Finishing Ship Lap Pine Walls in Basement Shop

[Richard Wolfgang]

Hey All. I'm finishing up installing Pine ship lap in my basement workshop and wondering what the best finish would be for it. Currently leaning towards Minwax Polycrylic. Couple of questions below....

• If I go with the polycrylic do I need to somehow "prep" the knotted areas to avoid any type of failure in the finish? Will the knotted areas bleed or harm the polycrylic?
• Any other prep other than sanding, cleaning off dust before finish?
• Planning to install with HVLP spray gun I just purchased from Harbor Freight. Any issues with this?
• As I mentioned it's a basement workshop. Don't have any ventilation other than the Bilco door on the opposite side of the basement. Any concerns with this? Thinking of just adding a bunch of fans to try to push any fumes out of the area. In hindsight I should have pre-finished outside in the warmer months.
• Any other suggestions other than the Minwax Polycrylic?

[Jim Becker]

The Polycrylic will do just fine on the pine and leave it unaltered relative to color aside from gradual natural color change over time. Unlike with paint, I don't believe that the knots will cause you any issues unless they are "bleeding" sap which hopefully, would not be a feature of shiplap purchased KD and sanded as I suspect you have in-hand. Wear a respirator and use the fan to exhaust the fines suspended in the air out of the space. While there is limited health concerns from chemicals with this kind of finish, you still do not want to breath it in (because of all that suspended dry overspray)). The HPLV gun will spray Polycrylic just fine...I've used it often for utility purposes. It's readily available, too.