Tortorich Stain Door

Mr. Tortorich's stylish front door was showing weathering at the bottom of it's facing. He said the last finisher used oil over the finish to protect it from weathering and that it has begun to wear out.


The door is made out of oak and the interior side of it was in excellent shape, as is the case with most of the exterior front doors that I have refinished.

















To keep any of the chemical stripper from ruining the finish on the inside side of the door, I taped off the 1-3/4" edge with 2" tape, allowing anything to drip past the finished edge.

I also removed all the hardware and taped off the glass.

I left the tape on through the three day process.










After the finish and stain was stripped off, I sanded the face down with 150 grit sandpaper to remove most of the weathered wood where I could and to smooth the wood out.

Whatever left over stain that was still in the grain was sanded out as much as possible.

Final sanding was done with 220 grit with the grain to prepare the grain to receive the first coat of stain.

A shop vac was used to suck up the sanding dust.






After sanding was complete, a thorough wipe down with a tack cloth was used to remove any stubborn sanding dust that was still clinging to the door.

We used Benjamin Moore Dark Walnut (customer's choice) to stain the door.

Some sections of the door in the harder wood was still too light for their liking, so I added a second coat of stain in these sections to darken them up a shade of two.










After the stain dried for a day, I brushed on Cabot Spar Varnish Semi-gloss for a protective clear coat finish. Spar varnish is a marine varnish and suitable for exterior use. Spar varnish is thick and brushes on in a thick coat.

Polyurethane should only be used on interior wood projects for it has no UV protection and starts to yellow up and deteriorate quickly.

After letting it dry for a day, I sanded the door lightly with 300 grit steel wool to roughen up the finish before applying a second coat of spar varnish.

Using a tack cloth, I wiped off the sanding dust and applied a second coat of spar varnish and rehung the door to complete the process.








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