How to Clean Up a Stripped Door

Just like the wooden trim, furniture and accessories within your home, wooden doors need refreshing periodically. In fact, because of their possible exposure to the elements, you may find yourself refinishing your doors more often than other pieces. Once you have gained experience stripping and repainting or re-staining your doors, the process can go very quickly. After all of the old finish has been stripped, you will want to clean the door properly so that the new paint or stain applies perfectly and dries to a professional-looking finish.

Rags
Mineral spirits
Find-grade steel wool
Sandpaper
Tack cloth

Instructions

- 1
  Dampen a rag with mineral spirits. Rub all of the door surfaces thoroughly to remove any remaining bits of paint.
- 2
  Use fine-grade steel wool dipped in more mineral spirits to scrub off stubborn patches of paint that may linger after stripping. Examine nooks and crannies for such residue.
- 3
  Sand the door with a series of progressively finer-grit sandpapers. Begin with a coarse-grit paper, such as 120, and finish with a very fine-grit, such as 220.
- 4
  Wipe the entire door thoroughly with a tack cloth to remove the sanding residue. A tack cloth is a special cloth that has a manufactured sticky surface meant to adhere to the small particles that sanding leaves behind. Your clean door is now ready to be refinished as you desire.

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Doors