Two-part varnish

[JumbleDuck]

Twenty five years ago I bought a flat in Edinburgh. The first thing I did was sand the floors and then varnish them with a two-part varnish - a small bottle of one part into a five litre can of the other. That stuff is bombproof - the floors have never been redone and there is no sign of wear, even in the most heavily trafficked areas.

Why can't I buy boat varnish as tough and durable as that? Or can I?

 

[duncan99210]

What's to stop you using thevfloor varnish on the boat? Only thing I can think of is it may not resist UV very well.

 

[lw395]

Indoor floors at home don't get UV, cold or wet.

Perfection two pack is pretty tough stuff.
I had a dinghy varnished with that, also use it on carbon spars.
It's pretty tough, but on spars left outdoors, it does not last forever. 4 years?
I've used Johnstone's floor varnish on both a parquet kitchen floor and cabin sole of a yacht.
It lasted better in daily use in the kitchen.

I'll have another varnished wooden dinghy when I can keep it in the house between races...

 

[Tranona]

The latest single pack water based floor varnishes such as Ronseal seem equally good. Just done the cabin sole with it. Looks like watery yoghurt when you put it on but cures (quickly) to a hard satin finish.

 

[tolhurstorganic]

My sole was coated with Ronseal floor Varnish 5 years ago still looks like new. Applied 6 coats one on top of other, its so easy to apply no reason not to go over the spec. Somewhere on the tin it does say something about it not being suitable for bathrooms and kitchens...
2 pack ok but very expensive and a nightmare when it does start to breakdown.

 

[jwilson]

Twenty five years ago I bought a flat in Edinburgh. The first thing I did was sand the floors and then varnish them with a two-part varnish - a small bottle of one part into a five litre can of the other. That stuff is bombproof - the floors have never been redone and there is no sign of wear, even in the most heavily trafficked areas.

Why can't I buy boat varnish as tough and durable as that? Or can I?

Two-pack polyurethane yacht varnish is fantastic - UNTIL you need to get it off again because it has some tiny nicks/damage that lets water under a few square inches. That little area comes off easily, but then it's an absolute sod to get the rest of it off the varnished surface. Now if I have to varnish anything exterior on a boat it's ordinary non-poly varnish, doesn't last long but dead easy to strip off with heat and a scraper.

 

[Avocet]

My sole was coated with Ronseal floor Varnish 5 years ago still looks like new. Applied 6 coats one on top of other, its so easy to apply no reason not to go over the spec. Somewhere on the tin it does say something about it not being suitable for bathrooms and kitchens...
2 pack ok but very expensive and a nightmare when it does start to breakdown.

Yes, that's been my experience too. I did Avocet's cabin sole boards with Ronseal's "Diamond Hard" interior floor varnish bout 10 years ago, just because I had some handy. Same sort of thing, goes on milky, then dries clear and (extremely) hard. I too, read the warnings about damp areas and wondered if I'd be re-doing them the next season....

...that was 10 years ago! Since then, they've had the most appalling treatment, including me doing a whole refit standing on them, taking the engine out and sitting it on them AND (at least twice during a recent lengthy layup) coming out to the boat and finding it had collected so much rainwater that they sole boards were FLOATING in it! On one occasion, they'd have been doing so for at least a week. Each time, they went milky again. I took hem out, dried them at home and they were right as rain!