Painting and Decorating Concourse
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Fiberglass doors can be stained to look like wood that even a trained eye (such as mine) would have a hard time determining whether it is wood or not at first glance. The key is to use the right glaze. My favorite glaze/stain for fiberglass doors is made specially for fiberglass doors by Therma-Tru Doors. They sell a complete kit for fiberglass doors which is quite impressive, it includes everything from stain to varnish.
How to Stain a Fiberglass Door
The Therma-Tru system works for either interior or exterior sides of the door. The Therma-Tru stain comes pre-tinted to a variety of colors, so there is no need to play around trying to tint to match. An alternate glaze that I have used is Modern Masters Tintable Glaze. I have used this glaze once on the exterior side of a fiberglass door (which is the side that might give you problems with fading and peeling - because of flexing with temperature changes) a couple of years ago, and so far - no problems. On the interior I have used Sherwin Williams alkyd glaze on a few doors as well. Having used a few different glazes and stains on fiberglass doors, my vote for the best glaze for a fiberglass door is the Therma-Tru stain without reservation. See the manufacturers page here to get Therma-Tru Door website.
Note: The following is instructions for how to stain a new fiberglass door. You can stain a fiberglass door that has been previously painted, but that is an article for another day. Also, read and follow the Therma-Tru instructions, they actually have very well written and complete instructions for using their materials, you may consider this article as supplemental instruction if you will.
Prepare the door
Clean the door to remove any grime by using first a no rinse detergent cleaner such as dirtex. Follow the dirtex with a mineral spirits solvent wipe down (hang the solvent rag on a "clothes line" to thoroughly dry out before disposing of it).
The Therma-Tru stain is alkyd and you will have a lot of working time. Work from top down.
Apply the glaze sparingly with a brush and then stretch it out with the same application brush. If you get too much stain on , drag it off with your application brush. You will need to let this set up a little bit before dry brushing. If you wait too long you won't be able to dry brush it and you'll have to start the panel all over again. You can wipe off dry stain with a rag dampened with mineral spirits if you need to.
Dry brushing technique
This is everything to the staining of a fiberglass door. Dry brushing is the important step to a good looking door. With the flat edge (not the tips yet) of the white china bristle brush, lightly drag the stain in the direction of the wood grain. Drag with the brush flat and slightly angled, but do it lightly so that you don't remove too much stain. This will wipe some of the stain off of the surface while leaving it in the embossed grain. This creates the offset in tone between the primary grain (embossed into the fiberglass door) and the background grain. You want light dragged brush marks for you background grain, you don't want to wipe it clean, the dragged brush marks will make it look like wood. Experiment a bit. You can lightly pat (or flog) the door after you dry brush drag it to break up the dragging "grain" a bit. If you need to soften and blend use the tips of your brush and very softly brush out any harshness of brush marks or blend color variations together. Take your time, step back and look over your work as you go, and get this dry brushing right. The rest of the finishing is a breeze after this step.
After a 48 hours or so, (do the test as described in the Therma-Tru instructions to determine if the stain is dry enough to proceed) the stain should be dry enough to varnish. Apply the varnish with a soft latex brush, and watch the lower corners of each panel and be pick up any drips that might gather there. This varnish is an interior / exterior latex varnish. Apply two coats of the varnish and you are done.
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Staining
Tip. Use a white china bristle brush (do not use a cheap "chip brush) to dry brush the stain. White china bristle brushes are nice and soft and are great blending brushes for staining.
I use two brushes: one for applying the stain/glaze and the other for dry brushing. The application brush does not have to be super high quality, but the white china bristle brush should be good quality.
Use the proper sequencing to stain the door. Do the raised panels first then move on to the stiles and rails.
