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Wooden doors should be maintained on a regular basis. The goal is to keep most of the sun’s damage confined to the outermost layer of finish, where some preventative precautions can be applied to limit the damage done to the inner layers. The trick is to do maintenance before significant damage has occurred. Simple recommendations include:

At least once a month, wipe the exterior side of your door with a soft, damp cloth. This removes dirt, which creates mud when wet. Water stays on your door much longer when there is mud present than when there is not — plus your door looks much better when clean.

You will benefit by wiping your door after a heavy rain, even if you only use your hand. A thin layer of water evaporates much faster than drops of water. A quicker evaporation time means less time for the rain to work its way into any available cracks in the finish.

Set up a maintenance program. Periodically, the door should be wiped down with a soft damp cloth, lightly sanded, wiped with mineral spirits to remove sanding dust and any oily contaminants, and a new coat of finish applied. This maintenance will seal any developing cracks in the exterior layer of finish and renew the outer layer’s ability to filter UV radiation.

Maintenance does not repair damage to the inner finish layers or to a faded stain layer, but it does help maintain the status quo. Most importantly, when performed before any significant damage has occurred to the lower layers of finish, a maintenance program should double the life expectancy of your door’s finish. But even with a good maintenance schedule, eventually the innermost layers do break down and the door will need a refinishing.

While there are many factors that affect the interval between surface maintenances, the general rule for determining the service interval is as follows. This is based on a door fully exposed to sun and weather.

How Often To Maintain Your Door

This timing provides for repair of the top layer of finish before its ability to filter UV rays has been entirely destroyed, and before the lower layers begin to take the bulk of the damage. Ideally, a surface maintenance should be performed before all the UV inhibitors are used up in the outer layer of finish — remembering that when the UV inhibitors are used up, micro‑cracks occur and the surface feels dry.

A factor that affects the interval is a protecting roof. A door deep in an alcove will last longer than a door exposed to direct sun. But do remember that even the door in the alcove is exposed to reflected UV — so damage occurs there too, just at a much slower rate than a door exposed to full sun.

One of the better protections for a door’s finish is having tall trees. With tall trees near your door, UV rays are absorbed or reflected much higher up and never reach your door.

Examples of factors that shorten the life of a finish are exposure to sprinkler systems, or reflection of UV from large expanses of concrete such as a circular driveway. It is advisable to make certain that water sprinklers do not contact, or come within two feet of, the door.

The finish on the outside will wear out in a predictable amount of time due to exposure to sun and water. The more exposure, the sooner the door needs to be refinished. Here’s exactly what our one‑day process looks like:

1. We start by laying tarps to protect your floor and papering the glass area as well as the frame. Your existing hardware is removed (if possible) and set aside to be reinstalled at the end of the process. (We will not install new hand sets or locks.)
2. The door face is stripped of its old finish with a low‑odor stripper. With that done, the sanding process takes only a few minutes to smooth the wood. There’s no worry about dust in the home — large vacuums connected to our sanders send all the dust outside.
3. Next is the stain. We do our best to get the color you wish; it’s applied with a brush and the excess is hand‑wiped off. Once the door is the right color, we seal it with three separate coats of clear exterior gloss finish.
4. The process starts at 8 AM and is normally done by 1 PM (give or take). The door needs to stand open until 8 PM before it can be closed and locked normally. No worries about the weather — the opening is sealed with a sheet of plastic to protect your home.