FAQ - Door stripping
Paint removing
Restoring Your Doors & furniture with Precision
Our door stripping process removes years of paint and varnish, restoring the natural beauty of wood. Each door is carefully dipped, neutralizaed, cleaned and hand sanded to ensure a smooth, fresh finish ready for finishing.
Everything You Need to Know About Our Paint and Varnish Removal Process
Door Stripping FAQ:
Your Questions Answered
Please ensure doors or items are dismantled and placed outside the house or in a location accessible to the driver. Remove all locks, handles, nails, screws, tapes, and hooks for safe transport (hinges can remain if necessary).
No, any attached panels or retaining pins must be removed to ensure paint is fully stripped from underneath.
Only solid wood items are suitable. Chipboard, hardboard, and some plywood can absorb water and may fall apart.
Some modern finishes, like polyurethane or acrylic, can be challenging to strip. Non-caustic hand stripping may be used for better results on such materials.
Stripping can reveal hidden defects, scorching from prior heat treatments, or areas filled with Polyfilla or similar materials that won’t be removed during the process.
Mark your doors on the top or bottom and their corresponding frames, or use a small metal staple for easy identification after the process.
Stripping typically takes 3–5 working days, sanding 5–7 days, and full finishing around 10 days, depending on the complexity of the job.
FAQ & Terms and Conditions
What Customers Need to Do:
1. Ensure doors/items are taken off or dismantled and placed outside/inside by the front door or in the nearest location where the driver can park and collect them.
2. Remove all locks, handles, nails, screws, tapes, push-plates, and hooks for the safety of the items during transport and processing (hinges can remain if needed).
3. Remove all panels and retain pins, as paint will not be removed from beneath them unless they are detached.
What Customers Need to Know:
1. Some modern paints and varnishes, such as polyurethane and acrylic finishes, can be difficult to remove during the stripping process.
2. Stripping may reveal hidden defects not visible under paint, such as scorching from prior blow lamp usage.
3. Filler products like polyfilla and decorator caulk will not be removed during the stripping process.
4. Materials such as chipboard, hardboard, and certain plywoods are unsuitable for stripping as they absorb water and disintegrate.
5. Polyurethane varnish, paint, and spray-lacquered items may not strip satisfactorily in caustic soda but can be treated with non-caustic hand stripping for better results
6. New or modern doors and furniture often have water-based or acrylic undercoats that may remain after the top layers are stripped.
7. Items sent without removing furniture components will be dipped as received, and liability for damage during stripping can not be accepted.
8. Mark doors with staples/numbers (e.g., marks on the top/bottom ) to match them with corresponding frames for easier reinstallation.
9. Relief mnouldings on some furniture (fireplace, chest of drawers or something similar) if made from plaster, alabaster, or resin, they will disintegrate. If we see that when we start which hand sanding procedure, we will inform you for the next steps
10. We can dip a glazed door. However, there are risks to this process, and the glass could become damaged so we wouldn’t take any responsibility. This is at the consumer’s own risk.
What We Can Do:
1. Successfully strip pine doors or furniture, such as chairs, tables, chest of drawers, skirting boards, architraves, benches, floorboards, and many other wooden or metal items.
2. Oak-doors or furniture this strips well but tends to go dark. Oak may sometimes split when drying out, but we can offer non-caustic stripping and, after that, hand-sanding.
3. Mahogany & Walnut stripping process again, these woods tend to darken up and have similar characteristics to oak, but hand stripping and hand-sanding can prevent damage.
4. Furniture that is made from thin plywood or veneer surfaces tends to lift. This is not suitable for caustic stripping, but we can hand stripping and hand sanding to prevent damages and better results.
Timeframe for Completion:
1. Stripping: 3–5 working days
2. Sanding: 5–7 working days
3. Full finishing: ~10 working days (subject to complications)
Our Stripping Services Include:
- Interior/Exterior doors
- Tables and chairs
- Cupboards and beds
- Dressers/sideboards
- Kitchen doors
- Windows/Window shutters
- Fireplaces and fire surrounds
- Benches and pews
- Radiators
- Door frames
- Skirting boards
- Handrails
- Garden furniture (wooden or metal)