I’m building 2 cypress folding bar stools/deck chairs for my son and his wife who are living in Virginia Beach, VA. My first inclination is to leave the cypress entirely natural since it should take on a pewter gray patina with age. The cypressine oil within the wood is supposed to be a natural deterrent to mold, mildew, rot, and insect attack. This would be very low maintenance requiring no recoating whatsoever.
Fellow woodworkers in NC, VA, and SC have offered mixed opinions ranging from no treatment to:
Tung Oil & BLO are like candy to mold and mildew in our humid mid-Atlantic environment. Polyurethane or a good quality marine varnish (Epifanes) will require refinishing after 1-2 years.
Cabot’s Australian Timber Oil has been superb as a cypress treatment. However, none have said how it looks after 1-2 years in the sun, rain, and high humidity. Could it be a synthetic oil that doesn’t support mold/mildew growth?
I’m not preempting a finish, but once it’s done it’s done. I don’t want to look at it in a few years and wish that I’d just left it natural (the way Mother Nature intended it to be).
Thanks in advance.
Replies
Left unfinished the wood will, as you noted, turn to a grey patina.
You might consider that it may also develop cracks from exposure to sunlight and heat and resulting expansion/contraction.
I used Minwax's Helmsman Spar Varnish on our back door (Doug fir, I believe) which was in pretty sad shape when we bought the house.
It has held up to daily direct sun exposure of about four hours duration for five years without needing to be renewed.
When I was a kid in Lancaster County VA, it pretty much was the standard used by boatbuilders, for what that's worth. ISTR we re-finished the gunwales on our boat about every two years, but they had constant exposure to salt spray and sunlight. We also used it to finish the eaves on the house (bead board, SYP) which were exposed to humidity and heat, but not sunlight, held up for about five years there.
Good luck,
I live in Texas, where sun light is the primary enemy of any outdoor finish. By far and away, the best finish I have used to preserve wood outdoors is manufactured by Sikens. I had applied Spar Varnish to an 8' cedar door, which enjoyed direct exposure to the western sun. In less than a year, the door needed to be refinished. We sanded it down and applied Sikens clear finish, which by the way is not entirely without pigment. The beauty of the wood was retained and we have not had to touch the door since. That was two years ago. Sorry, I do not have a longer time line to offer. Based on these results, I would use the product again. Sikens also offers a line of indoor products as well, which are easy to apply and offer good results. My problem with their indoor products is that the fumes are noxious, while drying.Rick
I've read several comments about Sikens products that were quite favourable.My only familiarity with Sikens is as a supplier of automobile paint, quite highly spoken of there.Leon
Thanks. I appreciate your input. I'm still on the fence about finish/not finish.
Penetrating oils designed for outdoor use always contain mildewcides; that's why they don't support fungal growth.
It's always going to be a trade-off between appearance and maintenance.
-Steve
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