Post #555168 by SDshirtman on Tue, Sep 21, 2010 11:26 AM

Ok so I'm a little panicked right now. I finished staining my Tiki Saturday.
Last night I bought some Varithane spar urethane out door clear satin. I applied a thick coat in my garage around 9 pm.
It looked even and glossy. I went to bed.

I woke up this morning to huge patches of milky grey spots in the crevices and a few other patches where it was laid on thicker.
Thinking it was ruined I called the customer service number on the can. They told me some moisture had probably gotten into it over night (Duh).
They said to try treating it with denatured alcohol. So I ran up to HD and picked up a gallon and started applying it.

It seems to help a little bit. You can actually see small water droplets form while/just after its evaporating. When its wet with the alcohol it turns much clearer. But as it dried its going back to the blush. Especially in the crevices where it was thickest.
During a second call to customer service it was suggested I lightly sand the finish to break it open. This is great in theory but I just cant sand the deep crevices like that.

Customer service told me that part of the problem could be that the satin isnt made for rough surfaces and a second coat might smooth it out and help.
Because of the way it looks when I coat it in the alcohol (mostly clear but opaque when it evaporates again) I'm wondering if a second coat of spar will melt back into the finish and eliminate/help this problem? I dont want to make it worse. At the same time I dont want to wait too long and let this fully cure and seal in the problem forever.

I cant believe this happened. All those hours of work just to ruin it in the end.

Anyone done this and have any advice or suggestions?