Staining Wood Doors....tip for the day

Staining wood doors....tip for the day. What's the tip? It's a very important tip that could make a "BIG" difference in your staining wood finish on your doors (or cabinets....whatever). It's a tip I had to learn the "hard" way as I did not notice it until the painting sub had already stained, sealed, & lacquered some wood doors he was doing for me.

The tenant was moving in at the end of the week & I still had to transport the finished stained wood doors to the jobsite, install the stained wood doors & metal frames, install the finished hardware, call for final inspections then be ready for the tenant on the big "move in day". I had one big problem to solve though.

Luckily, the "big problem" (staining wood doors) only happened to a couple of the wood doors that were to be stained......not all of them at least. The stained & finished wood doors looked great as I was loading them into the trailer to take them over to the jobsite. I didn't notice anything wrong in particular until I was actually installing the stained wood doors. I noticed a couple of the stained wood doors had some "spots" on them (quite a few actually). I couldn't tell exactly what "they" were. There weren't any spots (or actual "stains") on the wood grains of these particular doors so what could "they" be?

The rest of the stained wood doors looked fine. I couldn't, for the life of me, tell what had caused the spots. I called the painter & "quizzed" him about the spots & what could have happened when he was staining the wood doors, etc., etc., to cause the unsightly spots. I had dollar signs flashing before my eyes....these were "negative" dollars signs passing before my eyes, as I knew I would be "paying for it" in more ways than one!

While talking to the painter, we went over all kinds of possibilities when all of a sudden he said that the stained spots could have been "water marks". "What do you mean water marks" I asked. What could have possibly caused the water stained marks as the painter finished staining the wood doors in a warehouse? Until it "hit" me like a ton of bricks (this is for your benefit mind you).

I had picked up the wood doors from the door company. I carefully loaded the wood doors in an open trailer (not enclosed) & transported the wood doors to a warehouse where the painter did the staining & finishing of the wood doors. While I was unloading the doors (towards the end of the unloading).....it...started....to....sprinkle (I'm talking rain here). I figured....no big deal as there weren't that many rain drops on the last two wood doors & they dried right away so what's the big deal? Are you thinking here? What do you think the big deal was? Tick tock......you're suppose to be answering the question.

The BIG DEAL is this:

The painter didn't come out until the next day to start staining the wood doors. When he stained the wood doors he lightly sanded them first but he did not see anything unusual (water spots) because the rain drops had dried & didn't show any water spots at that time, so he didn't see them. The spots only became visible after he had stained & finished the wood doors. He was doing so many wood doors that he did not see the spots either...as the spots weren't standing out that much plus the lighting in the warehouse wasn't that great....good enough for what he was doing though but nothing else.

The painter then told me (after the big discussion) that once you have any fresh water marks on a wood door that's going to be stained (water splashes, rain drops, spills, etc.), (here comes the "tip") you "HAVE" to wipe down the rest of the wood door with a wet rag....no matter what! I'm talking the entire side of the wood door where the water marks are. If they are just on one side of the wood door, then of course, you only have to wipe down the one side that has the water spots/marks. This had never happened to me before so I didn't know.....now I do!

It doesn't matter if it's stained wood doors we're talking about or any other type of wood that's going to be stained, cabinets, etc.. Water is water so please remember this tip & wipe that material down if you have rain drops present (or any other water marks for that matter). This tip could come in handy for you some day.....you never know.....but now you do!

**News Flash** I never knew this before. All this time & I never knew this. It was a very costly lesson but I have never forgotten it. Now......."You" are the one to benefit from my mistake. See all the valuable info. you are learning when you read my blog articles/posts? You are reading them aren't you?

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