Exterior door finish

[bglenden]

I have an exterior wood door with a clear finish that needs to be refinished. I think it was last done with a spar varnish. Any recommendations for a brand to refinish this with? I live in New Mexico and it gets a lot of sun. (I'm sure sometime in the last few years I saw a review of spar varnishes somewhere showing dramatic differences between brands, but darned if I can find it). Any other advice for finishing the door would be most welcome.

Cheers,

Brian

[cams2705]

Brian,

Check out video #46 on TWW site. Marc does a video on applying finish on a door. With him being in Arizona, I'm sure it would apply to you in New Mexico.

Chuck

[PaulMarcel]

That's the finish I used on an outdoor oak cabinet on the patio (Epifanes yacht varnish). You don't see a "sun" line on it from successive passes of the sun. It's a 12' cabinet so half gets the sun, half not. The half that gets the sun gets too hot to touch in summer. Going on 2 years... hmm.. maybe 3. Still no need to touch it up. I'm in Arizona.

[bglenden]

Did you use the pure spar varnish, or the mixture that Marc had in his video? (Thanks to Chuck for the reference).

Cheers,

Brian

[PaulMarcel]

Yikes! I'd have to watch the video again. Perhaps I'm remembering incorrectly. He did a video and live cast once on Epifanes yacht varnish. A little pricey, but oooh worth it. If it is made to protect wood on a yacht with seawater spray, direct sun, and reflected sun from the water every day, it's tough.

I just used Epifanes gloss to build, 2 coats of Epifanes matte to dull down the gloss, then 2 final coats of gloss. I actually described how and why in another post here.

If that wasn't the same video, sorry for the confusion. Regardless, Epifanes rocks.

[Bobby Slack]

I LOVE Sikkens. All my exterior projects came out great with this stain. http://www.nam.sikkens.com/index-english.cfm

The best product they have is the cetol 1 and 23 process, is really fantastic. This stain well never crack.

There is only one thing you will have to do which is to completely remove everything you have on that door. Sikkens needs to be applied on the raw wood.

I used this stain on many doors and never let me down.

If you don't live in California like I do you will have no problem.

Second best alternative in sikkens is to use the log and cabin product.

The best part of this product is that is easy to re-apply two or three years down the road.

Good luck.

[bglenden]

In Video #46 Marc used 1 part BLO, 1 part Mineral spirits, 0.5 part Epifanes, i.e. diluted 5:1.

Cheers,

Brian

[Bobby Slack]

Paul-Marcel. Hopefully you get this post. I am addressing your comment ....

"Sikkens is just a stain, correct? So it isn't a protective topcoat. You could still use Sikkens for color and CPES for waterproofing. It has no inherent UV protection so make your topcoat UV protective. Now it shouldn't breakdown due to UV, but since it isn't UV protective, your stain/wood may suffer. The stuff is predominately used on boats, which are typically in high-UV environments. It's also used to stabilize concrete, but that's another thread "

To keep things organized I stayed under the existing exterior finish existing thread.

So. When I do exterior doors, gates, decks ... I use purely Sikkens they have a two product process ... three coats.

Your comment on CPES got my attention because I am always interested in doing something better. Sikkens does not like to put their product on top of somebody else's stain, if you do that, the recommendation is to strip the wood down to bare and re-apply. Your CPES appeared to be bullet proof.