La Jolla Athenaeum Door Restoration

My childhood library in La Jolla is now the La Jolla Athenaeum Music and Arts Library. Driving by as I often do, I noticed the natural wood doors were not looking up to snuff. Now that my kids are grown and enjoying my as The La Jolla house painter , I offered my services gratis, to refinish these two French doors facing onto Girard Avenue.

Door refinishing is a specialty of ours at Peek Brothers and I enjoy the opportunity to work with the tools of my trade to keep my hometown looking sharp

• The wood door was in very poor condition so I stripped off the existing varnish.
• Using a Festool German vacuum sander, I removed all the old finish down to bare wood.
• Sikkens Cetol 1 stain was applied to darken the wood and bring out the Douglas Fir graining
• Three coats of Cetol 23 Plus was applied with sanding in between to insure a super smooth finish.
• The Cetol 123 Plus product builds to a nice satin sheen that is a touch softer and stays more resilient to heavy sun exposure than say, a spar varnish, which over time becomes harder and more brittle and thus prone to failure, especially on softer woods that expand and contract with heat and humidity changes like pine or Douglas fir.
• Entry doors or patio furniture made of Teak or Mahogany are very stable woods that look just stunning with Cetol Marine, a satin finish that is slightly tinted to enrich these natural hardwoods
If you have a front (or side) door that has been beaten up by the sun and needs some attention, we really enjoy wood refinishing and making the entry to your home really shine
You might wonder why I mention the sander I used by name? Festool makes quite possibly the finest sanding and dust collector system in the business. I particularly like that the sander has a very tight oscillation so it never leaves swirls in the wood that can ruin a finish. Also the vacuum attachment keeps dust out of the work area as it is collected right through the sander. When you are applying a fine finish, you cannot have any dust present. Clients love that it keeps our work areas nice and clean 
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