Cleaning and preparing old bare pine unit for a water based varnish

kaboo

Hello hello,
Another challenge for DIY renovating our first home. In our kitchen there is a pine unit for use as pantry, left by the previous residents. Basically the IKEA Ivar range if anyone want to look it up. It has been used as is, i.e. raw pine, for like 5+ years without any finish/treatment. Its covered in coffee and wine stains, grease from cooking, and what not.

We would like to varnish it or Osmo oil it - havent decided yet, but leaning towards a water based varnish - Polyvine. How can I prepare the unit for varnish? Degrease it with methylated spirit and sand it down? Or go with sugar soap and then sand it?

twopenny

It's going to be a case of seeinwhat works and how deep those stains go.
I'd start with sugar soap to get hand grease off. 
Then sand followed by a thorough wipe down with white spirit to get the dust off from standing.
When you know what stains are still there then come back and ask.
There are a number of things to remove stains if they are still there.

kaboo

Thanks, would you suggest sugar soaping all the shelves cupboards or only those which have visible stains? Asking because I guess sugar soaping will raise the grain and require good amount of sanding afterwards. If for seemingly clean surfaces i can get away with white/clear spirit and varnish then that would save time.

Eldi_Dos

Have you got a decent mask to protect you when sanding

FreeBear

kaboo said: How can I prepare the unit for varnish? Degrease it with methylated spirit and sand it down? Or go with sugar soap and then sand it?

Methylated spirits contains a dye that can leave purple/blue stain - You can avoid this by using Industrial Denatured Alcohol, but you are unlikely to get hold of the stuff without holding the appropriate licence.. An alternative is plain old isopropyl alcohol which you can get at some chemists. Acetone & cellulose thinners are also effective degreasants. But, and there is always a but... There is a risk that the oil/grease could soak further in to the wood if you use a solvent.

GDB2222

Umm, chalk paint it?

kaboo

An alternative is plain old isopropyl alcohol which you can get at some chemists. Acetone & cellulose thinners are also effective degreasants. But, and there is always a but... There is a risk that the oil/grease could soak further in to the wood if you use a solvent.

Cheers...IPA should be a good degreaser, its supposed to be a strong eluent in Reverse Phase chromatography, if i remember lessons from undergrad, and i can get hold of plenty of that because it is used a lot for cleaning photography lenses... If stains go deep into the wood does it matter as long as surface is clear and varnish adheres?

Also since its pine do i need to seal the knots? Please say no because both the colron knotting solution and zinsser bin that i have and used to treat pine panelling around the house will change the colour of the wood! 

If knots will cause problem with varnish then is Osmo oil going to be better?

kaboo

Eldi_Dos said:

Have you got a decent mask to protect you when sanding

Thanks Eldi, yes I have 3M SPP2/3 masks

kaboo

GDB2222 said:

Umm, chalk paint it?

Thanks. Would chalk paint adhere without degreasing and surface prep. Also I thought chalk paint is not resilient enough for high use areas like kitchen - sorry i might be wrong, never used that stuff.

kaboo

Hello again, sugar soap seems yo have jelped. Wood has brightened up, and not that much grain. So will be able to sand it easy. For a stubborn stain - looks like from porto - should I sand to get it lighter and then IPA or white spirit?

kaboo

Opps pressed post too soon! Will varnish be a good finish? This unit sits in west facing kitchen extension which will get quite a bit of sun in summers. Would it get too hot and cause varnish to crack? I was planning on Polyvine decorators Varnish