Finishing for doors and stairs

[Matt_S]

I am about to begin decorating our house which is a 1970s terrace. One of the things we like about the house is the original doors are still there and not painted

Not good with wood types but they're the ones that I think lots of houses of that age had. Reason for putting in this area is obviously whats the best natural finish?

As an aside, there is a one door which looks as if it was maybe just oiled and looks like untreated wood. Others are much more orangey and varnished. Whats the best way to remove this good old elbowgrease or chemical such as nitromors? I want to do the best job possible.

The stairs have a hugely thick layer of disgusting thick varnish, after removing (which I'm not looking forward to!) again how to treat? From reading threads patina seems to be a very hard wearing finish, but is it good enough for stairs or is varnish the only option?

Thanks for advice.

 

[Quetech]

Matt

In my last house I restored the pitch pine staircase and doors.
For the doors which had been butchered in the 50'S by having the mouldings removed and covered in hardboard, I found the best way to strip them was with my metabo random orbit sander.
I then fitted new mouldings and varnised but it took a bit of experimenting to get the mouldings to match the doors.
For the stairs which covered three floors I removed all the spindles and handrails which were then dipped.
I had a lot of repair work tp do as well.
I finished them with danish oil and it looked great.

Mike

 

[mr]

Matt
which were then dipped.

Mike

How do you stop that dipping process? Several of our internal doors were dipped by the previous owners and are still in a state of flux over 4 years later. Much darker than the rest of the door, wet & sticky to the touch and oozing enough at the ends to mark the carpet.
Mike

 

[houtslager]

wash down copiusly with vineger

 

[engineer one]

what about the orange stuff they offer on the shopping channels???

supposed to be much easier to use, and safer.

nitromors is a pita to use, and requires quite a lot of water after use to
settle it back to normal. normal chemical dipping and stripping is thought to weaken the door glue.

like so many of these tasks, it will take a bunch of time, and you will
need patience to get the best results. :?
good luck

paul :wink:

 

[Quetech]

Matt

I am not sure why your doors are behaving this way after dipping.
After washing,drying and treating with vinegar I never had any problems.
But I preferred to sand down my doors to remove the old finish as it was
quick and obviously no problem with chemicals.
I also had lots of panels to do round my windows and for these I removed the mouldings and had them dipped then sanded down the big flat areas before refitting the mouldings.
I had to stain the panels as the mouldings ended up a bit darker after the dipping process.
I also stripped some by hand using hot air guns ,nitromors etc and it is hard work.

Mike