wood stain or polyurethene varnish?

NowRetired

My window frames are wooden and every 3 or 4 years I paint them with Ronseal mahogany wood stain.


And every time I do this, on the exterior window sills, the stain has become flaky and I scrape it off and paint it again.


Yet on the actual window frames the stain is OK and I just need to rub it with sandpaper and paint again.


It would appear that the wood used on the frames is different from the wood used for the sills.




I did get a quote for PVC windows but even paying someone to paint the window frames it would take over 100 years to even break even and I will be long gone by then.


Same with soffits.




If I varnished the sills with polyurethane varnish after staining them would this prevent the cracking and flaking of the Ronseal stain?


Also should I be using Ronseal stain every time?

leveller2911

The flaking off sounds like is a Polyurethane type finish and if you use the same type of product it will continue to flake off.Wash down and give it a good sanding and I would recommend Sikkens Cetol Filter 7. You can get various colours. It won't flake off and is an excellant product.

Do not use a waterbased product as they still aren't as good as spirit based products.

The wood on the sills may well be a hardwood like Sapele,Nemasu or Meranti and the posts,mullions etc may be softwood pine. If so you will get a slight variation in colour between the two.

AlexMac

I'd add a vote for Sikkens; was v. expensive but came recommended for a new (DIY) external door supplied by a specialist timber firm who wanted their product to last withou me claiming on their guarantee- and so far, it has!