Considering buying some salvage oak doors for an outbuilding conversion. What's the best way to protect oak doors without painting them? They have recently been stripped and the patina I'm keen to keep. They'll need a bit of work to make fit as well. Seems conflicting information on what's the best way to weather proof them. Thanks in advance
I'm neither of those but oak doesn't need weatherproofing. It will fade if left untreated, if you want to keep the look then a few coats of oil will do the trick, but you'll have to keep on top of it maybe twice a year or so.
Cheers. The doors are in a raw unfinished state at the moment, so they'll need something I'd imagine. They are old School internal doors that are going to be fitted externally. They are solid oak and thicker than 44mm off the peg external oak doors you'd buy new. So no issues with them fitting.
Thing with oak is it's open grained and porous so anything short of covering it in epoxy it's pretty much impossible to seal. Moisture will penetrate and the wood will warp and swell no matter what you put on it, any finish is pretty much just cosmetic.
I thought it was pretty tough. Church doors are generally Oak made and there are some literally hundreds of years old?
Loads of Danish oil, as much as you can be bothered to put on, and repeat once or twice a year. Given they're second hand they should be well seasoned but they might swell a bit when they're exposed to the elements, hard to predict really. I've used Rustins oil in the past, it won't much alter the appearance of the wood.
If it's pukka, aged oak it's almost as tough as iron, and costly - the newer, green stuff is cheaper but, as Bob says, it's porous. You pays your money etc etc ....
You could try a good clear varnish like Ronseal or Sadolin. They are both pretty good and made by the same company, that would seal them GLP, and keep their natural colour .
You might still be able to find a 2 pack epoxy clear coating from a supplier but as previous responses indicate sunlight will bleach it silver/grey over time and there isn't anything you can do about it. We used to use something called 'colour back' (brand name may have been spelt differently), which bleached the wood back to something near it's original colour however it is lots of hard work. My advice would be oil or a coating of some sort. Contact Dulux they have a technical service and they may advise if they can sell you something. European brands and manufacturers will be the best bet. Sikkens, Sadolin etc. There may well be others. Been out of the game a long time therefore I am not up to date. I guess you could also look at oil with a small amount of pigment to darken the finish slightly. This would still allow the grain to be seen but provide some level of protection. I just googled best finishes for external oak doors. Some good information from UK oak doors website
Is using a water seal treatment a daft idea.....?... used on brick principally... clear liquid....?..
I use that on oak worktops in a utility room It would work really well if GLP want to protect his outside doors from staining when he makes cocktails on them, I’ll tell you that for nothing ...that might not be helpful?
Coal tar creosote. For added protection you can grind down asbestos to a fine powder and mix in well. My old mate breathless bill recommended that. God rest his soul.
Before I started drinking .... so about 1976 when I was 9 ...anyway today I have drunk Austrian Pils, Austrian Marzen, Austrian dark beer (Dunkel?) Weis bier and Honey Bourbon It’s safe to say I had more than one of each ...err good with your doors GLP
