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| Leave it to the pro. Michael Dresdner, a nationally known wood finishing and woodworking expert, has answered hundreds of common wood finishing questions in Varathane’s Q&A library to help you successfully complete your project. Click on a link to the left for help and solid advice. |
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| Q: I have a fiberglass door, finished with gel stain which is flaking and peeling on the exterior side. I would like to remove the gel stain from the fiberglass door and wood frame and replace it with paint. Can you tell me the best and easiest way to remove the gel stain to prepare it for painting?
A: Use paint remover to get the old finish off, then make sure you prime it with a good exterior primer before painting. |  | |
| Q: My husband and I are building a built-in bookcase storage cabinet out of natural rustic plywood. Some of the knots in the plywood have been puttied with a relatively light color. I’m interested in doing a light natural finish on this project. How would you recommend going about finishing this project? Do I need to treat the knots somehow or do I just want to finish directly over the top of them?
A: If you have concerns about the knots ‘weeping’ resin, which, to be honest, is possible but unlikely, you might want to seal the wood first with one coat of Zinsser SealCoat, a clear primer. Apply the SealCoat after the stain has dried if you decided to stain the wood rather than leave it in its original color. After that, finish with whatever you choose, since both waterbased and oil based finishes will go nicely over SealCoat. Personally, I would probably go with gel stain for changing the color, if you choose, followed by oil based polyurethane, which is both easy to use and quite durable. | | |
| Q: The instructions with waterbased finishes say that you should sand between coats for a smooth finish, and yet say to recoat after an hour, but the previous coat still seems soft at that point, so that seems like a recipe for disaster.
A: Actually, most instructions on standard waterbased clear coatings say you can apply the next coat in an hour, not that you should. Except for the first two coats, which can go on within a couple of hours of one another, I would opt for no more than two thin coats per day, and that’s only under ideal drying conditions. Otherwise, stick to one per day. Apply thin, even coats, and sand only if you need to in order to remove dust nibs or application marks. Otherwise, it is really not necessary to sand between coats if the next coat is going on the next day. If you wait more than a few days between coats, I would sand lightly with 400 grit ‘gold’ sandpaper, a special self lubricated paper designed to work best with waterbased coatings. | | |
| Q: I’m making a bar from solid white oak and want to have a high gloss finish that will bring out the full character of the wood. What should I start with and how do I prepare the wood?
A: No matter what the final finish, the first preparation steps are the same. Sand the wood starting with 80 grit, then move on to 120 and through 180. Now sand once more, this time by hand, with the grain, using 180 garnet paper instead of aluminum oxide or silicone carbide paper. The garnet will leave a softer scratch pattern, and sanding by hand with the grain will leave you with a smooth surface, ready to stain or finish, with no cross grain scratches showing. |
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