ᐅ Painting, varnishing, or replacing wooden windows and interior doors?

Myrna_Loy schrieb:

I would have it done professionally. If you want a really clean and durable finish, it takes quite a few hours of work per door and window.
You have to remove all the hardware, degrease, sand, degrease again, apply primer, sand, fill, sand, paint, sand, paint… It might be enjoyable for two or three doors, but for 10 it becomes a real hassle. With windows, it’s even less fun because every groove and rebate has to be cleaned extremely thoroughly beforehand. You also need to replace the seals and rubber fittings if you want it to look good, otherwise you end up with dark brown frames that stand out a lot. A professional can achieve much better results with spray painting.
Chalk paints? Never again. They looked way too patchy to me.

The existing doors are in very good condition (no damage, etc.). So you recommend lacquer paint? Favorite type?

There are many good paint options. However, avoid store-brand paints; the cheaper the paint, the lower the quality of the binders and pigments.

We sourced our paints through misspompadour. The Mylands products impressed us the most in terms of quality. The paints are really easy to work with, nothing like a standard wall paint such as Alpinaweiß. Overall, though, all the brands available there are quite good.

We did not sand or fill our door frames. However, depending on their condition, filling might be something to consider.
The stain block acts as a sealing layer to prevent the wood from “bleeding.” This is especially important with white paints, as bleeding can cause unattractive yellowish stains.
We kept one interior door and painted it white. In total, three coats of white were needed before I was satisfied with the result.

Cronos86 schrieb:

misspompadour

Don’t they also have the eggshell finish for kitchens and similar areas?

Cronos86 schrieb:

It actually required four coats. One stain-blocking primer, two coats of anthracite, and a topcoat to prevent any further damage.

Have you had any experience with regular “varnishes” yet? As I said before, when I was renovating, that option wasn’t even mentioned, no one knew about it. I’d even say it didn’t exist back then 😉 And with the furniture I’m working on now, I wasn’t satisfied, yes, as I mentioned earlier, it somehow felt sticky.

At least you could remove the door leaves and take them to a painter. That would probably not be very expensive and the result would be very good. Of course, the door frames would be missing – is it possible to remove those as well?

I can hardly imagine that refurbishing interior doors is cheaper than buying new ones. Labor costs are just too high for that (in my opinion, craftsmen are not generally too expensive, only in relation to buying new door leafs and frames). A door plus frame including installation usually costs around €350 (about $375), or is that no longer the case? Unless the dimensions are special or the doors are particularly high-quality or expensive...

It’s different with windows, depending on their condition. My brother had his wooden windows refurbished after about 15 years, I believe. I can ask him about the price. The same painter gave me a quote for refurbishing my old oak front door with glass insert, but it never happened because he didn’t have time and I sold the house. I think it was around €800 (about $860), but it would have been nearly a two-day job including materials.