Exterior oak finish

[marcros]

I have just replaced some wooden slats on a garden seat for my parents. It consists of 2 cast iron ends and a dozen slats bolted between them.

I would like to put a finish on it- something that doesn't need too much maintenance. A yearly wipe over is fine but I don't want my mother having to strip something off to re-apply another coat.

Any suggestions? I would prefer something reasonably available in Leeds. I was going for tung oil but homebase/b and q don't seem to keep it.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Osmo do an exterior finish - clear with uv protection, and coloured - you could use clear for a couple of years, then a coloured one when the bench got tatty. It's so easy to use. Tung in my experience takes an age to dry.

 

[marcros]

I did read about that, although I think it is not recommended for horizontal surfaces. Water shouldn't be sat on the surface though. I think that they do a sample pot which will do the bench.

I had read some similar tales of tung oil.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I've not researched that one, but I can't see there would be a problem as long as there were no retained water anywhere. The indoor stuff will do floors and worktops - but it will mark with water sitting on it for any length of time. It's easily repaired, though, which is a big bonus.

 

[deema]

Used both Tung and Osmo, if Fung is applied properly I.e. Wait 20 minutes and wipe of excess it works really well. Needs to be reapplied about once or twice a year but that's very easy and quick. Osmo also works really well, found the coloured can vary a bit between cans. Best advise is ensure you have enough if using coloured in the can to complete the job.

 

[marcros]

I decided on osmo one coat oak stain and clear osmo uv oil. The literature warned against the osmo oil alone on a horizontal surface and I found a post on here from woodfinishman that said a clear external finish that lasted for years was the holy grail that nobody was close to reaching yet. Finally, one of the rogers did a comparison on a post over several summers and the stained finish came out significantly better. This was sikkens stuff but the minimum was a litre. The osmo sample pots were perfectly sized.

The osmo one coat went on nicely. I didn't like the colour at first, but I brushed it on, left it a few minutes and wiped it off. The resulting stained colour looked very good. It needs a couple of days before I put the oil on- I will do that mid next week so it has plenty of time.