Refurbishing exterior woodwork

pheran

pheran

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I am smartening up a 25-year old steel Mobo which has a fair bit of exterior woodwork, mainly teak and mahogany, and in the form of handrails and trim strips. The varnish previously applied is peeling and will need to be stripped but what then? How should the wood be cleaned? Just sanded, or bleached? And what about the new finish? Revarnish or is there something better these days? Any suggestions gratefully received.
 
Take a look at Deks Olje . Its a penetrating oil rather than a conventional varnish and you apply several coats in a short period until the wood is saurated. After this is allowed to dry you can either leave it as a matt finish or apply a coat of a 'part2' which gives a high gloss finish.

I've had the same problems as you on my Pedro and I'm just in the process of giving it a try so a little early to give you an opinion on how well it works, but I did a pretty thorough trawl on the net for info and it looks good.
 
mahog and teak parts might be best removed first and restored indoors if at all possible.

For fixed pieces, mask early to avoid snagging and scratching at the edges of non-wood which looks poor.

I would use hot air to help scrape of the main material, and a combination of cleaner/bleach such as 2-part chmical cleaner from wessex chemicals. You can't "over bleach" wood with oxalic - it returns to a natural colour.

For a realy fab prepped finish, sand with an orbital sander if you must but then finish manually - sand with the grain not across else it will be fluffy.

You should be ableto get the wood shining with no varnish at all.

Then, wipe the surface with dampcloth and leave to dry for an hour or less - the surface will then be a bit rough and you've "turned" the grain. Effectivly, you have "warped" the tiny bits on the surface that wd otherwise warp with varnish applied. Sand this off with super-fine warm (ie used before) sandpaper or flourpaper. Do this again and again until the wood stays smooth after a damp rag wipe -cos then it will stay smooth with first coat varnish. Othrwise youare always fighting/sanding that surprisingly-rough first coat.

Varnish coats should the thin and fast- applied,then you walk out the door and leave 36 hours before hard enough to re-sand. You can lightly sand, clean and dry, and apply another coat, each time sanding back to keep it sharp and shiny and avoiding an uneven "gloopy" look when varnish is shiny but isn't sanded back flat each time .

If you unavoidably *have* to varnish outdoors, make sure you apply during the early part of the day (before midday at very latest latest) when solid things are heating up in the sun rather cooling down - else damp air may condense on the workpiece and "bloom" the varnish. Sanding all day and varnsihing last thing outside is a no-no - use morning dew as grain-turner, wipe down and final sand, leave to dry and varnsih mid-morning.

same prep for oil and coeleans whhich are lower-maintenance and good, but praps not quite as good for parts you see up-close. Oils of course much easier to apply any time of day - less critical "drying"

all imho.
 
I have just applied 2 coats of Burgess Woodsealer to my rubbing strake and it looks really good. As you say, remove the old varnish and treat with wood restorer[oxalic acid] if the wood is stained from water ingress,but beware this softens the surface and makes it easy to pull the grain up in strips with any masking tape you might apply. Then sand well and apply the sealer after wiping down with a damp cloth to remove dust etc. This product can be applied in damp conditions as it is water based, also meaning you can wash brushes etc in water and is a permeable coating allowing the wood to breathe.
 
I used Coelan on a Chan wai trawler yacht and must say the results were great, it sealed a leaking deck and didnt seem to be affected by the sun also used it on the rails and window frames, highly recommend the product
 
we too used Coelan on our 25 ft mobo, mainly as an experiment to see how it would cope with frost. We already knew how well it coped with UV. After 2 winters in Norfolk, it must be said that the Coelan, even although it was fully exposed, still looked great where the varnish would have peeled every winter.
 
I use le Tonkinois for my woodwork. It's very forgiving in application and lasts well. Most important of all, it doesn't peel or flake!

Among others, Classic Boat supplies supply it - or there's almost always a bloke at the boat jumbles.
 
I used Deks Olje last year. Works great on teak when its off the boat and you can add treatment in a garage. But this year, when carefully applying to the teak work now attached to the boat, it has run in places and created an immovable mess on the cockpit sole. Any tips on removing hardened Deks Olje greatefully received!
 
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