DIY Doctor UK DIY Forums

I've made a mess of painting a brand new interior door and I've got no idea how to put it right so I'd be grateful for advice.

The door is a 6 panel pre-primed and as it's taken a while for me to get round to painting it I gave it a good wash down to remove the grandkids' finger marks then re-primed it with B & Q Diall Wood primer/undercoat. It didn't look great so I gave it a coat of Wickes solvent based undercoat then a final coat of Wickes Trade solvent based Satinwood. The door's got a moulded wood grain effect to it so I tried really hard to spread all the the coats properly so the grain would show thru nicely and the first side looks brilliant (for an amateur!). The second side was going great until as I was finishing off I noticed a couple of paint drips half way up (I'd laid the door flat on my paste table to avoid runs). Well, like an idiot I tried to blend the drips in and dragged the paint so I put more paint on to try and spread it out and now it's dry I've got a patch of door where the paint is far too thick and the grain has disappeared. It looks horrible.

Please does anyone know how I can sort this? Would white spirit on a cloth shift it or make it worse? Is there a better way? I'm reluctant to use paint stripper as I think it would be too fierce and I think sanding it or using wire wool would just destroy the wood grain effect. I've never used Satinwood before and I'm scared of making it even worse so any helpful suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks.
Lin

Hi danceindark
By all means try white spirit, but by the time you read this the paint will probably have hardened too much for it to have any effect.
As this type of door is hollow, and faced with moulded hardboard, there is really no way of removing the paint without causing even more damage. There have been many occasions in the past when I've replaced doors simply due to painting defects, it's often the easiest way.

Thanks very much for your reply Proptech. I'd been afraid to try white spirit but based on what you said I figured I'd got nothing to lose. The white spirit softened the satinwood paint just enough for me to scrub and scrape the area back to the primed hardboard. I used a combination of green kitchen scourers, a stiff scrubbing brush, the sharp end of half a wooden clothes peg (when it gets blunt I saw a bit off to sharpen it up again) and I'm just easing the paint out of the grooves with some cocktail sticks. It's taken me all day but it's looking pretty good so far.

When it's all clean I thought I'd re-do the area with primer then undercoat, lightly sand the entire strip (it's the vertical to the side of the panels) then give the whole strip a coat of satinwood. Does that sound about right?

I'm not sure I'd recommend this method to anyone else as it takes so long and the white spirit has played havoc with my hands (should have worn gloves!) but buying a new door and paying a tradesman to fit it isn't an option if there's any way round it.

Now I'm just praying that I don't mess up the painting again.

Many thanks.
Lin