Wooden garage doors - treatment?

[John]

Just bought a set of garage doors from ebay

(not exactly those - ours have no windows) and I've got to say, they're very good. I couldn't even buy the wood round here to make them myself for £49 and to be honest, I'd probably c*ck it up anyway. I like to work (read mess about) with wood but I'm just not very good at it :o(

Anyway, we fancy just staining and varnishing them rather than painting, but would that provide adequate protection? I know that if we were going to paint them, we'd start off with knotting, primer, undercoat and finally exterior gloss, but what's the procedure when you just want to keep the look of the wood?

TIA

John

[Rod]

Recently someone posted about Sikkens being good stuff. So I have used it on our shed door. Only a few weeks of experience (not exactly a durability study), but it was nice to use and *seems* to have produced a lovely smooth, tough coat. (Despite the door having become a bit sad over the last couple of years.)

Their varnish-like products do have a pigment in them - so you have to choose a colour. But you do still see the full grain. The claim seems to be that the pigment (iron oxides, IIRC) actually provides a huge part of the protection.

Not cheap but very good coverage. Bought from Jewsons - I smiled nicely at the young saleslady and the price became competitive.

[mail]

Dear John Protection against what? Answering my own question presumably a) insect attack b) fungal decay c) UV degratation

If I were to want to protect the wood without painting I would

1) take it to a double vacuum treatment plant (Protimising) that still was operating on OS (organic solvent) and slip the operator a fiver to leave them in the bottom of the cylinder for a couple of days work so several charge cycles (absent this one will suffice) 2) allow it to dry for several days / week until dry 3) paint it first with a low build non-viscous Water Repellant Preservative Stain (Saddolins) paying particular attention to the bottom joints and endgrain where the rain will hit it and, if necessary, dipping in the paint for some minutes 4) paint it then with a medium build WRPS in the "colour" I liked which still allowed the wood to be "seen". There is a trade off with the opacity and UV degradation which only you can decide

If I was painting it (I would not) I would do steps 1 and 2 as above and then

3) green primer of Dulux Weathersheald followed by exterior under (x2) and gloss (x1)

Trouble with this is that you have to get rid of the gloss in about 7 years and start again which is not true of WRPSs which simply chalk off in a couple or 4 years

Chris G

[John]

Dear Chris,

Whilst I did ask the question and although I am very grateful for, and very impressed by, your extensive answer, I'm afraid that most of it went straight o'er me ed mate :o)

All I really wanted to know is, instead of painting the garage doors white again like I've done every four or so years with the last lot, would stain and varnish be as good at keeping the weather at bay - it is only a set of garage doors costing £49 :o)

[John]

Cheers Rod, I'll give it a coat of looking at :o)

John

[Pete C]

Sikkens or Restol, applied as per directions.

Decorating Direct (google) do them at good prices if not available locally.

Not varnish, unless you're a varnishista, in which case you wouldn't be asking :)

cheers, Pete.

[John]

Thanks Pete, that's two for Sikkens so it'll probably be that then :o)

John

[Rod]

Do read up on their site. Don't use knotting.

Enjoy.

[mail]

John Short answer "No". Stain and varnish would degrade pretty quickly. First the varnish would micro crack (you don't see it) due to UV degradation, then water would get in and not get out, then you would get precursor blue stain fungi (which don't damage the wood but do discolour) and finally both UV and fungal decay damage. All this would go on under the "apparently" good varnish before it became really obvious. That is why it is necessary in boats to varnish more often than appearances dictate. If you want the varnish look go for a WRP stain but it is not really equivalent to a stain as good ones are opaque. Chris