| Author | Message | ||
     Court |
Just redid the rotted out front porch of the house . . . lumber yard was out of the tongue and groove porch boards so we ended up, by accident, with Mahogany. Plan was to slap a coat of battleship gray on like the old one . . . I can't find it in my heart to paint over this. QUESTION: I know ZERO about this stuff . . . what would be a good finish to:
Thinking it would look cool in some sort of a natural finish and then paint the white primed boards, perhaps, a deep chocolate brown . . wide open to suggestions . . . I did mention . . . I know NOTHING . . right?    Any help appreciated . . . | ||
| Davefl |
I have not used this but weekend home improvement radio guy Gary Sullivan swears by this stuff. http://www.onetimewood.com | ||
| Gentleman_jon |
Thompson WaterSeal has been the standard for this application for many years. Now they have an advanced version: http://www.thompsonswaterseal.com/waterproofing-pr oducts/waterproofers/advanced-tinted-wood-protecto r I don't know if something better has come along. | ||
| Guell |
Bah, I hate thompsons water seal. I've never put down a mahogany deck but I do a lot of ipe. Usually since its such a dense hardwood we leave them be. Ipe fads out to a nice greyish color from its brown. | ||
| Invisible_monster |
Front porch looks good Court! I like your idea of natural finishing on the boards and dark brown for the kicks. Thanks for the link to One Time Wood Davefl, we just bought a new house with cedar siding and large deck area. That stuff looks perfect for our application. | ||
| Billyboy |
Beautiful wood! Check out this forum I found when re-doing my deck http://forums.jlconline.com/forums/showthread.php? t=30737 | ||
| Leftcoastal |
Nice job! Avoid thompson's, it 'goes away' in short order. I don't have any experience with the 'advanced' stuff in Jon's link. Penofin oil is a good one to use, but may darken it a bit. You can usually get small test packages and see if it will be acceptable. Pricey, but works well. We've been using a wax product call 'Anchor Seal' on end grain of natural finished decking, but it's usually where it's not exposed. It stops water incursion into the ends of the boards, where the weather damage tends to start. DON'T use it if you plan to paint, it repels paint too. Next time you're out here, I'm putting you to work for your pie. You'll have to speak Spanish, though, or you won't fit in. | ||
| Reepicheep |
Beautiful wood! | ||
| Guell |
I was going to mention anchor seal but I edge band all my decks and miter the corners so no end grain is seen. It can leave a whitish residue if put on too heavy and isn't intended for traffic areas. I would test the penofin oil on a scrap board and see what happens. Thompsons water seal does not work well over extended periods of time and becomes a maintence issue. | ||
| Fordrox |
http://wood-deck-care.blogspot.com/2008/06/protect ing-and-staining-ipe-mahogany.html There is a little information. | ||
| J2blue |
Marine grade tung oil. | ||
| Mtjm2 |
Great kooking job Court ! DO NOT USE ANYTHING from Thomsans . It will grey out naturally if thats the look you want. Once you start to treat it you will begin the never ending maintenance headache . Its not true mahogany ,but a hybrid lumber . I would look to a Sherwin Williams in your area for advice . There are translucent stains and finishes on the market that work well , but like I said , once you start you never finish . Good luck | ||
| Hughlysses |
Whatever you do with this, you should save the scraps and build a guitar. After all, that's what God intended mahogany for.  I think my mom used to get worried when I'd stare wistfully at her dining room table. | ||
| Fahren |
By the way, there is "mahogany" and "mahogany." The readily available stuff for flooring/decks is not the stuff fine furniture was always made of back in the day (Cuban and African, mostly). The current crop - Honduran, IIRC - is very nice, fairly rot resistant stuff. It will go gray naturally (like most of us), but a finish is useful. The thing is, the finish would have been good to put on the tongues and grooves of the boards and on the undersides before installation. Now, you will have a good surface coat that will cut way down on UV degradation, but you will be relying on the natural rot resistance of the wood for the sides and bottom faces. Thompson's isn't great for longevity, as noted above. Cabot's makes Australian Timber Oil, but it is an annual ritual of wipe on application: a total bore. Nice, natiral oil finish effect, but who wants to be out there annually? You need to go get advice from a boat yard that works on wooden boats. There is nothing as durable as a marine finish. As to non-slip, that is a real concern in NY with snow and ice. But whatever you put on, or even with no-slip sand in the top coat, remember that you will be trying to run your snow shovel over that surface. Nice smooth wood: easy to clear. Rough finish: it will hold snow/ice, and you can't get the shovel to scrape the flat, smooth wood surface. Look here: http://www.messmers.com/?gclid=CJzeq9jGvakCFcbc4Ao dFB8Chg Give a call if you need more info. You have the number. | ||
| Court |
The good news is that it's temporary . . we are embarking on a bit of a project and, as part of the project, there will be a new porch done with all slate that will curve around to the patio area to the left. The old one however was do decayed and we've got a slate of folks coming and going this summer so this was the temporary fix. I told the guy . . just rip out what's there and replace it with new. He called from the lumber store and told me "they are out of the 1" tongue and groove, all I can get is Mahogany" so I told him (faced with the choice of not having a porch for a week) to go ahead. Frankly, I really like the looks of it. I'm going to see if I can find a Mahogany or Oak piece to "face" the front with and attach with brass screws before they (which may end up being "I") finish it. Frankly, I hope this ends up staying. Lots of good suggestions . . you guys are good at this stuff! | ||
| Fahren |
Yes - mahogany riser boards will hold up way better than the primed trim boards you have there now. Any yes, you can use brass screws with brass finish washers for a very nice effect. Or, you can do a very clean, regular plug pattern to cover the countersunk screw heads - even with a contrasting wood species, if desired. The joint where riser meets tread gets a lot of water, swelling, dirt and tree gunk jammed in there - ripe for rot. | ||
| Fahren |
Dykes Lumber carries Messmers in the city. | ||
| Dfishman |
Use a teak oil that is used on boat decks.You can put the oil on directly because the wood is not weathered.If it gets weathered use teak cleaner then oil.It maintains the natural look & a recoat every now & then will keep it looking good for a long time.It will darken it a bit but will really bring out the beauty of the wood as well as protect it from rot. | ||
| Blake |
What DFishman says. Friends have teak outdoor furniture and keep it looking nice as he describes. | ||
| Mtjm2 |
Fahren , I think you are Misled . Most of the good Honduren Mahoganey was used for PT boats as well a the mahogany in Florida . African Mahogany is known as SAPELE , or MARANTE . There is a band on Importing Honduran Mahogany into the US . Am I miss informed ? | ||
| Leftcoastal |
Better sweep up that sawdust - the tannin in it will leach out and stain the paving if it gets wet. Trust me, I know this. | ||
| Fahren |
Mtjm2, you are no doubt right - all I can remember is that the commonly available mahogany as we see here has very little to do with the fine woods used in the past (and still available as veneer sheets for fine furniture and woodwork). I honestly can't remember where today's mahogany decking material comes from. There are a lot of sub-species of wood referred to as "mahogany." Another deck finish material that is really good is made by Sikkens. I am not sure it is VOC/NYC friendly, but it can be had in MD. | ||
| Ratbuell |
Personally, I like the white risers. Brings out a nice contrast to the wood, matches the stucco without "trying too hard" to match an off-white. I'd go with a nice trim-white on the risers, and concur with the finishing advice above for the new wood. | ||
| Bigblock |
A marine grade finish is best, the teak oil would be good, and chevron shingle oil is also a good, affordable alternative, lasts much longer than thompsons. But it might be a bit slippery for a bit after first applied. Any type of finish becomes a maintenance issue. Some just last longer than others. | ||
| Ratbuell |
And FWIW...finish can give grip without having to add sand. Sand in the finish makes it tough to shovel, as noted. An intermediate step would be a matte finish, as opposed to high gloss. Grippy, not "chunky", still easy to clean. | ||
| Dfishman |
It is not slippery.It soaks into the wood & makes a slip free finish that keeps your feet planted in 8 foot seas while you wire up that 600lb blue marlin.Oh wait there will be no blue one's caught off Court's porch.It is much easier to apply than any other finish too. | ||
| Luftkoph |
I can say that the onetime wood stuff works great,I have it on a deck on the north side the 1st application held good with no gray at all for 5 years reapplied another coat last year and it looks even better. This deck is in the U.P, so lot of rain and snow then long daylight hours in the summer. Also I built a 6' fence of untreated wood and sprayed onetime on it and since its 100% solids the untreated wood just sucked it up like a sponge, very nice look. | ||
| Blake |
Whatever you use Court, stay away from anything that is film-forming. Anything that forms a film, something that has a surface thickness like a varnish, no matter how thin, will eventually be a maintenance problem requiring stripping, a LOT of work. Non-film-forming, penetrating type products that leave no film/coating but only soak into the wood entirely are much preferred for decks and the like. | ||
| Hootowl |
Since it is temporary, this won't matter much, but if you're counting on it to last a long time without cupping/splitting, you should backprime/treat the wood prior to installation so it is protected on all sides, not just the exposed face. | ||
| 2008xb12scg |
Court, have you thought about keeping the wood instead of the slate? Or a mixture of the two? IMHO the mohagany is beautiful and ads so much character. |
