best finish for outside projevts

Fine Woodworking did an article on outdoor finishes a few years ago. You can find it here.

As I recall, the liked 2 Epithanes products best. One was a marine varnish and the other was a marine epoxy.

I hope this is helpful.

-- Rule # 1 - Don't mix yer blood and sawdust!

Forget Thompson watrer sealer, it is crap. Any big box stores exterior finishes will no last even in 3 months.

As what Sumdume said, use Epithanes Marine Varnish or boat industry standard.

http://www.jamestowndistributors.com/userportal/search_subCategory.do?categoryName=Varnish&category=36&refine=1&page=GRID

-- shdesign3.com

The wooden boat folks I know turned me on to Penofin. You have to re-apply regularly for a while (ie: a month or two, and then few months or years), but allegedly eventually it gets to the point where it’s permanent. And re-applying it is easy.

-- Dan Lyke, Petaluma California, http://www.flutterby.net/User:DanLyke

Than I try some of that.

Benjamin Moore Paint.
Any of the varnishes or epoxies will suffer UV degradation and need constant re application.
If you can bring yourself to paint it then paint it and you won’t have to revisit the coating again for a few years.

-- When the moderator chooses sides, his site sucks.

Every coating has to be refreshed outside….the difference is the amount of time you can wait before it has to be done. I really like Valspar Spar Varnish….or any maritime varnish….these are made to peal off slowly from the UV and can last up to 3-5 years in a heavy maritime environment (may or may not be longer in your outside environment)....Epoxies are all heat vulnerable…alot of them let go when exposed to directly with the sun – the same will happen to a finish with a poly resin in it….they will last a bit…but not as long as a marine varnish.

-- Woodworking.....My small slice of heaven!

What exactly are you making?

-- shdesign3.com

At this point, you’ve posed a fairly open-ended question. As Steven H asked, it depends on what you’re building, and whether or not you’d consider paint/stain, or are looking for something more clear or natural looking. Several good products mentioned above, at least from what I’ve read in the past about them. You might also consider teak oil. You’ll have to reapply about once a year, but it’s a very simple application.

-- Jonathan, Denver, CO "Constructive criticism is welcome and valued as it gives me new perspectives and helps me to advance as a woodworker."

So just to elaborate on my “Penofin” answer earlier: Per Jonathan, it’s an oil. And as ReggieK says, everything has to be refinished regularly when it’s outside. The reason to use an oil finish outside is that refinishing is a matter of “wipe it clean, apply the oil, wait a little while, wipe it off”.

My experiences with varnish is that when they degrade you have to do a lot more surface prep, taking off cracked finish, sanding, etc., than you do with oils. I don’t know where the trade-off for how long the finish lasts vs how much time you spend wiping on new oil is, but I hate sanding, and adding another coat of oil is easy.

-- Dan Lyke, Petaluma California, http://www.flutterby.net/User:DanLyke

Common mistake I see people do it they wait until varnish fail. Dont wait until it cracks. Refinish before it does.
Scuff sand the surface, then apply couple coats.

-- shdesign3.com

Well I should have said what the project was to begin with sorry, didn’t think about that but it’s only three pieces of oak for a barbecue grill to place plates of food and whatnot. The reason I was using oak was because the other wood they used seen to get broken and left jagged edges that was dangerous around kids. though it seems sacrilege to paint oak for a woodworker it may be the best option since I won’t have access to the wood very often. I thank everyone for the comments as I may be building some picnic tables and benches soon and would need this kind of information to tell the client what I would use for a finish. Not sure what type of wood to use since redwood doesn’t seem to be very widely used these days and teak well you can figure that one out. So you can tell I don’t have much experience with outside projects.

@Steven H I bookmarked your blog good information there thanks

Ipe (pronounced: “E-Pay”) is another excellent wood to use for outdoor projects, although it isn’t the cheapest thing either. It’s one of the nice alternatives to using teak, at a lower price point.

A few links with ipe facts and ipe lumber:
http://www.woodsthebest.com/ipe_decking/ipe-wood.htm
http://www.advantagelumber.com/ipedecking.htm
http://www.ipedepot.com/ (a division of Advantage Lumber)

-- Jonathan, Denver, CO "Constructive criticism is welcome and valued as it gives me new perspectives and helps me to advance as a woodworker."

Used on out door stuff I`ve found Australian Timber oil is by far better than Penofin on softwoods. Did my own little test with both, 2 coats of each on Sitka spruce, a year later, the one with ATO still beaded the all day rainfall.

-- FUN IS GOOD Smithers BC