Sanding & varnishing our interior doors and frames

[Alchai]

Hi there
Has anyone got their doors sanded and varnished? When we built the house the doors chosen were a bit on the cheap side. Our wooden staircase was also not as we expected it to be so we got a company to come and sand it down and re-varnish it. It turned out fantastic so I am thinking of doing the same treatment to our doors. We have 8 wooden doors and 1 small one under the staircase and I have been quoted B 12 800 for the job. I thought it was a bit pricy so I would like to know if anyone here has experience or insight of what it should cost!

Thanks
Carl & Lak

[Alchai]

I forgot to mention that we are in the Udon Thani area.

[otis-a]

sanding is really slow going if u want it done well w/out loads of nixes, so may account for high price. I recently did simple table by hand was 2 days to get it right. A little good paint remover goes a long way. We used some really nasty gooie bubbly stuff eons ago, but very effective. Once the bubble stops, just wipe it off. Worked miracles on antiques. But stuff may be too ancient to find these days & never looked 4it in los.
Good luck.
ps, as i recall my painter was 25k for whole house, may have tipped xtra 4k for woodwork. It is all n build cost sheet for Griffith House.

[Alchai]

Thanks for the reply Otis. I guess it does take time but these doors are not painted. They are stained so the main objective with the sanding is to get the woowork smooth

[canopy]

9 doors I imagine would take a couple guys a couple days to do. That's 1000 baht labor give or take. Materials might double that. So 12.800 should be an extremely profitable venture for them. If these are guys who do a fantastic job instead of the normal fit and finish you see here then maybe worth the extra 10K if that means a lot to you; a lot of if's.

[trader]

several years ago engaged a solo tradesman to do restoration timber work on a labour only basis

from memory his contract price( from keeping tabs) worked out to be approx 500 baht a day (two week job)

his work was first class

perhaps in your case it would pay to receive further quotes

and bear in mind your job is rather a small one good luck

[Roger Ramjet]

Alchai,
You don't say who is supplying the sander, the grades of sanding paper and how many there are (normally 2 to 4), and who is supplying the stain and varnish.
It's a very long slow exacting process, when I had my wooden gates redone it took about 10 days of sanding. Then the coats of stain needed time to dry properly. Ever slat was removed from both gates and the fence and when they were replaced, new bolts were used.
The best stain is Beger (not Berger as I once wrote), made in Thailand and will last for years. I was told by the experts that you need four coats for indoors and five coats for outdoors.