Front door

My front doors faces the west.  Not quite dead straight on but almost.  With the lake house every summer for the last few years.  Then selling and moving out of that vacation property the door got ignored.  That and how often do you go in and out of that door.  I never do, I park in the garage.  

Well the door was sad, sad sad.  The bottom didn't have any finish left at all.  I am not a "pro" so I didn't risk ruining the knobs, I just removed them.  I taped the holes every night for the four days it took me to finish the doors.  Yeah I know "real" home security at its best.

This is after the first layer of stripper.  I could not find the color changing stuff.  It was so hot that it wanted to dry out before it was actually ready to be scraped off.  This took more than double the time it should have.  I would say wait until spring or fall, on a cool day.

This is after three strippings and a ton of sanding.

I knew two things, I was never getting this totally smooth and that I needed to stain this very dark to cover the old stain.

Because of the weather issues I decided on a Spar Urethane, which I had never used before.  Things I learned.  Not anything like Poly.... Way thicker, stinks like nobodies business, and the dry time is HOURS.  You have to be careful it will sag and run if you get it too thick.  You MUST sand between each and every layer -this stuff raises the grain from layer one to layer four.  You MUST use at least three coats to get rid of the splotchy gloss look.

This is after four coats.  I am finished even though it is not perfect nor is this my best work.  But It is getting too hot in the Texas "spring" to do anything else to it.  I may lightly sand it this fall and add a fifth coat to get it more even.  But it is a TON better than it was.   I would never put solid wood doors on a home.  I never have in any of the houses I have built.    The next time this needs stripped I will paint it.

Happy Stripping.