Restoration of interior doors with their own hands
Many old Soviet interior doors hadpaneled construction and made of solid, and quite qualitative. Especially often, good wood was used for the construction of Stalin-built buildings. Doing repairs in the apartments, most people throw these doors, changing them to something flimsy and short-lived from sawdust and PVC. We consider this approach at least strange. Change a solid wood array to a cheap chipboard or MDF board, paying a lot of money for it. Well, nonsense, agree? The option with the restoration of wooden doors with their own hands looks more interesting. The view can be made very attractive, and they will last many times longer than modern "sawdust" analogues. About ways to turn dull old doors from an array into modern and stylish we'll talk in this article. Consider the main options for restoration, their pros and cons.
Lacquering
This method of restoration of wooden doorsIt is suitable only for structures in which all elements are made of solid wood or covered with undamaged veneer. The process of restoration is similar to a major repair of windows, but a little more laborious. 1 step. All accessories, including handles and locks, are dismantled. 2 step. The paint or varnish is completely removed from the doors, depending on which coating was used. To do this, use a hair dryer and blunt spatula (sharp will cut wood, do not use it in any case). 
The surface is heated by a hairdryer until the paintwill become soft (3-5 seconds is enough). After the heated section is cleaned with a spatula. Remains of the paint after this method are removed by grinding machine or manually by sandpaper. 
The grinder can in principle be used immediately,she removes the paint faster and more efficiently, but slightly removes the surface of the tree. For doors this is not critical, in general. 3 step. Completely cleaned from the paint surface is examined for serious defects. If they are, the varnishing will not work. In the absence of defects, the surface of the wood is covered with stain and after drying it is varnished in several layers. The varnish is better to use completely transparent and matte. 4 step. If the door has glass, then it is better to replace it with a new one. Choose a replacement is best matte or clear glass with sandblasting, it will look most effective. 5 step. After the varnish has dried, the fittings are installed and the door is ready. It remains just like to restore the door frame. On the varnished doors you can see the natural texture of the wood, which looks cool. But visible and defects in the surface (chips, scratches, etc.), which can not be hidden using a putty. The only option is to seal the defect with putty and cover with a piece of veneer, but you can not find a suitable one by the look. Therefore, this method is suitable only for wooden doors without defects. If they are, then it is recommended to use painting.
Painting
This method of restoration is almost the same as varnishing, there are only a few differences:
- The cleaned surface is treated with a wood primer.
- Defects are filled with putty, ground by hand or by a grinder and also ground.
The painting is done in several layers. When painting, it is important not to let smudges, divorces and other "nekrasivostey" so characteristic of newcomers. If you do not have the experience of painting wooden products, then it is better to restore the doors, as it will turn out very, very ugly. First, learn the rules of painting and practice on some unnecessary plaques. As soon as it turns out to make an absolutely flat surface without defects - you can start restoration work. But we warn you that it takes a lot of time to learn how to paint correctly, because it's really difficult. However, the acquired skill is many times useful in life, so that the effort is worth it.
Pasting with foil
Doors are covered with special vinyl film. It is made in China, but the quality is quite acceptable, you can use it. This method is suitable for restoring doors with their own hands mainly for panel doors, which do not have relief elements. Prior to pasting, preparatory work is required:
- Completely removed all the furniture.
- Removing areas of paint that do not hold well on the wood (on the door, as a rule, they do not exist and this stage is skipped).
- All kinds of defects are cleaned from the paint and putty.
- The surface is degreased.
And only after that the film is glued. The gluing is done from the top to the bottom so that the joints of the film are not visible. Smoothing should already be done from the center to the edges of the door. It's ideal to stick the film straight from the first time you might not be able to get it. Try to re-paste, many kinds of films allow you to do this several times (but not all). Below you can look at the video how to glue a standard door film (first video) and how big vinyl stickers (second video). If you do not want to do the restoration yourself, then you can order it from specialists. With prices for these services you can find here.
