Garden furniture - stain or oil?

ferf1223

I'm in the process of refinishing some garden furniture - currently in the sanding stages.

I'm confused about the products on offer though - if there are any benefits of oil over stain or vice versa...every search I've tried to do for this question just seems to bring up product listings and they all (naturally) claim to offer premium protection.

I gather that the colour choice for oils is more limited, but it does seem that both oil and stain are available in my chosen colour.

Ideally I want something that will protect the furniture the best - so I have to go through this process less often...we sadly neglected the furniture for 6 years and it looked awful, but initial sanding seems to indicate that it will be perfectly lovely once it's refinished...but not a job I really want to do every year or two if I can avoid it.

Thanks for any help at all.

DVardysShadow

Linseed oil [unboiled] seems to do the job. But it needs a few weeks to be absorbed, so an autumn job. or do without the furniture for a week or 3

capeverde

firstly what type of wood is it, different timbers react better to different treatments. On your initial post, both stains and oils soak into the timber rather than making a barrier so to speak. Really oils on exterior furniture are only useful on burmese teak or one of their african cousins like iroko or afromosia. These will take the oil, but will still naturally 'grey' over a shortish period. With proper teak this wont affect the timber as it produces its own oils, hence its use in the marine industry. With mahogany for example I would reccomend a clear surface treatment that will protect but bring out the natural beauty. Again with softwoods I would use the same. I use a trade product called microflex. It is similar to sadolins but a third of the price. It can be bought from a company in cardiff called premierQ google them and ask for dave. Hope this helps.

ferf1223

Hi - thanks both for your useful replies...as far as what type of wood, I don't know for sure - but some research indicates it may be acacia (the set was bought at IKEA about 6 years ago, so not a particularly nice type of wood, not totally cheap but was maybe £80 for the set of 2 chairs and a table)...so I'm thinking hard wood as opposed to soft, though could be wrong.

I'm planning on staining/oiling it back to the reddish colour it was when it was first purchased - having sanded it, it doesn't have a nice enough colour or grain to really justify trying to bring out either...so that's why I'm planning on going with a red/mahogany colour for it.

This isn't going to be enough to tell what type of wood, but you can see that it's not pretty enough to leave it particularly natural...and no, I am not done sanding yet.

Russe11

I'd pick a nice coloured cuprinol "garden shades range" finish, better than some horrible you brown stain.

You don't want a really smooth surface of the product won't key so well to the timber, even though it soaks into the timber a certain amount.

savemoney

I used to use oil but found the cuprinol stain for furniture seems to last better might need a couple of coats given your furniture looks bleached.

DVardysShadow

ferf1223 wrote: »

... I'm planning on staining/oiling it back to the reddish colour it was when it was first purchased - having sanded it, it doesn't have a nice enough colour or grain to really justify trying to bring out either...so that's why I'm planning on going with a red/mahogany colour for it.

This isn't going to be enough to tell what type of wood, but you can see that it's not pretty enough to leave it particularly natural...and no, I am not done sanding yet.

Our garden furniture looked bleached after 2 seasons. Linseed oil brought its red mahogany colour back so it really did look good as new.

ferf1223

savemoney wrote: »

I used to use oil but found the cuprinol stain for furniture seems to last better might need a couple of coats given your furniture looks bleached.

Thanks - that's what I was looking for - stain lasting better...though I know it's probably down to several factors.

Russe11 - I had looked at the garden shades range and might just go with one of those...I'm conscious that I don't want to sand it down too much for the reason you note, not going with a very fine grit for the finishing sanding.

DVardysShadow - sadly, ours does not have a natural mahogany colour - it had a reddish stain originally...if it did, I'd likely want to bring it out.

leveller2911

capeverde wrote: »

With mahogany for example I would reccomend a clear surface treatment that will protect but bring out the natural beauty. Again with softwoods I would use the same. I use a trade product called microflex. It is similar to sadolins but a third of the price. It can be bought from a company in cardiff called premierQ google them and ask for dave. Hope this helps.

From reading the data sheet on Microflex its not UV protected in clear form.Uv protection in coating is contained within the colour pigment so treating any hardwood/softwood with a clear product is a waste of money if you want to keep the natural colour.So people need to use a stain to UV protect the timber which is never looks natural..

Like you say Iroko,Sapele and teaks will all naturally grey withing 12-18 months and theres no way round that problem yet afaik.....

leveller2911

DVardysShadow wrote: »

Linseed oil [unboiled] seems to do the job. But it needs a few weeks to be absorbed, so an autumn job. or do without the furniture for a week or 3

Unboiled or raw linseed doesn't dry as such it goes sticky, boiled linseed oil contains drying agents ......Theres no real answer to the OP's question ,using any product will need regular maintenance, which people generally don't like doing..

DVardysShadow

My experience with unboiled linseed is that it was completely absorbed - it took about a week in autumn. My concerns about boiled linseed would be that the added driers would cause the oil to polymerize on the surface, before being absorbed into the wood.