[tripplehemi]

What type of primer if any do I need to put on to cover a door frame that has wood stain on it ?I plan on painting them with latex paint

[Clough]

Is this only stain on the door frame and not a combination of a varnish or polyurethane and stain? Is there any sheen to it at all?

[Clough]

Okay, I was looking forward to some discussion with you about your paint project since we were both online at the same time. But now, I see that you aren't online anymore. When I noticed that you were looking at other questions, I sent you a private message to let you know that I had responded to your post here.

I'm just going to go by guessing here in order to answer you right now. I may be incorrect about what you are dealing with because I am guessing. If by stain you mean that you can actually see the wood, my guess is that you have some kind of finish on top of the stain.

I'm going to assume that the surface area of the door frame is perfectly smooth. If it's not, your going to have to do some sanding in order to make it so, or your paint job is not going to look the greatest. However, I'm not sure how good you want your paint job to look. Maybe this is concerning a much older home, where the original varnish has cracked, and maybe the wood underneath the finish is oak or walnut and would look beautiful if it were stripped and re-stained and a high quality clear coat of some kind were put on it. Don't know.

No matter what the finish is you are safe to use a good quality latex primer. You could use an oil based primer, but it's harder to clean up. I like to use Sherwin-Williams products because they are so high quality. Sherwin-Williams also makes the Dutch Boy products. So, I will use them also. Lowe's or Menards also has some latex primers that are good and I don't have a problem using them.

Since this is a door frame, it is best to use at least a paint that has a semi-gloss or at least a satin sheen to it so that it can be washed because of finger marks.

[glavine]

Id use an oil based primer such as kilz, there also maybe some poly left on the door that will need to be sanded off. What you miss the kilz should take care of and allow the laytex to stick