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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 want to make a living making wood garage doors in hemlock, cedar and fir with mahogany and lauan panels. The idea is to offer them stained and finished in several colors to customers. I want to have three or four stains for customers to choose from. I want to come up with a few finishes or stains. I saw a small chest done at a finishing house and it looked great, but have been unable to get the color or look. I want to be able to produce a professional finish myself. Can you give me some guidelines?
A: When it comes to garage doors, you are fairly limited in materials. You want a stain that is 100% pigment based, so it will not fade, is in a medium that will go under topcoat without problems, and an appropriate exterior topcoat that is flexible enough for what a garage door is subjected to.
For stains, I would use Varathane oil based stain, since the fit that parameter and come in a wide variety of colors. Choose a few colors, some light, some dark, some more reddish and some more greenish brown, and apply them to sanded samples of the woods you plan to use. Write the color on the back of the sample, then seal the front with clear finish. For topcoat, I would use either oil based exterior spar urethane or spar varnish. Either would be a good choice for garage doors. Once you have made samples you like, you will have them to show to customers. If you feel you are not good at choosing colors people would like, find a few friends in your neighborhood known for their good taste in such things and ask them their opinion. Ultimately, your customers will refine your choices for you; they will only buy the colors they like. |  | |
| Q: Is there a place to buy spar varnish in 5 gallon containers to cut down on its cost?
A: Many marine supply outlets sell spar varnish in five gallon containers, as do many industrial suppliers who sell to painting contractors. There will certainly be one or more in your area. Whether it is cheaper or not is something you’ll have to investigate. In many cases it has more to do with where you buy than what size container you purchase. | | |
| Q: We may be refinishing some wood trim and window trim for some friends new house addition. They used your water based stain and urethane without a conditioner on soft window wood and it did not stain evenly. Do you recommend some type of stripper? I have tried sanding it and have not gotten below the stain yet.
A: I am going to assume they used waterbased One-Step Stain and Polyurethane, since Varathane does not make a waterbased stain. Oil based wood conditioner would not have helped in that case since it is made to work with oil based stain. In any case, if you want to remove the finish, Parks makes a number of types of paint remover, most of which will work in this case, but I must warn you, no matter what stripper you use, getting stain out of soft woods is a challenge and will take both scrubbing with stripper and solvents, and some sanding after the finish is all off. Even then you might not get it all out, but hopefully you will remove enough to be able to redo the job more evenly. For soft uneven wood that tends to take stain very unevenly, you might want to go a different route. I would have sealed the raw wood with Zinsser SealCoat or if it is exterior wood, with a coat of clear exterior spar urethane, then followed with several coats of One-Step Stain and Poly in an aerosol can, a spray on tinted finish that comes in a wide range of colors. Add as many coats as you need, with sufficient drying time in between, to get the color and intensity you want. | | |
| Q: Can I use gel polyurethane over an oil based gel stain?
A: Yep, you sure can. |
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