Daily Home Renovation Tips

Now that we are ready to paint the inside of the replacement exterior door, the first thing we do is to gently rough up the primer paint which was applied at the factory. The reason for this is to provide something for the primer to adhere when it is applied against the very smooth surface of the factory primer.

Use a very ’shallow’ grade of sand paper and apply gently. You don’t want to make such deep cuts that they will show even after once the primer and paint is applied.

Next, we applied to the door, base boards and crown molding around the door frame the same primer paint we used elsewhere in the house.

This was followed with not one but two coats of the same trim paint again used on the other base boards and doors within the house. After I applied the first coat of paint, it looked like many parts of the door did not need a second coat at all. However, I remember the numerous examples on many of our interior doors which had only one coat of paint applied and it did not take us long to notice insufficient paint. So, we tend to go with one primer coat and two coast of paint as a general rule.

Once this was done, we then removed the green painters tape. As we did this we encountered what we were afraid of occurring. While the door frame was wood, the frame around the glass inserts in the door and the side lights were plastic. Paint does not adhere well to plastic. So, when we removed the green painters tape it did take off some of the paint on these plastic frames. Yes, we did use a utility knife to help reduce the pealing of the paint off of the plastic frames, but we think it is noticeable all the same. The rest of the door looks really good, as shown by the picture below:

Lastly, if you recall we were waiting until March 12th when we had the next scheduled appointment from the big box building supply retailer to come back yet again and deal with the unfinished door installation. Well, March 12th came and went with no appearance by  the retailer’s installer or customer service manager, both of whom we were told by Paul of the installation company. Neither appeared……no phone call….nothing. The now 6 months saga continues, as will we in the next installment of our exterior front door installation series.