil finish should I reapply this every few years or ? I now have a battery powered leaf blower, I am going to blow any snow off the bottom edge of that door like a hawk to keep this from happening again.


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## lacman (Mar 13, 2012)

What are your plans? Do you wish to have a transparent finish like you have? Or do you wish to paint? I live in Minnesota as well and just finished a similar project for a client. If you want a transparent finish then you have to remove the failed coating. That can be as invasive as stripping it, or as simple as sanding the varnish back to a stable substrate. Then you can clean the wood with oxalic acid. It will turn the grey wood back to a natural color. At that point you could apply some clear coats of Marine Grade Spar Varnish. If you want to change the color a little then you can apply a glaze coat to move the color followed by at least three coats of spar varnish. If you don't like gloss then you can use a satin spar varnish for the last coat. Good luck and keep us posted with your results.


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