Painting Garage Doors - How To Make It Work

Hardboard garage doors may have either a primed surface or an unprimed surface. The AHA (or the American Hardboard Association), offers some really good advice in respect of maintenance of old doors, and also for finishing of new ones. The hardboard's surface boasts of a better coating life, as compared to normal surfaces; as they are free of defects like knots, grain raise etc.

The hardboard garage doors have wood as their basic material. To get a good performance from the hardboard door and the field applied coating in the long run, one must properly coat and maintain it. The exterior finishing apart from being a protective cover also beautifies the door. Coating therefore serves a dual purpose, making it a much recommended practice for a longer lasting hardboard garage door.

Finishing practices which don't meet the criteria mentioned always result in less than acceptable levels. Primed hardboard doors need to be done within 15 days after installation while unprimed hardboard doors should be finished immediately. Make sure to get the kind of paint or stain clearly and specifically intended for exterior use on hardboard from a reputable coatings manufacturer.

The quality of the finish is again very important; and it should have an ingredient list implying the same. People prefer a finish performance warranty. Select the finishing systems meant for exterior use on the hardboard garage doors. When it comes to the primer, you have the option of choosing between an oil and alkyd primer; to seal the edges, back and face of the door. You may use other primers besides these too; however, it should be suitable for use on hardboard, and its label should confirm this fact.

Top coat paint is the best when paints like acrylic latex, oil base or alkyd base are used. Put the stain only on textured hardboard but not on smooth hardboard. For best results, exploit the benefits of the opaque acrylic latex stains. If there is any dirt particle present on the surface of the hardboard, it will affect the result of the staining in a negative way.

Follow the directions on the finish label paying particular attention to special primer requirements, hardboard surface temperature, rate of spread and recommended application procedures. Experts advise a film that is four millimetres thick as the minimum on the surfaces of the hardboard.

If you applied it at the spread rate prescribed on the finish label, you will easily achieve the required thickness. All doors have a prescribed number of coats to be applied on the whole of the door and this is given below. Unprimed doors need to be primed before everything else followed by two un-thinned finish coats and then a layer paint or stain. In case there is any damage to the factory primer, it should be spot primed using an alkyd oil primer. Wait for the primer to dry and then proceed to applying the two finish coats.

A good appearance of the wood after finishing means all you need to do is some cleaning and a little touching up. If you notice that the finish is eroded, clean and the prime the affected areas if you can see the substrate through the coat and complete pruning and a finish coat are also necessary. A finish coating will be all that is required if the substrate is not yet visible through the erosion.

Further your knowledge on garage doors at roller doors.Visit our site on automatic garage door for more resources on garage doors.