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How to recoat badly degraded exterior varnish on timber windows and doors?

Hi folks,

I am prepping and eventually recoating a number of timber doors and windows on a property (for a friend). I imagine the best way to do this is to completely remove the original varnish, sanding back etc. then recoating (this is my current approach). However, I would like this job to be as cheap as possible for my friend and am wondering if an acceptable result could be achieved by sanding of the worst bits and giving the entire frames just a light sand before recoating. I’ve seen this sort of thing happening a lot particularly on cedar weatherboards so I’m wondering if anyone has any good tips! Any thoughts on this would be much appreciated, thank you

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Comments

Jewelleryrescue

Hi @El_Barto

Good your looking after your neighbour .

To do a good varnish job you would have to sand timber back to clean timber any part cleaning would be seen through the new varnish. Those timbers in photos will need alot of elbow grease to get them looking nice.

I can direct you to a clear silkens outdoor varnish it is a polymere that is highly uv resistant and weather proof for many years.

Sikkens 1L Cetol TGL Gloss Plus Clear Timber Finish I/N: 1522546 about $58 per litre not cheap but worth every drop.

Can I get you to reconsider you mind set?

Why not simply paint the timber with a and exterior paint many are one coat coverage these days.

Also this way a full sand back not required to raw timber and if later you need to retouch any marks you simply use the same paint.

Start a new color scheme or just white it will hide all the marks and preserve the timber for many years to come.

If you can get some one with a business ABN they can join bunnings as a trade person and access trade qualitly paints for a very good discount in the tuabuans range.

I dont think you are repainting the whole house so you will need to think about solutions too.

Some times paint places and bunnings have mis tinted paints you can buy cheaper. if you are just dong the out door trims etc. save a few dollars.

hope this helps.

JacobZ

Hi @El_Barto,

A warm welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community and thank you for your question.

It's fantastic to see @Jewelleryrescue has already jumped in with some advice.

Unfortunately, revarnishing these windows will require sanding them back to bare timber. This can be sped up by using an orbital sander for the majority of the surface area and then hand sanding for the curves and corners. Use 80-grit sandpaper and you'll be surprised how quickly it comes off.

Once it is back to bare timber, use painter's tape and plastic drop sheets to mask off the windows before coating the timber with an external varnish like Bondall Satin Monocel Gold Marine Clear Timber Varnish.

Alternatively, as Jewelleryrescue has mentioned, you can lightly sand the frame to remove the poorly adhered flaky varnish and then paint it with a high-quality external paint like Taubmans All Weather or Dulux Weathershield. Check out How To Paint Over Varnished Timber for some guidance.

Let me know what you think and if you have further questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

Jacob

El_Barto

https://www.workshop.bunnings.com.au/discussion/comment/45826#Comment_45826

Thanks @JacobZ and @Jewelleryrescue . Appreciate that advice a lot.

have been sanding everything back to bare wood as you suggested. My friend is pretty attached to the exposed wood look so we went with tongue oil (which is maybe even more expensive than some of your suggestions). But will be interesting to see how it fairs over time. I’ve heard it is an easy oil to recoat with?

anyway thanks a lot for your help. A couple progress pics attached

EricL

https://www.workshop.bunnings.com.au/discussion/comment/85149#Comment_85149

Hi @El_Barto

Thank you so much for the photo updates. The timber frames look great, sanding back to wood has really brought out the timber grain.

Eric

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