Wood varnish

[stevewool]

Trying to find a varnish like I use back in England , just a clear coat but all I find here seems to be a very thick varnish that does not seem as good, can anyone recommend a named brand that can be brushed onto the doors and any furniture once it’s been rubbed down and ready to varnish .

I think the doors have already been varnished with this plastic varnish stuff which looks horrible and I am in the process of removing.

[Gary D]

It's usual here to thin the varnish with tinners.

[jimeve]

2 hours ago, stevewool said:

Trying to find a varnish like I use back in England , just a clear coat but all I find here seems to be a very thick varnish that does not seem as good, can anyone recommend a named brand that can be brushed onto the doors and any furniture once it’s been rubbed down and ready to varnish .

I think the doors have already been varnished with this plastic varnish stuff which looks horrible and I am in the process of removing.

As Gary said, you need to thin the first coat down. ratio 70% varnish.Then second coat a little thicker, third coat can go on without thinners, but if it's too thick to brush on, thin it a little.

 

[stevewool]

I shall give that a go once the doors are sanded and cleaned , thanks.

[Arizona Kid]

I had a Bahay Kubo built in my backyard maybe 10 years ago. A one gallon can of varnish was about P1,500 to make it look original. The sun shining on it destroys the varnish. We painted it blue about 3 years ago and it looks great. Cheap but effective.

[hk blues]

4 minutes ago, Arizona Kid said:

I had a Bahay Kubo built in my backyard maybe 10 years ago. A one gallon can of varnish was about P1,500 to make it look original. The sun shining on it destroys the varnish. We painted it blue about 3 years ago and it looks great. Cheap but effective.

Yep...it's a hostile environment here for anything exposed to the sun.  Both wood and metal need regular recoating to keep them looking not too bad.  Even the houses could probably do with being repainted every 5 years or so depending on various factors.  Our house is a maroon colour and stand up well to the sun but our neighbours have green and it's not so robust.  We had ours repainted last month after 4 years - probably could have lasted another 2 or so years but we were doing work anyway so two birds with one stone.   

[Tommy T.]

2 hours ago, Arizona Kid said:

I had a Bahay Kubo built in my backyard maybe 10 years ago. A one gallon can of varnish was about P1,500 to make it look original. The sun shining on it destroys the varnish. We painted it blue about 3 years ago and it looks great. Cheap but effective.

I suggest, if you are committed to varnishing and it is a door or whatever exposed to sunlight, that you might consider using spar varnish. That is not a brand name but a type of varnish specially formulated to resist sunlight - it's main usage is for yachts. But even that won't hold up forever. For best results and a nice look, varnish should be sanded lightly and then a new coat re-applied periodically. It depends on the sun and weather exposure. I had to top off the varnish on the yacht two times a year - but then it was in the sun 12 hours/day, which is extreme - and it was also exposed to salt water and salt air.

I have seen this for sale in marine stores (which, admittedly, are a bit rare) but also sometimes in regular hardware stores. Yes, it is more expensive than "regular" varnish, but it will last longer.

Yeah, okay... a bit off topic and I will not go into details here, but just for interest... I will add that I used a special system on the yacht teak using three different coatings layered on each other and up to 9 coats. It was extreme! None of the chemicals is available here...

Edited January 8, 2020 by Tommy T.

[Gary D]

We had our carved nara front door revarnished just before Christmas, it was taken away and sprayed to get a flat finish.

Edited January 8, 2020 by Gary D

[intrepid]

23 minutes ago, Tommy T. said:

have seen this for sale in marine stores (which, admittedly, are a bit rare) but also sometimes in regular hardware stores. Yes, it is more expensive than "regular" varnish, but it will last longer.

I purchase Spar Varnish at Ace Hardware at SM Sta Rosa.  When they are out of stock usually one of the other Ace in the area has it.  If you don't want the expense and for indoor use Ace has their own brand of varnish in gloss, semi-gloss and satin.  Its about p1200 a quart and I have had good luck with it.

[Tommy T.]

8 minutes ago, Gary D said:

We had our carved nara front door revarnished just before Christmas, it was taken away and sprayed to get a flat finish.

 

That looks really nice, Gary! Spray application does a much better job than most people can do with a brush. That looks like it took a lot of intricate sanding to get into all the small parts of that cool design...

Curious... what were you charged for that? How many coats (if you know) and did it include prep sanding?

Edited January 8, 2020 by Tommy T.