Paint doors white or just swap em?

uropachild

The internal doors in our house are awful knotted pine jobbies. They're stained like an orangey brown colour and i would really like to make them white.

Would you bother painting or would you just replace them all with new white ones and rip of the old door surround wood and replace that too?

If you suggest painting can you recommend a good paint and "how to"? The stain isn't like varnish. It's not sealed in. Like, when you rub the doors the stain comes off on your duster.

Doozergirl

We just repainted doors in a flat which I wanted to rip out. They were already painted white but the knots were showing, the white had really yellowed in general and they looked a bit cheap - they were pretty cheap doors to start with! H convinced me to repaint them rather than replace and they looked lovely. Repainted in Hemp Beige they looked really good and much better quality simply through the colour and a more matt finish (not a fan of gloss paint at all) If the doors have some kind of decorative woodwork, panelling etc, then I'd give it a go painting first - it won't cost much and if you like it you will save a lot of money. You might need a high quality primer/undercoat that prevents staining coming through.

Canucklehead

Doozergirl wrote: »

We just repainted doors in a flat which I wanted to rip out. They were already painted white but the knots were showing, the white had really yellowed in general and they looked a bit cheap - they were pretty cheap doors to start with! H convinced me to repaint them rather than replace and they looked lovely. Repainted in Hemp Beige they looked really good and much better quality simply through the colour and a more matt finish (not a fan of gloss paint at all) If the doors have some kind of decorative woodwork, panelling etc, then I'd give it a go painting first - it won't cost much and if you like it you will save a lot of money. You might need a high quality primer/undercoat that prevents staining coming through.

Good afternoon: spot on DG..we do the same.;)

Canucklehead

Jessilu

Well we ripped ours out to replace with white ones, after years of stripping and painting, and sick and tired of the same old doors!

After measuring correctly we ordered some expensive doors, for downstairs!

What a flippin' nightmare when it came to the fitting. The house is quite old and it's shifted through the years so although technically 30'' wide by 78'' is correct, the doors wouldn't fit!

My o/h had to keep sawing & sanding off bits, took him ages and a lot of sweat & cussin'!

The doors downstairs are now lovely & fit very well, but o/h is refusing now to do the rest upstairs, so I'm left in a rotten situation with all brown doors upstairs and all white down!:(

andrew-b

Depends how warped out of shape they are. Knotty pine is one of the worst culprits for warped doors. If it was a better quality hardwood door or even a bog-standard plain panel door that would be a different story. Also the knots themselves often fall out. Even a cheapy £15 MDF moulded panel door is far less likely to warp.

I'd probably rip them out and replace assuming you have the money else the money you spend now tarting them up is money that could have been put towards new doors as/when it becomes necessary. All comes down to money and budgets though.

uropachild

Thanks everyone.

Yeah, they're pretty badly warped. None of the doors in our house shut properly. I'll price up paint vs replacing and see what i get.

Cheers.

suisidevw

BTW, if painting, make sure you apply a couple of coats of 'knotting' before the undercoat and primer

andrew-b

Painting will be cheaper..though new cheapy doors will still need painting too! Though if they are warped they won't get any better. Tough call..spend money now or make do with a coat of paint and replace later on when you'll have to paint the new door anyway..only you can decide.

uropachild

Thanks again. I might try painting one and see how we get on. If it looks crud i'll replace them. The warped-ness doesn't really bother me all that much... Especially if it's the cheaper option! Ha ha! I am likely looking at about £150 to buy the doors.

Doozergirl

uropachild wrote: »

Thanks again. I might try painting one and see how we get on. If it looks crud i'll replace them. The warped-ness doesn't really bother me all that much... Especially if it's the cheaper option! Ha ha! I am likely looking at about £150 to buy the doors.

Well don't buy knotty pine ones as you'll end up with the same problem in the future!

I know I have a story for every situation and I tire myself sometimes but we got some beautiful walnut doors that I'd had my eye on for an age for an absolute song. I really just couldn't resist for my own house - and I had already started painting the seriously ginger coloured badly stained existing doors and frames in Farrow & Ball.

Do budget for the cost of fitting because 7 doors so far in my very wonky house have so far taken two days of our chippy's time and he's had years of experience - he installed my kitchen in less time than that! £300 worth of his time. Still a really good deal for me based on the bargainous doors we got but certainly not a cheap option.

It might be worth rehanging the existing ones as well you see - both houses and wood do tend to move around a bit!

I would paint one to see and buy decent quality doors if you are going to take that route.