Outdoor white oak table

[Bill Dempsey]

I'm building a bar height table and stools from white oak. It will reside in a screened in porch in coastal Florida, most of the time. Indirect sunlight, occasional rain.
Thinking of finishing with Rubio monocrat Hybrid wood protector. Looking for alternative ideas for the finich
Thanks

[Tom M King]

My Wife put Marine Varnish on this one. Finish is only something over 6 months old, but still looks like she just put it on. The top is White Oak.

[Brian Tymchak]

I have no idea how well the new generation finish products like Rubio and Osmo work in the outdoors. My favorite is Epiphanes Marine Varnish. It is so much better than the marine varnishes you find at the big box stores.

[Tom M King]

I used to use Epiphanes, and have no complaints with its performance. The trouble with it is it dries so slowly that one coat a day is usually it. Totalboat Lust is my go-to now. It dries in an hour enough to be recoated. It's still solvent based, like Epiphanes. I put six coats on some doors in one day, and I think Pam did on this table too. I don't know if anyone could tell the difference between the two side by side.

[Brian Tymchak]

Thanks for the tip on Totalboat Tom. I've seen it mentioned in the forums a few times. Epiphanes does dry slowly. If you got something that performs as well and is faster time-to-recoat, then I will give it a try next time I finish the front door.

[Tom M King]

The reason I tried it was to get some double entry doors down, prepped, finished, and rehung in the same day. I was very impressed with it. I have a thread about that job somewhere in this forum. We've used it a couple of times since then.

Found it:
https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread....highlight=lust

The two stage brush cleaning is important. It dries so fast that you can't count on it staying soft until the next coat, and thinner alone won't clean it completely without several changes.

[John TenEyck]

If you are looking for an excellent product for house doors take a look at PPG Cetol Door and Window finish. It's a porous, self chalking film that will never peel and has amazing durability. It's a little slow to dry, too, but faster than Epifanes (which I like but it's too slow and thick for doors, IMO), and you only need to apply 2 or 3 coats.

John

[Tom M King]

I plan to try that with any new doors and bare wood, based on your past recommendation here. The doors I redid were almost 50 years old, and the finish, that no telling how many times it had been redone before, looked to be marine varnish. I was only comfortable going back over top of that with more marine varnish.

[Tom Bain]

If you are looking for an excellent product for house doors take a look at PPG Cetol Door and Window finish. It's a porous, self chalking film that will never peel and has amazing durability. It's a little slow to dry, too, but faster than Epifanes (which I like but it's too slow and thick for doors, IMO), and you only need to apply 2 or 3 coats.

John

A friendly tip for anyone searching for this, PPG has rebranded the Cetol line as “Proluxe”

[John TenEyck]

A friendly tip for anyone searching for this, PPG has rebranded the Cetol line as “Proluxe”

Thanks Tom. And for anyone contemplating using Cetol Door and Window Finish, this is a photo of the first door I finished with it, back when it was installed in 2017. It faces directly West with no protection from rain, sun, snow, etc. It's Sapele with 2 coats of Cetol Mahogany and one coat of Clear Satin.



Fast forward to Fall of 2021, over 4 years later. You can see how the color has faded but there was no peeling, flaking, etc.




I removed the door panels and the home owner applied two coats of a mixture of mahogany and clear satin to all surfaces. The door remained installed, except for the panels. I put plywood panels in place temporarily for security. And here's what it looked like after the update.




Again, done by the homeowner, with a brush, and while the door remained in place.

John

[Jeff Roltgen]

SOLD!
I may never buy another can of Epifanes again.
Thanks for the time and maintenance study.
You should submit to the PPG group, or even Fine Homebuilding for an article. A finish performing like that should be shouted from the highest mountain top. Seriously - I've tried it all, and that, dear friends, is a very significant find. Beautiful door, John, and awesome topcoat performance.

jeff