Don't trust your beautiful entryway to just anyone!
In this section you will see multiple doors refinished by so-called local professional painters and Refinishers. All these clients unfortunately found out about me too late! Everything you see in this section only makes my job harder to achieve a perfect refinish.
- The most common mistake I see is power sander rotation swirl / scratch marks and sanding Against the Grain which leaves horrible, unnatural, undesirable results.
- Scratched glass
A lot of people who work on doors do more damage than good. Many doors I work on I can tell they have been refinished in the past because of all the scratches in the glass. This is totally avoidable by protecting the glass before any work begins. This is totally unacceptable, lazy and downright carelessness
- For some reason in the Lowcountry layering gel stain over top of existing finishes to add color and hide imperfections is considered refinishing. This is not refinishing at all. This is a quick fix which may hide imperfections but also hides the Grain and natural luster of your door. Countless times this fails and peels within a year. Then you have a much bigger problem. If you are considering this method you are much safer with just painting your door a solid color.
- This door was refinished by a local professional paint company. Within one year I was called to look at the door for a minor 1 inch peeling section. In about 2 minutes I peeled all this varnish off just using my thumb nail. This is a good example of bad prep work, applying varnish to quickly over uncured stain and /or mixing products that are not compatible. Simply just all-around lack of knowledge.
- Most exterior doors post 1960 have a solid core with a decorative veneer on top. Veneer doors are less likely to split /crack and Warp then of a solid wood door. Untrained painters and Refinishers are unaware of this. They think just because the door is heavy that it is a solid piece of wood. Unskilled Refinishers take a power sander with 60 or 80 grit sandpaper which is very course, very abrasive and destructive when used on a veneer. Not only do they remove layers of finish but they also remove about half of your veneer with it without ever realizing they are working on a veneer. This will take half the life off your door. Have this refinishing technique used twice and you’re more than likely buying a new door. The pictures below are of doors that were refinished one time with aggressive sanding techniques… As you can see half the veneer is gone. I can’t stress this enough… Beware of imposters!
