Two months until comps… the perfect time for starting a major project: repairing the pocket doors! Our house has the somewhat rare and valuable addition of pocket doors on both sides leading from the front room. They don’t quite work anymore (this place is a hundred years old after all) and we decided tonight that it was time to think about investigating. (To our credit, we needed to deal with this before doing any kind of painting or wall repairs in the front rooms so it really was something we needed to start.)
Paul pulled down the wood covering the overhead hardware, which allowed him to pull out one door. You can see in the picture above how huge the door is — we’ve got 12 foot ceilings, and the doors are appropriately sized! Underneath the paint, we saw that there was *beautiful* stained solid wood — from the look and what we know of the history, we think it’s cypress. Peeking into the wall confirmed some suspicions on how to proceed. We will need to punch holes in the walls, remove trim to take the frames out, replace (or at least really, really clean) the hardware, have the doors dipped to remove the paint (or do it ourselves if possible?), and then put it all back together. Then once all THAT is done, we can get back to the regular stuff like painting the walls. I’m attaching some pictures of the detail. 
Randy | 03-Aug-05 at 6:01 am | Permalink
Check out the Peel-Away brand of products. It is what professionals use when removing paint from wood work. I believe Peel-Away 6 is the one formulated for wood.
http://www.dumondchemicals.com/html/peelaway.htm
Of course if you want someone else to refinish the doors when you are done, might be easier just to have them do the whole process.
Matt and Laura | 03-Aug-05 at 9:36 am | Permalink
Wow – what a chore! We’ve worked on pocket doors before (well, Matt has) and I can’t even imagine what a pain they must be when they are THAT tall! Good luck! The wood underneath looks gorgeous, by the way!
Holly | 03-Aug-05 at 1:41 pm | Permalink
The more we look into it, the more dipping looks to be out of the question… compromises the wood, leaves strange coloration, yadda yadda yadda.
I used chemical stripper to remove paint from an old wooden chair that was my great-grandmother’s (cool story behind it… it is actually a birthing chair!) Anyway, it didn’t work quite as easily as I thought it would and was *very* time consuming.
We’re still not exactly sure how to proceed with these things. Although Paul found a place that sells commerical grade hardware (everything else didn’t hold enough weight!) Still, we’re confused on some of the logistics of this project. It’s one of those things you hate to screw up, especially if there is an “easy” way to proceed.
Anyone have a cell phone number for Bob Villa??
Holly | 04-Aug-05 at 8:08 am | Permalink
Awesome tip on the Peel Away. We’re actually going to go with 7 — it’s specially made for oil paint on old wood. The stuff is also seriously expensive. To get what we need, with the additional cost of supplies, paper, and drop cloths, we think it’s going to be around $300.
That’s right. $300 on strippers.