I don't know what you mean by wrinkles, but it sounds like they need to be sanded. This is strange because those doors come pretty smooth from the factory...you barely need to sand them at all to get them smooth. Doors like this are pretty hard to screw up. A few of the problems this could be: Overspray, as in the door was already dry and spray from spraying a different door hit the dry door which makes it rough. Paint sags. The paint was applied too heavily. It could also be an issue witih applying the next coats of paint before the previous coats are dry. This could re-wet the layer underneath and result the paint wrinkling. That's all I got.

Thank you very much. The doors appeared very smooth with primer when they were delivered to my house. I also doubt that the contractor painted another coat before the first coat was dry. Because in 6 hours, he (just one person) covered the area, painted 3 coats of 9 doors, and installed them. He did it outdoors in a sunny day with temperature of about 60F.

If the coarse parts (most severe in the molding area) are sanded, is it better to brush paint them or spray another coat? What kind of sand paper should I buy?

Really appreciate your help.

This post was edited by janesylvia on Wed, Mar 13, 13 at 1:01

Spraying 3 coats of paint in 61/2 hours is not the work of a true painter. This "contractor" has made a huge mistake.
As paintguy said
It could also be an issue with applying the next coats of paint before the previous coats are dry. This could re-wet the layer underneath and result the paint wrinkling. That's all I got.

Re-coated too soon is my guess too. And, he did them outside? Where was the sun, hopefully not shining on the doors?

Thank you very much, Chris and jumpilotmdm. The molding area should dry later than the flat part, which might explain why there are much more wrinkling there. There are many small dots in the flat area of some doors. They feel coarse.

He did the job in my backyard, where there was a lot of sunshine on the day he did the painting. I raised my concern several times that wind might blow dust on the wet painted door. He kept replying there was no need to worry. Jumpilotmdm, what's the bad about sun shining on the doors? It's not supposed to paint the interior door outside?

Really appreciate your help.

The sun just dries the surface too fast, making it appear ready for another coat. A real painter would know this and not paint in direct sun.

Yea, spraying doors outside in the wind is pretty stupid. Still though, you can recoat paints these days in a hour and in that temp with wind, that paint should dry fast. But, overspray is a huge problem when you are spraying doors outside with latex paint...when you spray one side, the overspray is getting in the wind and landing on anything close, including the other side of the door....would be near impossible to end with a smooth surface doing this, not to mention all the dirt and debris flying around. But, overspray creates a semi-rough surface which is different from crap landing on the door and making it rough. To fix, I would sand and respray. 3M sanding blocks should be all you need for this, no need for sandpaper. I would start off with medium grit and sand lightly until that block is broken in a bit. If you try and touch up with a brush, the brush strokes may show up. It is possible to just touch up the moulded areas inside the panels with a brush and this may blend in okay, but in the flat areas, probably not.

Thank you so much for your professional help, Christ and paintguy.

My general contractor works in somewhere else these two weeks, waiting for me to get all my bathrooms' materials ready. The doors' flat surface does feel semi-rough as said by paintguy. I called him early this morning, he said spraying cannot reach the smoothness I expect from brush painting. For the wrinkling paint in molding area, he said he would check again to see if they can be improved some, and that some doors came with molding with rough surface.

Yesterday, I bought some 220 grit sandpaper, a roller for smooth and semi smooth surface, a good 1.5" brush. After reading paintguy's suggestion, I realize that these are not enough. I'll call a local professional painter recommended by Benjamin Moore salesmen to see how much he would charge to fix them. I was told he is very busy and might not have time. My contractor definitely does not want to spray again, I don't know if sanding then roller-painting can resolve the problem of some protruding small dots on the flat surface on some doors.

By the way, it was sunny but not windy on the day the contractor painted the doors.

Really appreciate your help.

This post was edited by janesylvia on Fri, Mar 15, 13 at 2:33

That's funny. I would actually say the opposite. You cannot achieve the smoothness of spraying by using a brush. After spraying a gazillion doors in my life, sure I may have picked up a few tricks along the way in order to have them come out perfectly smooth, but I always just assumed this was something that any old painter could do. I guess not! Sometimes you can roll the paint on and as it dries it may end up looking like a sprayed finish, but this is tricky and you really need a self levelling paint and a perfect technique. Also, if the moulding came on the doors already rough, couldn't he have sanded them before spraying? Really feels like I'm throwing the dude under the bus here but geez, painting 101!

This guy deserves to be under the bus ( IMO), saying that spraying cannot get as smooth as a brush and roller is just plain nonsense Do all the perfectly smooth finishes that come from the factory come from a brush? I think not.

lesson learned
painters know paint
contractors know?

I recently had 10 doors painted in my house, I was very annoyed with the results, after waiting 3 weeks to close them, they started to stick on the outer edge and inner edge, and I noticed a lot of smuding, how can I fix them, I am at my wit's end.