I just spent the most frustrating 2 hours ever trying to put fast-drying
Minwax polyurethane on an interior bedroom door. I'm obviously not doing
something right and I need advice from someone who's done this lots, instead
of never, like me.

Here's the situation. I have an unfinished second floor in my home. We are
finally getting around to finishing it, and a month or so ago we bought 4
Masonite pre-hung raised panel wooden doors from Home Depot to put on the 2
bedrooms, the bathroom, and the closet upstairs. My plan was to stain them
and then poly them first before attempting to hang them.

I went away for a week in December for work, and when I got home, all the
doors were up. My wife thought she'd surprise me and hired someone to put
them in, since I had been walking around for a couple weeks saying I wasn't
sure I'd be able to hang these doors properly myself, not having done that
sort of thing before.

Anyways, now the doors are installed, but not stained or poly'd. So, I
stained them a couple weeks ago. That went well. But this morning I
started to poly one, and it took me 2 HOURS to do the frame and only one
side of the door. It was the biggest mess you've ever seen.

I used a 3-inch foam brush (from Home Depot), as it says on the Minwax can
you can use. I had poly dripping off the brush onto the floor, running down
my hand and arms, bits of foam coming off getting stuck in the poly on the
door .... then, just went I thought I'd gotten a good coat on a certain
section, I'd catch it from another angle in the light and see a large area
that didn't have any poly at all on it. The foam brush just didn't seem to
be spreading the poly well and covering the door properly. Am I doing
something wrong ? The Minwax instructions says a foam brush can be used but
it's obviously not doing it well.

I'd like to hear from contractors, carpenters etc out there how they do this
without having it become a fiasco and taking 4 weeks to do 4 doors. I
stopped after the one side. How am I going to 2 sides on 4 doors, 3 times
(coats) over !! It'll take me a year !

Should I spray it ? Should I use a bristle brush ? I thought the foam
would work out better because I could just toss it when I was done and grab
a new one for the next coat. Can't do that with a bristle brush - I'll have
to clean it after each time, and then the next time, the coat won't be as
smooth because the bristle's always stiffen up after cleaning in paint
thinner.

I think I'm going to pull the hinge pins and take the doors down so I can
poly them flat, which should get around the mess caused by the poly running
on the doors, but that won't help with the pre-hung frames.

What I really need to know is the proper technique for applying poly and the
proper tools to use.

Thanks for listening to my rant and hopefully someone out there has some
advice for me.

Shawn