How to Maintain your Guida Entry Door

Congratulations! If you are reading this article, you have likely purchased a high quality, custom steel or fiberglass entry door from Guida Door & Window. This new door from Guida has been engineered to provide years of low-maintenance operation. The following instructions are a guideline to properly care for and maintain your door, particularly the finish, to ensure your door remains beautiful for many years to come. 

NOTE:  Guida doors are meticulously manufactured with an application of high quality paint or stain finish applied over primed glavanized steel or fiberglass door slabs. Wood grain finishes also receive a satin clear coat urethane to protect the artisan stain finish. To properly maintain your factory finish warranty, follow these simple maintenance instructions according to the time schedules provided. 

Cleaning and Protecting the Finish of Your Door
 

Only use warm water, mild dish detergent, and a soft cloth when washing our entry door and glass.  

Do not use harsh detergents such as glass cleaners, ammonia cleaners, bleaches, grease removers, detergent organic solvents, nail polish removes, or furniture polishes. Avoid applying any type of chemical cleaners. 

After washing the door, apply a non-cleaning car wax such as "Turtle Wax" or "Armor-All Original Shine." Apply to face of door as well as the door edges. Follow the proper instructions on the product label. Do not use car waxes that also clean or car polishes with cleaners which may contain abrasives and may damage the finish of your door. 
Only wash and apply protective sealant when door is cool to the touch.

Under normal conditions, clean and apply protective sealant approximately every six months. Doors exposed to more severe conditions such as coastal locations, extreme sun exposure, dark color painted or stained finishes, and doors behind storm doors should be cleaned and protective sealant applied approximately every three months.

Maintenance of Your Artisan Stain Wood Grain Protective Clear Coat Finish

Guida's hand stained wood grain doors are professionally finished by skilled craftsmen. It is common to have beautiful variations in finish color and shade, very similar to wood doors, so that no two doors will look exactly alike. In order to maintain the factory finish and beauty of your artisan stain wood grain finish, you will be required to periodically refinish the protective clear urethane coating when needed.

Under normal conditions, you will need to apply additional urethane clear coats every two to three years. Artisan stained doors exposed to more severe conditions such as coastal locations, extreme sun exposure, dark color stain finishes, and doors installed behind storm doors may require more frequent applications of protective urethane clear coat finish. Frequent inspection of the factory clear coat finish is required to determine when re-coating is necessary.
Failure to properly maintain your clear coat finish will void the warranty of your factory finish.

Prior to re-coating the door with a clear urethane finish, you must first lightly rough the surface with "000" steel wool pad and remove all residues with a tack rag. It is recommended to apply two to three coats of urethane for best results. Be sure to select a high quality exterior grade satin finish polyurethane or marine spar varnish with built in UV inhibitors to protect your stain finish from harmful ultraviolet light. Follow the application instructions provided by the coating manufacturer.

Repair and Refinishing

Paint repairs and refinishing should be made using exterior grade high quality acrylic latex enamel. For repairs to wood grain stain finishes where the damage is exposed down to the primer or bare metal surface of the door, you must first use an exterior grade metal primer to match the base color of the door. Be sure to allow primer to dry. Apply the hand stain finish using a brush or rag, and then dry brushing to feather in the stain to match the surrounding areas. Use only exterior grade oil based stains for color retention. Following this procedure, apply two to three coats of a high quality exterior grade clear satin urethane finish following the procedures specified above.

Bottom Weather Sweep Replacement
Weather-stripping is manufactured utilizing a soft rubber to allow for the best possible seal. When the bottom sweep wears out, simply slide off bottom sweep and slide on new sweep. The use of pliers to remove existing sweep and a small hammer to install the new sweep may be necessary.

Guida Door & Window is an entry door manufacturer based out of the Philadelphia area.  Guida manufacturers quality insulated steel and fiberglass entry doors.