Projects: Gary’s new doors: weatherproof and very pretty
There’s only one thing worse than a dark hallway and that’s door envy. Just what we got when we talked to our own Gary Thompson about his new, epoxy coated, Breakfast Room, green painted wood and glass front door.
Part 1: Gary’s front and back door project
Epoxy expert Gary Thompson had known for a while that his front door’s days were numbered. “The hallway was so dark,” he says. “It was time to do something about it.”
Gary faced a stark choice. Buy a composite door with glass panels, or go for solid wood and glass. “I was drawn to composite because of the low-maintenance factor,” says Gary. “They have plastic around the glass windows, though, which I don’t like much – and they cost nearly a grand too, which is a lot.”
The alternative was a wooden door, which isn’t ideal for withstanding the fine British weather over the years. “I like the look of wooden doors and their price, which is about £250, but I was worried about the maintenance,” says Gary.
Enter WEST SYSTEM® epoxy
Gary finally decided to get the best of both worlds, a lovely wood and glass door and solid wood threshold, with the durability and weather-proofness of composite. The magic ingredient was, of course, WEST SYSTEM epoxy.
“I didn’t even bother to sand the door, I just cleaned it with WEST SYSTEM solvent and a paper rag and masked up the glass,” says Gary. “I then applied four coats of WEST SYSTEM epoxy with a roller and a little glue brush to get in around the glass, just waiting for it to get tacky each time.”
To achieve the perfect paint job, Gary left the epoxy coated door in his warm conservatory for a couple of days to make sure the WEST SYSTEM epoxy was cured hard, washed off the amine blush and waited for it to dry. He then abraded the door with 180-grit paper to create a keyed matte surface that his lovely Breakfast Room Green paint would stick to.
On to the back door
Having achieved such great results with his front door on a budget of less than a third of a composite door, Gary got to work on a new wood and glass back door. “When I started coating the new back door, I could see that there were no dings or marks whatsoever – it was perfect,” says Gary. “For that reason, I decided to varnish it rather than painting it and the result was stunning.
I was really impressed with the results and how easy the job was to accomplish. I’ve already had lots of compliments on how great they look when people visit the house!
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