Front Door and Garage Door Painting

Front doors and garage doors

A front door is small, but it is the painted surface visitors touch and look at most. Safe Choice Painting paints wood, steel and fiberglass entry doors, plus garage doors and their frames, as part of our exterior painting work, either as a stand-alone job or with a full repaint.

Can every type of front door be painted?

Yes, with prep matched to the material:

• Wood doors are sanded to a sound surface, cracks in panels are filled, bare wood is primed, and two coats of exterior enamel go on.
• Steel doors are cleaned and checked for rust. Any rust is sanded to bright metal and primed with a metal primer before finish coats.
• Fiberglass doors are cleaned with mild detergent, rinsed and dried. Therma-Tru's finishing guide says its smooth fiberglass doors take high-quality acrylic latex with no primer, while its wood-grain fiberglass doors are primed first.

Whatever the material, hardware, glass and weatherstripping are masked or removed, and all six sides of the door slab get paint, including the top and bottom edges. Therma-Tru's guide calls for finishing every side of the slab.

How long does a painted front door last in direct sun?

Sun is the main factor. NOAA's normals put Denton's average July high at 95.9 degrees, and a door facing south or west takes that heat directly. Dark colors absorb more of it, so they fade and soften faster on a sunny entry than on a shaded porch. If you want a deep color on a door that takes afternoon sun, plan on refreshing it sooner than a lighter one.

Can you paint a steel or fiberglass door?

Yes, and both are common on newer homes. Steel doors are the most sensitive to timing and rust: Therma-Tru says steel door systems shipped with only a factory primer should be finished within several days of installation, and fiberglass within 6 months. If your new door is still in factory primer, it should be painted soon.

Which finish holds up best on a door?

Doors get handled every day, so they take a harder finish than walls. Exterior satin or semi-gloss enamel wipes clean and shows fewer fingerprints than flat paint. Hardware, kick plates and knockers are removed or masked and put back after the paint is dry. The door usually stays on its hinges, and the job is planned so it can close and lock each night. Two finish coats with dry time between them generally fit in one or two days, depending on the paint and the weather.

Garage door painting

Garage doors are often the largest single painted surface on the front of a house. Steel panels are washed to remove chalk and dirt, rust at the bottom panel is cleaned and primed, and the door is painted in exterior acrylic with the panels done in the same order every time so the finish looks even. Wood garage doors get the same scraping, priming and two-coat finish as wood siding. The frame and header are painted with the door, and soft wood at the bottom of the jamb, where water collects, is repaired before paint. Our trim, fascia and soffit page covers that trim. Shutters beside the front door are often painted to match, taken down or masked for a clean edge, and done in the same visit.

Front door color and HOA rules

Many communities have color rules, and they differ. In Lantana, exterior materials are governed by the Architectural Review Committee, so a new door color should be checked with your neighborhood's guidelines first. Lake Kiowa's Architectural Control handbook says exterior painting does not require a permit, though replacing a door does. We help with the color approval request: the written estimate names the color, sheen and every surface so it can go straight into your submission. If your HOA publishes an approved color list, we work from it.

Weatherstripping and the threshold

Weatherstripping, door sweeps and thresholds are masked or removed, not painted, so the door still seals. Paint on weatherstripping stiffens it and can keep the door from closing tightly. If a seal is torn or missing, we point it out so it can be replaced before the door is painted.

Nearby

• Front door painting in Denton, TX
• Exterior painting
• Brick house painting
• Exterior painting in Lantana, TX
• Exterior painting in Lake Kiowa, TX
• Garage door painting
• Shutter painting