Painting
Door Painting
Entry doors and interior doors finished smooth
Door Painting
Overview
About our door painting
A door is a small surface that everybody touches and inspects from two feet away, so its finish has to be genuinely smooth. Panel doors need the sequence right, panels before stiles before rails, or the brush leaves laps at every joint. Exterior slabs add a harder problem, because a dark south-facing door gets hot enough to stress the coating on it.
Interior doors get painted when hollow-core builder slabs have yellowed and chipped along the latch edge, or when a household moves from stained wood to white. Front doors are usually about curb appeal and sun damage at the same time. Landlords, associations with an approved door color, and homeowners updating a whole hallway all bring in the same job at different quantities.
Wherever access allows, doors come off their hinges and lay flat so the coating levels out instead of sagging. Hardware, strikes and hinges are removed and labeled rather than taped around. Front doors get worked with the shade, since putting a dark enamel on a west-facing slab in the afternoon lets inland surface temperatures flash it off before it can level.
Licensed · Bonded · Insured — CA LIC# 1160754Inland Empire & Orange CountyFree estimates
Why it pays off
Smooth, Level Finish
Doors are sanded, primed and enameled in the right order so the coating flows out flat. A door is judged at arm's length, which is exactly where brush marks give a job away.
Hardware Off, Not Taped
Knobs, strikes and hinges come off and get labeled. Otherwise paint rides over hardware edges, leaving ridges to catch and hinges that stick once the film has cured.
Edges Sealed Against Weather
On exterior doors the top, bottom and latch edges are coated instead of skipped. Bare edges are where water enters a slab and starts the swelling that makes a door bind in its jamb.
Sun-Aware Scheduling
Exterior doors are painted on the shaded side of the day. Enamel applied to an already hot slab flashes off fast, levels badly and builds a weaker film than it should.
Our process
How we approach door painting
The order matters as much as the materials. This is the sequence we follow, and the estimate spells out which steps your job needs.
- 01
Remove the Hardware
Knobs, deadbolts, strikes, kick plates and, where possible, hinges come off and are bagged and labeled by door. Painting around hardware leaves a ridge, and painted hinges eventually bind.
- 02
Clean and Sand
Doors are washed to lift hand oil around the latch, then scuff-sanded with 180 to 220 grit, edges and panel profiles included. Sanding dust is vacuumed and tacked off before anything else goes on.
- 03
Fill and Prime
Dents, latch-edge chips and abandoned hardware holes are filled and sanded flush. Bare wood, filler and stained doors take a bonding or stain-blocking primer so enamel cannot soak in unevenly.
- 04
Paint in Sequence
Panels first, then vertical stiles, then horizontal rails, holding a wet edge and brushing out laps at the joints. Two enamel coats with full recoat time, laid flat wherever a door can be dismounted.
- 05
Detail the Edges
Hinge edge, latch edge and the top of the slab are coated so moisture cannot get in through bare wood. On exterior doors the bottom edge and threshold detail get the same attention.
- 06
Rehang and Adjust
Doors go back on their original hinges once the film is hard, hardware is reinstalled from its labeled bag, and latches and closers are checked so nothing drags across fresh paint.
Related services
Work that usually goes with this
Most jobs touch more than one of these. Bundling them into one estimate saves a second mobilization.
Where we do it
Door Painting across the Inland Empire & Orange County
We work out from Corona across 40 cities and communities. Pick yours for local detail, or just call and tell us the street.
Get a free estimate for door painting
Tell us the property, the surfaces involved and anything that needs repair first. We will walk the job and put the full scope in writing. Serving the Inland Empire & Orange County.
Licensed · Bonded · Insured — CA LIC# 1160754