Decorating Your Door

External Doors

Before painting/staining your door, pin holes on beading etc. should be filled using a filler which will match your desired colour. You should ensure that this will stain to the same shade you are wanting to achieve on the entire door.

External Doors, frames and panels may be treated with a spirit based Microporous treatment of quality exterior grade. A pre-dec coat and three top coats are required. If painting then an spirit (or Aluminium) based primer, 2 undercoats and 2 top coats, again spirit based, must be used.

Be sure to seal inside lock and letter box cut outs, behind hinges, both the top edge and bottom edge underneath the door, and door sides to prevent moisture entering the timber. This is because the timber has a specific moisture content that must be maintained. Failure to do so will void your warranty.

Both sides of the door should be done at the same time to ensure correct moisture content is maintained throughout the entire thickness of the door. Failure to do this can result in one side drying out causing the door to bow.

A pigmented treatment should be used to protect the timber from ultraviolet rays. Clear varnish alone is not sufficient to protect the timber unless the product specifically offers UV protection.

NEVER use any of the following types of products: -

• Water based, be it a varnish or paint (eg. Ronseal Quick Drying Woodstain)
• Natural oil (eg. Teak oil, Linseed oil, Danish oil, Vegetable oil, Soya Bean oil etc. or any product based on these such as Osmo)
• Wax (eg. Briwax etc.)

We do not consider these to give adequate protection and no guarantee claim will be entertained for goods treated with such products. These will cause adverse effects to your doors and void your warranty.

Sikkens

One Base Coat – HLS

Three Top Coats – THB

Sikkens Technical Advice Centre: 0800 0522121

Sikkens classification table

Sadolin

One Base Coat – Classic

Three Top Coats – Extra

OR

Two Base Coats – Wood Preserver

Four Top Coats – Clear Coat

Sadolin Technical Advice Centre: 08447 708998

Internal Doors

Before painting/staining your door, pin holes on beading etc. should be filled using a filler which will match your desired colour. You should ensure that this will stain to the same shade you are wanting to achieve on the entire door.

Internal doors can be treated with paint or varnish type finishes. Some types such as the oak engineered internal doors may be treated with Danish Oil or similar. Be sure to apply four coats to a new door and fresh coats periodically.

NEVER use any of the following types of products: -

• Water based, be it a varnish or paint (eg. Ronseal Quick Drying Woodstain)
• Natural/Plant oil other than those mentioned above (Vegetable oil, Soya Bean oil etc. or any product based on these such as Osmo)

These will cause adverse effects to your doors and void your warranty.

Please note: Doors in high humidity areas such as airing cupboards, bathrooms and shower rooms etc. require external quality treatment to maintain the correct moisture content as mentioned below.

Be sure to seal inside lock cut outs, behind hinges, both the top edge and bottom edge underneath the door, and door sides to prevent moisture entering the timber. This is because the timber has a specific moisture content that must be maintained. Failure to do so will void your warranty.

Both sides of the door should be done at the same time to ensure correct moisture content is maintained throughout the entire thickness of the door. Failure to do this can result in one side drying out causing the door to bow.

Danish Oil

Briwax

These are some suggestions but before applying wax or Danish oil you MUST contact the manufacturer before using to ensure suitability.

Briwax Technical Advice Centre: 0208 658 2299

Information Regarding Coating

Regardless of how many coats any individual treatment product may say is required, our terms and conditions require the minimum as detailed above.

If any door (or frame) manufacturer has given finishing advice then this must be adhered to over the advice given above. This especially applies to items such as external doors when being fitted in internal locations. Such doors may require an exterior quality finish when fitted internally.

We advise that clear varnish is not used with hardwood doors. By this we mean that within our website many doors are termed ‘hardwood’ and a specific hardwood species in not given. In this case there may be different species or sub-species used in the same item. While these may be very similar in colour prior to varnishing/treating they may be completely different after treating. Clear varnish can exaggerate this difference. By no means will a coloured stain/varnish eliminate the possibility of this but it does reduce the risk. Such a colour difference is not considered a defect.

Some of our manufacturers fill pin holes while others do not. A clear varnish/stain can exaggerate the colour difference between the timber and the filler. A coloured stain does tend to help any filler match better. If any pin holes are not filled these should be done with a weatherproof filler and the colour chosen to match your final treatment.

While every effort is made to ensure all traces of adhesive are removed from the door, unfortunately sometimes there may be traces which remain after cleaning and sanding. This is not considered a defect. Often these are not visible until the first coat of treatment has been applied. If any glue marks show during application of the first coat then immediately sand the area using a fine grain sandpaper or wire wool to remove them; then quickly re-apply the treatment used.

Note that a primer coat or base coat alone is not sufficient to protect timber products even for a short period of time.