Dipping Doors

[TR6BILL]

My son owns an old Double Shotgun house (built in 1861) in the Irish Channel neighborhood of New Orleans. (A shotgun house gets the name from the fact that you can shoot a shotgun from the front door out through the back door and not hit anything, or so they say) Well, the interior was completely redone before he bought it, updated if you will. All the doors (old cypress) had been painted over with many coats of paint. Interestingly, in those days in New Orleans, cypress was plentiful, and cheap. The style at the time was to paint them with a faux finish to make them look like oak, like they did up East. Well, the restorers over the years added other paint on top of this faux finish which resulted in many layers of white paint. There are several restoration places in New Orleans (the best is called The Bank) that will dip these doors (and anything else) to remove <span style="text-decoration: underline">all</span> the old paint. We are in the process of sanding and applying coats of water-based urethane to reveal the unbelievable beauty of antique cypress. 5 down and 5 to go. Plus the outside shutters. Cypress wood is truly a thing of beauty.

 

[DNK]

Cypress, sweet.
Makes sweet floors too.

 

[judow]

I'd like to see a photo. We have a carved fisherman made of cypress. Over the years it is now its true weight and actually looks colorwise like shades of blue. We got it in the Florida Keys 30+ years ago.