Restoration of interior doors with their own hands
Many old Soviet interior doors hadpaneled structure and were made of solid wood, and of fairly high quality. Good wood was especially often used in the construction of Stalin-era buildings. When renovating apartments, most people throw out these doors, replacing them with something flimsy and short-lived made of sawdust and PVC. We consider this approach, at the very least, strange. Replacing a good solid wood with a cheap, radioactive chipboard or MDF, paying a lot of money for it. Isn't that crazy, agree? The option of restoring wooden doors with your own hands looks more interesting. They can be made to look very attractive and will last many times longer than modern "sawdust" analogues. We will talk about ways to turn dull old solid wood doors into modern and stylish ones in this article. We will consider the main restoration options, their pros and cons.
Lacquering
This method of restoration of wooden doorsSuitable only for structures in which all elements are made of solid wood or covered with undamaged veneer. The restoration process is similar to major window repairs, but slightly more labor-intensive. Step 1. All fittings are dismantled, including handles and locks. Step 2. Paint or varnish is completely removed from the doors, depending on what coating was used. For this, a hair dryer and a blunt spatula are used (a sharp one will cut the wood, do not use it under any circumstances).
The surface is heated with a hair dryer until the paintwill become soft (3-5 seconds is enough). After that, the heated section is cleaned with a spatula. The paint residue after this method is removed with a grinder or manually with sandpaper.
The grinder can in principle be used as wellimmediately, it removes paint faster and more effectively, but it also removes a little of the wood surface. For doors, this is not critical, in general. Step 3. The surface, completely cleaned of paint, is examined for serious defects. If they are present, then varnishing is not suitable. If there are no defects, the wood surface is covered with stain and after drying, varnished in several layers. It is better to use completely transparent and matte varnish.Step 4.If the door has glass, it is better to replace it with a new one. It is best to choose matte or transparent glass with a sandblasted pattern for replacement, it will look most impressive. Step 5. After the varnish has dried, the fittings are installed and the door is ready. All that remains is to restore the door frame itself. The natural texture of the wood is visible on varnished doors, which looks cool. But surface defects (chips, scratches, etc.) are also visible, which cannot be hidden using putty. The only option is to repair the defect with putty and cover it with a piece of veneer on top, but it is unlikely that you will be able to find a suitable one in appearance. Therefore, this method is only suitable for wooden doors without defects. If they are present, it is recommended to use painting.
Painting
This method of restoration is almost identical to 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.
Painting is done in several layers.When painting, it is important to avoid drips, streaks and other "ugliness" so typical for beginners. If you have no experience in painting wooden products, then it is better to postpone the restoration of the doors, as it will turn out very, very ugly. First, study the rules of painting and practice on some unnecessary boards. As soon as you manage to make an absolutely smooth surface without defects, you can start restoration work. But we warn you that it may take you quite a long time to learn how to paint correctly, as it is actually difficult. However, the acquired skill will come in handy many times in life, so the effort is worth it.
Pasting with foil
The doors are covered with a special vinyl film.It is made in China, but the quality is quite acceptable, you can use it. This method of do-it-yourself door restoration is suitable mainly for panel doors that do not have relief elements. Before 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 this the film is glued on.Pasting is done from top to bottom so that the joints of the film are not visible. Smoothing should be done from the center to the edges of the door. You may not be able to perfectly evenly stick the film the first time. Try re-sticking, many types of film allow you to do this several times (but not all). Below you can watch a video on how to stick a standard door film (first video) and how to stick large vinyl stickers (second video). If you do not want to do the restoration yourself, you can order it from specialists. You can see the prices for these services here.
