I am wanting to refinish my front door. I am using a stripping product. Can I wash the door after stipping it
Question:It has a lot of scroll work and these areas are hard to get to. Any and all help will be greatly appreciated.
Answers:
Yes. When I use a chemical stripper like Jasco on detail work, I apply it, wait, then work it a bit with a toothbrush. Then wash of the stripper with a sponge. The stripper will eat up toothbrushes, so I save old ones over the year.
Use a wet sponge to loosen the soggy paint, then go over it again with a damp sponge (not dripping wet). Use the sponge quickly so that the wood doesn't absorb much water.
I found this to work much better on fine detail than trying to scrape the loose/soggy paint off with a metal or plastic edge. The chemical stripper softens the wood a bit,a nd you're likely to gouge the wood.
After everything dries, give it a like sanding with 220 sandpaper. Apply first coat of finish (paint, stain, poly...whatever), wait for this to dry, and give it another light sanding to remove any raised grain.
It would be fine to wash it as long as you let it dry completely before repainting. Personally I would get a gallon container of acetone and a couple rags and thoroughly wipe it down with the acetone. The acetone will get all the grease and oils off of it and drys in about 2 minutes.
The stripper will probably have a recommendation for cleaning. Usually you use mineral spirits. Make sure you've got lots of ventilation and no one smoking around you. You can buy scrub brushes made for stripping which won't melt in the stripper or in the mineral spirits.
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