Getting doors dipped

[PipnPosy]

I was looking into getting the internal doors of our Victorian house dipped but a decorator has told me that even if they come up well immediately, after a while the doors start falling to bits where the acid has got into the joins etc. I'd really like the pine look (and the thought of sanding down 11 very overpainted doors is not appealing), but he's scared me off! Has anyone had this done and have the doors lived to tell the tale?!

Thanks!

[Palomb]

Watching with interest! I had never heard that it damaged the doors.

[wowfudge]

Most Victorian, Edwardian and later interior doors were designed to be painted, not bare wood.

[Banderchang]

We had our 1930s doors dipped three years ago and they look absolutely lovely. The wood has a gorgeous grain and they haven't split at all. Highly recommend. They were painted white before and look much better wooden.

[ontherightpath]

I had my victorian doors dipped hoping to leave them as bare wood. The wood as such was beautiful when we collected them, but the filler that filled all the spaces between the panel beading and the door had dissolved so there were unsightly gaps in the joins everywhere. We suspected the glue and filler was what was actually holding the whole door together!

Had to re fill all the gaps, re glue the beading and paint them white again. although they still looked 100% better than before.

[ontherightpath]

Just read Banderchangs post, we dipped our 1930s doors (from a different property we lived in) and they came up beautifully. They were made of mahogany so maybe it depends on the type of wood, so victorian pine doesn't survive the dipping process as well??

[Banderchang]

Yes, maybe type of wood is significant. Ours are oak, so pretty sturdy.

[TheAuthoress]

We had the doors of our 1930s house dipped almost three years ago and they've been grand, but like another poster we can see the glue and filler. My mum had hers done probably 15 years ago now and they've been fine ever since and hardly any filler etc. It's one of those things you'll probably not know until you do them!

The place we got ours done at also sold reclaimed doors - we got one to replace our bathroom door as the original wasn't there anymore and it's perfect, so maybe look at at reclamation yard? I can't remember prices..... Maybe £50 for each door to be dipped and £90 for the reclaimed door so not hugely more expensive and at least you know what you're going to get.

[anotherdayanothersquabble]

A previous owner of our house had dipped our doors. None of them fitted properly, some didn't shut, some had gaps top and bottom (though bottom due to carpet having been removed at some stage), there were splits in the wood. We had new doors made.

[DontCallMeBaby]

We have reclaimed, dipped four-panel pine doors in our 90s house. The downstairs ones are okay (fortunate as they're very non-standard sizes) but upstairs are awful. They catch on the carpets and no matter what we do they slip and start catching again. They feel flimsy and brittle. Two are cracked in the panels, where the wood is thin.

[MewlingQuim]

We had our 1930s doors dipped and waxed. We had no idea what condition they were in under all the paint and had been warned they could be crap.

All but one of the doors came out lovely. As PP said, they were meant to be painted so sometimes the wood is not meant to be exposed. One of our doors was made of wood that contained a lot of sappy material and the wax kind of runs out when the weather is warm and damp. At some point in the distant future we intend to give that one a coat of matt varnish instead.

[PipnPosy]

Thanks everyone. Hmm, it doesn't look too positive on the dipping front then. I suspect they will probably not be in great nick under all the paint so I may have to rethink it. Cheers!

[mumma24]

We had all our doors dipped in our Victorian house, 6 years ago. Really pleased with the result

[PigletJohn]

if you can find a competent joiner, he should be able to knock the doors apart into their components and reassemble with new glue and wedges. Panelled doors are supposed to have the panels free to move as they expand and contract with changes in humidity, only the mortice joints need to be glued. Cracked panels could be repaired before reassembly. The cracks might have occurred when panels were held rigid by a century of hardened paint. There are probably lots of holes from changes to locks, knobs and handles.

It is not difficult but you will be paying for their time.

[PipnPosy]

Thanks, that's interesting. Maybe I'll get one or two done as a test. They're lovely doors but in a right state so we need to do something...

[OliviaBenson]

They were designed to be painted. I'd get them stripped and repainted if it were me. They are lovely looking doors!

[Palomb]

They're really unusually aren't they. I really like them.

[Ditsy4]

I wanted to dip DH didn't so we sent one. He picked me up from work quite excited" Wait till you see the door!" That week he loaded and took the rest that was 29 years ago! Still have the same doors but ours are latch farmhouse style. Our son recently had ones similar to yours dipped. Wax them afterwards and every few years rub back and re wax. Both houses are Victorian.
Was the decorator going to paint them instead? Ask someone who dips doors and furniture if you're not sure. They are lovely doors by the way.

[PipnPosy]

Ah Ditsy, that's a nice story! The decorator just said to sand them back and repaint, although I haven't had his quote for that yet...

I think we will send one or two off and see how they come back and even if we repaint them afterwards, they'll look way better than they do now!

[PigletJohn]

Dontcallmebaby said:

"...catch on the carpets and no matter what we do they slip and start catching again."

which makes me think the M&T joints are loose and they are sagging trapezoid. If so they need to be knocked apart and the joints remade with new glue and wedges, but this would be a good time to strip them as well.

[TattiePants]

We had all our downstairs doors dipped last year and I am really pleased with the result although we always planned to repaint them. They did need filling in places and needed quite a few coats of paint afterwards but they look so much better. Previously there was 100 years of paint so the slightest knock chipped the paint to reveal a very dark and unsightly varnish underneath.

[whois]

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