paintwork on doors all chipped. do i just paint over it?

[thirteentales]

i live in a victorian house with big wooden doors. some have quite a lot of paint on them (bathroom and bedrooms). parts of the paintwork is a bit cracked and peeling, and theres big chips of paint out of them too.

ideally i would love to get them all stripped and dipped, but its not really practical for us.

do i just paint right over them? or do i have to sand or something first?

sorry for being so clueless!

You need to give them a really good sand down before you paint them, if they have been badly painted and are lumpy then I would sand them with a rough sandpaper first and then a finer one. If there are big chips that are clearly going to leave dents after it is sanded and painted then you can buy wood filler (pollyfiller for wood), and use that. It depends how 'perfect' a finish you want. Some people are happy with signs of age others want them to look brand new.

Have you looked into pricing having them stripped and dipped? I don't know how much it costs but it is the nicest way to bring them back if you can.

Oh and don't cut corners, take the door handles off before you sand and paint!

thanks oreo. clearly no one else has ever taken the door handles off before...

Do a proper job (i.e. sand, undercoat and paint).

Lots of good tutorials on the Dulux and Crown websites:-

Dulux

Crown