Weather Proof Birch Wood

Paint.

If your patio is covered and the table will rarely be exposed to direct sun light, then pretty much any marine finish will do fine. My patio swing was finished with spar urethane at least 25 yrs ago and is still in pretty goo d shape. Besides, if your table top's finish doesn't "survive" for 5-10 y rs, it shouldn't be difficult to sand and refinish it.

Sonny

None! The best stains are only temporary. If you want weather proof consider a better wood choice, aluminum, or composite.

If you have not already purchased the birch plywood you may want to look

into buying a marine grade made for use in boats and other out door applications.

Aluminum gets pretty hot in the sun. Wood works better than composite even, though it requires a lot more maintenance. Paint works. Painted cherry always the best.

Why not use a naturally "weather-proof" wood like cypress? My mom had an o utdoor shelf made of pine, I believe, that basically rotted away in a few y ears. I duplicated it and painted it and it's been outside for well on 15 years now with no sign of degradation. SS screws, T3 and cypress. Now tha t I think of it I think I used an exterior adirondack green stain first, bu t the color was off so I put adirondack green paint over the top. JP

an exterior adirondack green stain first, but the color was off so I put adirondack green paint over the top.

I was going to say that torrefied anything would be another option, but it seems to all of a sudden be a fad in the guitar industry and hard to find in sizes suitable for furniture at reasonable cost--it used to be cheap.