Table finish

hizzoner

I had a deck and table built for my Egg.






I haven't finished it yet, but have cooked on it several times and now have some grease stains. I need to sand it back down and finish it. It is built from cedar.


I think I would prefer an oil type finish vs. a gloss finish?

Recommedations?

Serial Griller

You can get a satin finish in a spar polyurethane finish at Lowes or Home Depot.

Dimple's Mom

Have you added on to it between the first photo and the third? If so, can you retake a photo from the viewpoint of the first photo and repost? I have an area where I'm trying to do something similar and am having a hard time coming up with what I want. This looks like it might work out nicely with only moderate tweaks.

hizzoner

Not really added on, but rather tooka picture while it was in progress.. I'll get some more pics

Clay Q

Well cedar is a good wood for outdoor furniture. Relatively inexpensive, rot resistant, also easy to machine. Wood being wood and in your case, cedar, will eventually bleach lighter to silver grey when exposed to direct sunlight when left natural and unstained. UV inhibitors added to protectants(clear finishes/ stain finishes/ top coats/ penetrating oils) help slow the bleaching process but over time the cedar will eventually change color. Not that this is a bad thing....in fact silvered cedar adds 'character' in my opinion.

Back to your question, oil or gloss finish?... I'm going to recommend a penetrating oil such as Watco Teak Oil. It's formulated for outdoor furniture on hard and dense woods such as teak but it's a good finishing product for any outdoor furniture including cedar in my opinion. Easy to apply, won't peel or chip and damaged surfaces can be touched up with a light sanding and re-application of oil with a rag.

Good luck! Your outdoor kitchen looks great.

hizzoner

So here's the new dilemna....

I sanded the table down smooth last week and went and bought several cans of spar urathane satin finish to coat it with. I sprayed a coat, waited a little and started with another coat as I noticed a storm moving in. I got a second coat sprayed on it and the bottom fell out of the sky. This is under a shed roof, but it still got very wet.

Now I have, what looks like small black mildew spots all over the horizontal pieces of wood (I'm assuming where it held water).

I'm assuming that the finish either didn't get dry or didn't get enough on it and the black spots are mildew on the wood under the fninsh????

My plan is to sand it all down and start over unless someone has a better idea. Thsi time, I plan on spraying the vertical pieces with another coat (since they look okay and have lots of crevices and corners) and brushing the places that are horizontal (mainly the table top and bottom shelf)

Big George's BBQ

That looks really nice so far Looking forward to more POics

Woodcutterron

If you haven't started over yet, you might want to use gloss for all of the undercoats, then the last coat (or two thin coats, even better) use the satin. Too many coats of satin finish can 'wash out' the grain and give it a slightly 'muddy' appearance.

As for the spots, it sounds like you might have only had the first coat on and it hadn't sealed the pores yet, water soaked in a bit then got 'trapped' under the first coat long enough to bring about a mildew problem.

You might try lightly sanding then applying a deck wash or bleach solution (4 parts water one part houshold bleach) letting it dry, then going from there, rather than sanding the whole thing to bare wood . . . though you might end up having to.

If you are using the aerosol cans, you'll need a LOT of them to get an adequate finish on a project that big. I use about two cans on a project the size of a bread box. Many thin coats work best, as Spar varnish is prone to runs on vertical surfaces.

Another issue is crap blowing onto your project while waiting for the oil-based Spar Varnish to dry, that could be the source of your mold spots too, if pollen blew onto it while it was wet. Pollen will mold. I'd try bleach and a light sand before I stripped the whole thing back to bare wood though. I HATE sanding, a necessary evil, unfortunately.