Post #296315 by Rev. Griz on Mon, Apr 2, 2007 9:32 AM

I saw a couple cool things in the last few days. One was in a sailing magazine, they were talking about maintainance of the teak deck. The finish they were using (Cetol I think they said) required sanding and refinishing every year. They switched to something else and now they just have to coat the wood, they don't have to sand, and there's no weathering. This stuff is designed specifically for marine teak applications. Unfortunately I can't remember the name of the stuff, but in general, just about any kind of surface finish like Polyurethane or Acrylic will weather and have to be redone. However, if you want to use wood for your surface, some kind of finish that soaks in, oil or stain (as in for fences or decks, not the stuff used to color unfinished wood) will protect the wood from weathering and refinishing it is as easy as recoating it, no sanding is necessary. I've used Danish oil a lot but only on things like furniture or instruments, not and kind of outdoor use.

The other cool thing I saw was in an HGTV show about outdoor kitchens. One of these outdoor kitchens had a roof made of that bamboo mat made of small sticks wired together so that some light came through. Since that obviously offers no protection from the elements, they covered it with transparent corrugated plastic. I thought that was a neat compromise between form and function.

I built a cabinet/counter on my patio and I used some laminate flooring that was on clearance for the counter top. When I was shopping for that, I saw several kinds of hardwood flooring made from bamboo. That might work pretty good for what you're doing.

(edited for dumb typos that rendered the text completely senseless, I swear I was sober!)

Rev. Griz
Dissolute Missionary, Church of Jim Beam Orthodox
Spreading good news by the bottle in the jungles of Utah

[ Edited by: Rev. Griz 2007-04-04 12:14 ]