Outdoor furniture finish

Getting ready to finish an outdoor project (cypress umbrella table for the pool deck) and was planning on using spar varnish UNTIL read an article on exterior finishes in this month's Woodsmith. Said the big downside on spar varnish would be having to sand and refunish every 3-5 tears. Yuck. Instead, suggested a penetrating oil treatment, shorter lifespan but easier refinish.

So, recommendations on product to use? Also any tips or tricks? Its currently sanded to 120.; stop there or go finer? Indoor stuff that I poly I would normally go to 220.

 

If your cypress is old growth wood I would not spar varnish it. The wood on it's own can last a very long time. If it's modern, farmed cypress then I'm on the fence about treating it. My main experience is with walnut furniture on porches. Outdoors but not exposed to the full sun and rain like your table. I use tung oil. Then each winter I bring the furniture inside for a couple months when it's not being used and give it a thorough cleaning and apply another layer of oil.

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I used to live on a classic wooden boat that had a mixture of spar varnish on the mahogany and oil on the teak. To this day I can't bring myself to use spar varnish outside. It does last longer than oil but I am thoroughly done with scraping & sanding spar varnish and applying new.

 

No way of knowing the age of the growth, first time I've worked with cypress. Bought through a mill in Lakeland, FL, about 100 miles away. Scraping and sanding every few years is not in my plans.

 

None of the paint/finish experts around to comment???

 

I've only stained cypress a couple of times and that was decades ago. I would not use spar poly - in the fla sun I'd expect it to need sanding and refinishing yearly.

Sanding with 120 should be good enough, if you sand it too fine any coating applied over it will have a harder time being absorbed by the wood. I don't have a lot of experience with rubbing oils.

 

Tung oil was what I used with the teak outdoor set many years ago, was a lot easier to keep up than any kind of varnish. Of course now the upkeep is the easiest, everything is composite!

 

Pretty much the conclusions I've reached via surfing web articles.

PD, do you have a brand of tung oil you prefer?

 

The last I bought was Hope's brand but I haven't tried any other brands in many years so I can't say it's the best. It does work though.

 

Roger.