Long time gone, back with new house

[TheSpid]

So I was on here a couple of years ago whilst ’renovating’ a 400 year old stone farmhouse - I say renovating more like titivating, and we hadn’t finished before circumstances caused us to move. We are now in a 1913 Edwardian semi, with some rather lovely features. Nice fireplaces, coving, stuff on the ceiling (words escape me today), deep skirting etc. it has had some modernisation.

So, todays question is, is it worth stripping back the internal doors? Just the living room door is exposed wood one one side, the rest all 13 doors are gloss white front and back. One the dining room door, has hardboard over one side, so assuming that’s either covering up something, nice or horrid who knows.

 

[Cubist]

To my mind yes, but theres a big 'but' at the end of that sentence. Everything depends on how the old finishes (there may be many of them) are removed. Dipping is always a bad idea as it can and frequently does damage the body and joints of the door and can also discolour the underlying timbers. Chemical solvents can produce good results but different previous coatings may resist some of these and multiple applications may be needed to remove all of them, and of course discolouration may still occur. Heat treatments, provided care is taken to avoid burning the timber can be effective but can lack finesse aorund small mouldings.

Inevitably though, and the most galling to my mind, is that there will be small patches of the old finishes left in dings and dents in the wood and particularly in the crevices of joints at the edges of panels and rails etc which can be difficult to ever remove satisfactorily. Any you overlook will stick out like a sore thumb whenever you see the door again.

To my mind, unless you are very sure the underlying woods are worthy of display and you're prepared to invest the time and effort to get it right, this would be one job to walk away from.
Good luck.

 

[Drayton]

I was going to agree with Cubist in every regard but having seen the door that isn't painted, and the splendid 'divider' in the ?hall on the other thread as well as the fireplaces, it would be worth exploring what is under one of the painted doors on that floor as it could look splendid with more wood rather than mundane white paint. Is that actually the wood or a scrumble type finish?

Probably not a priority though, unless you've made a very wise purchase indeed and can concentrate on appearance straight off rather than fundamentals.

 

[TheSpid]

I was going to agree with Cubist in every regard but having seen the door that isn't painted, and the splendid 'divider' in the ?hall on the other thread as well as the fireplaces, it would be worth exploring what is under one of the painted doors on that floor as it could look splendid with more wood rather than mundane white paint. Is that actually the wood or a scrumble type finish?

Probably not a priority though, unless you've made a very wise purchase indeed and can concentrate on appearance straight off rather than fundamentals.

Sincerely hoping it’s a wise purchase, very little to ‘do’, windows eventually, maybe floors, insulation, but it seems in good nick (famous last words). Where I’ve accidentally chipped the paint on the architraving round the door it’s wood like the door underneath. We did lots to the last house and sadly my health now stops us doing a lot of work.

Fairly certain it’s the wood, and not a finish. The edge shows stain and where someone stopped the stain for some reason. The divider is original to the house (well to the extension that was added 1916 and was added then) and the same wood, as are the stairs.

 

[TheSpid]

To my mind yes, but theres a big 'but' at the end of that sentence. Everything depends on how the old finishes (there may be many of them) are removed. Dipping is always a bad idea as it can and frequently does damage the body and joints of the door and can also discolour the underlying timbers. Chemical solvents can produce good results but different previous coatings may resist some of these and multiple applications may be needed to remove all of them, and of course discolouration may still occur. Heat treatments, provided care is taken to avoid burning the timber can be effective but can lack finesse aorund small mouldings.

Inevitably though, and the most galling to my mind, is that there will be small patches of the old finishes left in dings and dents in the wood and particularly in the crevices of joints at the edges of panels and rails etc which can be difficult to ever remove satisfactorily. Any you overlook will stick out like a sore thumb whenever you see the door again.

To my mind, unless you are very sure the underlying woods are worthy of display and you're prepared to invest the time and effort to get it right, this would be one job to walk away from.
Good luck.

Indeed, dip stripping would not be ideal. I might experiment on one door and see.

 

[Cubist]

Your latest photos suggest to me that some of the mouldings were perhaps applied later in the doors life and, as they are a fairly common pattern, should be fairly easy to replace if a matching timber could be found. I mention this only because it may be simpler to remove the mouldings before stripping the current finish from them and the main panels of the door, but theres a risk of breaking one or two while doing so - it would certainly make getting at any finish that's found its way into the crevices. On the other hand the oak architrave in the last picture shows signs of wear to what I'm presuming is a varnish of some kind. A decent cabinet scraper would get rid of the bulk of that reasonably easily except for the returns for which some tedious and time consuming care would be needed to avoid damaging the panels or walls.