Help with varnishing new door

Dee Mart

Hello everyone!

We just purchased a new house. My husband bought a new natural wood front door, that needed to be varnished. My husband went into the hospital last week for an infection. So I decided to varnish the door so he wouldnt have too.

I sanded the door lightly, then I put one coat of varnish, waited about 12 hours and put another coat. That is all I've done. The door looks like crap. It looks like I painted it. An orangy brownish color. It doesnt look like varnish at all. Do I need to sand it down so it will look like varnish? I didnt do the gloss or anything yet. I dont have to strip it down and start all over again do I? I'll die.

Any help is appreciated. You can tell Ive never done this before.

Thank you,

kadman

Dee Mart wrote:

Hello everyone!

We just purchased a new house. My husband bought a new natural wood front door, that needed to be varnished. My husband went into the hospital last week for an infection. So I decided to varnish the door so he wouldnt have too.

I sanded the door lightly, then I put one coat of varnish, waited about 12 hours and put another coat. That is all I've done. The door looks like crap. It looks like I painted it. An orangy brownish color. It doesnt look like varnish at all. Do I need to sand it down so it will look like varnish? I didnt do the gloss or anything yet. I dont have to strip it down and start all over again do I? I'll die.

Any help is appreciated. You can tell Ive never done this before.

Thank you,

Hi Dee,

Exactly what varnish products did you buy, you would need to state the type of varnish as there are many available. You say you have given it two coats already. Is that two coats of stain, or varnish. I ask this because you say you have not glossed it yet.

So what you need to do is describe what two coats, stain or varnish you have applied at this stage. And whether they are oil based or spirit based, this should be on the can.

Once we know what you have used, we should be able to offer help.
Don'y despair at this stage

kadman

Dee Mart

Thank you Kadman for replying to me.

I used WATTYL Exterior Stain
Western Cedar
I guess it would be an oil stain finish.

We wanted it to look like.. the polished wood floors. We told the guy at the shop and he give us that. I mean you cant even see the grain of the wood.

Thanks again Kadman.

mad m

Just a query is it water based or oil based paint?Been looking at the website for the make of paint you got and it seems as if the exterior finish you got was for type of cladding on wooded faced houses.It says that it should allow for grain to come through but as you said only after two coats it seems to be gone.

Thing about water based stains is that they can sometimes just sit on top of wood and they provide a good build up of coats.If its oil then it will naturally sink into woodgrain thus it might be harder to get out.

Is this the stuff Here ?

Tried doing a search for the colour you got but came up with nothing.

The new door itself was it dark in nature already or was it lite in colour? Just reason im asking this is you may be able to get away with using a darker colour over it.But if the door is dark in nature like hardwood it wont make much difference in long run...

hope this helps...

Just checked its oil based stain finish..

Dee Mart

You guys are so kind. Mad m thats the stuff. I have to take my daughter to the doc. I'll come back on in a few hours. Thanks so much for your help.

Dee Mart

Thank you for your responses!!!

My husband called the guy that we bought the door from. He was so kind he came over to the house. He told us how to fix it. We are using brillo pads, and paint thinner to scrub off the extra stain. We have done a quarter of the door, and it looks sooooo much better. The color looks ok now, and you can see the grain. I guess I put it on too thick. But I had no idea it would turn out that way. Oh well live and learn. Its starting to look like we wanted it too. We'll probably be doing this all day tomorrow, but its coming off pretty easy. And the color is looking better too.

Thank you all for your help!!!

mad m thank you so much for going all out and researching this for me. That was soo nice of you!!! Im a little far away from Dublin but I sure appreciate your offer. Thanks again. I hope we solved the problem now.

mad m

Dee Mart wrote:

Thank you for your responses!!!

My husband called the guy that we bought the door from. He was so kind he came over to the house. He told us how to fix it. We are using brillo pads, and paint thinner to scrub off the extra stain. We have done a quarter of the door, and it looks sooooo much better. The color looks ok now, and you can see the grain. I guess I put it on too thick. But I had no idea it would turn out that way. Oh well live and learn. Its starting to look like we wanted it too. We'll probably be doing this all day tomorrow, but its coming off pretty easy. And the color is looking better too.

Thank you all for your help!!!

mad m thank you so much for going all out and researching this for me. That was soo nice of you!!! Im a little far away from Dublin but I sure appreciate your offer. Thanks again. I hope we solved the problem now.

You can buy a ball of steel wool in hardwares,it comes in all different sort of thickness for the intended jobs.Just make sure you use gloves.It might be quicker than brillo pads.Good to hear you got it sorted.

Dee Mart

thanks again Mad M

thetourist

Dee Mart wrote:

thanks again Mad M

glad to see you're getting it sorted out - my hard bled for you reading your post - i just finished a beech worktop and wood can be stressfull if things appear to go a bit wrong -- nice to see you were able to get help
i have a tip, but try it out on a small patch before you go mad on the door. when you're finished the job you're on now, if you get really fine wet&dry sandpaper like somewhere between 240 grit and 1200 grit ( you could buy a couple of sheets of 240, 400, 1000 etc and experiment to find the most suitable ) and use the sand paper wet on the finish you will get a really smooth finish - start with the lowest grade, and finish with the highest. so for example if you pick a small inconspicious bit a couple of inches square and get 240 grit and wet it ( soaking ) and sand with it ( make sure it's not too creased though ) for a few seconds ( you will feel the abrasive working ) - then wipe the surface with kitchen paper and you'll be amazed at the finish !! ( provided it was kind of smooth in the first place . because the higher papers only make the thing smooth they dont take out deep scratches - use a lower one for that and work upwards but dont take all the varnish off ) then if you want you can make it even better using a higher grit ( but dont go mad remember there's a whole door ) -- you can get it to be like glass if you really want

then you can wax the thing and the water will run off it - try rustins furniture polish


good luck