Outdoor furniture problem

chrisw

I wouldn't use anything like varnish on it. Water inevitably gets underneath it and it starts to flake off in places. This is then takes a lot of work to get back to the original unfinished state.

What you can see is the start of the weathering process, eventually it will weather to an even greyish finish.

twopenny

I'm reading with interest as I have a bench that for something like 20 years has been sucessfully striped and varnished every few years.

Now in a new property I've done this twice and each spring there are the black water marks. It's exasperating so I fully understand the OP's question and hoping to follow the advice.

I wonder, it's now in direct line with the sea winds when it was sheltered by buildings before. Seems unlikely but .............

theonlywayisup

twopenny said:

I'm reading with interest as I have a bench that for something like 20 years has been sucessfully striped and varnished every few years.

Now in a new property I've done this twice and each spring there are the black water marks. It's exasperating so I fully understand the OP's question and hoping to follow the advice.

I wonder, it's now in direct line with the sea winds when it was sheltered by buildings before. Seems unlikely but .............

IME it isn't sea winds.  We don't do sheltered coves here in Cornwall when it comes to sea winds, we get the full blast and my furniture (and that of our holiday lets) looks superb. 

rach_k

I don't think 3 coats of oil would be enough.  We use more than that on our kitchen worktops and they don't get rained on!  They are still prone to black marks if somebody leaves something wet sitting for too long.

For outdoor furniture, I would either cover it properly when it's not in use, or store it inside, or use something more hardwearing, else you'll just keep getting the weathering.