Getting the Stripping Bug Early
The 6 posts I’ve now written just about planning work for the front of my house probably tipped you off to the fact that this project has me scared shitless. I’m definitely going for it, but as long as we’re getting freezing weather at night, repeatedly soaking the brick with water would be very bad. So plan and whine it is.
Until last week. Remember that folk Victorian door that’s been propped against one wall or another for like 9 months?
Well, I went at on a warm evening last week.
I stripped most of my interior doors years ago while the house was unfinished and it took forever. I got this one done faster for a few reasons. One, I used a harsher stripper that worked in 15 minutes or so. Before, I used SoyGel, which was nice because it didn’t burn if I spilled it on my skin, but was more work because I had to cover it with plastic to keep it wet so it had more time to work.
And before I put hours into carefully hand scraping the softened paint out of carved details in the doors. After many, many coats of paint stripper a friend told me to blast the rest of the paint off with the hose. That was a huge labor saving trick. This time, I took that advice right away. It took the paint off fast… but made more of a mess than I was planning for.
I think of stripping doors as fill in work. That’s how I used it before; I think the interior doors took 3 years start to finish. Once I basically destroyed the back yard that approach didn’t work anymore. And so, somehow, I finished this project on a sensible schedule! I started it Thursday, and Saturday I finished it AND power washed the back yard. I do this once a year anyway. All done in time for our 5th Nor’easter, though that one didn’t make it to Philadelphia.
The door is back on the back burner again now. I’ll need to tackle the brick, wood trim, and windows first. Those things will be harder to live without after I get this project started. Hopefully the door can still happen this year. But at least it’s clean enough that it won’t be held up with days of DIY stripping work when I can get it hung.
So, it’s not pretty enough to stain. That might be a relief. I’ll still need to install a pane of glass and have a pro cut it down to fit snugly into the existing opening. Not a terrible amount of work, but we’ll see how the rest of the year goes.
6 Responses
I love the folk Victorian door, I don’t remember seeing it before. Where are you planning to use it? One thing to keep in mind will be to be prepared to spend the extra amount for tempered glass to meet current code requirements.
I will be looking to replace our front door within the next year or so. The current one we have is from the 1920s and while I like it, it is not in great shape and can be easily kicked in (good thing we have an alarm system). Originally, our house would have had a solid paneled door, but I am hoping to find a vintage windowed Victorian door as I think it will fit with the house nicely, and I want the added light. Inside, I will have nine doors to strip (ugh), but we may opt to send them out one at a time to have them dip-stripped.
It’s going to be my new front door. I have a circa 1990 Victorianish front door now that I tried to convince myself to loke because it’s mahogany. There are old photos from the city archives here showing similar doors to mine on nearby houses: http://chadscrookedhouse.com/2017/10/09/farther-down-the-front-door-rabbit-hole/ I may add a little decorative ledge below the glass if I can do it convincingly. My house is a little newer than yours so I think that a half glass door would be original but it’s hard to tell. And of course tempered glass. Possibly laminated.
Philadelphia Salvage used to charge $200 a door for stripping. Let me know about your plans for front door shopping. It’s the only kind of shopping I’ve ever actually enjoyed in my life
The door looks a lot better now that it isn’t that dingy white enamel. It will be fun to see what kind of glass you opt for and how you end up painting it. It’s all progress!
I was going to do clear glass and a sheer panel, nothing original
I was going to do clear glass and a sheer panel curtain for privacy, nothing too creative, but I’m open to suggestions!
NEAT! i’ve never used paint stripper. It’s pretty amazing how well of a job it does! much easier than scraping.