# Spar urethane - advice how to treat tantalised garden table



## angelboy (23 Apr 2020)

I’ve just built a table and benches out of tanalised softwood sleepers and the advice from those over the pond is to use a mix of spar urethane and teak oil. The idea is that it penetrates the wood and forms a hard finish, but not like a polyurethane which sits on top of the wood. Trouble is, there is no spar urethane in the UK.

What’s the alternatives? - either for spar urethane or alternative to treat and preserve the furniture and keep it looking the best for as long as possible.


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## Steve Maskery (24 Apr 2020)

I suggest you wine it and dine it and see if you get lucky


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## Sgian Dubh (24 Apr 2020)

angelboy":1i1q2002 said:


> ... advice from those over the pond is to use a mix of spar urethane and teak oil.
> 
> What’s the alternatives? - either for spar urethane or alternative to treat and preserve the furniture and keep it looking the best for as long as possible.


Ignore the advice for mixing finishes. Just use any one of the range of yacht varnish such as International or Epifanes, and follow the application guidance on the can.

However, just keep in mind the wood base needs to be dry for the varnish to adhere properly, and once you apply a film finish to what I assume is outdoor furniture it requires regular maintenance in the same way the boat owners seem to spend more time varnishing their boat, yacht, etc, than they do scudding around on water, ha, ha.

With what I'm guessing might be somewhat rusticated outdoor furniture put together using tanalised wood you have to ask yourself if it's worth all the bother of a regular and thorough maintenance routine ... or would it be just a whole lot easier to just let the furniture take its chances unfinished from the start. A non-existent or erratic maintenance schedule after the initial finishing job is likely to cause more problems than never applying a finish in the first place. Slainte.


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## Jamied (24 Apr 2020)

I agree with Sgian,
I made some monks benches seating around a large stone table in my garden. Mixture of old church sections and reclaimed pitch pine, spent days oiling it to perfection. Lovely job!
But then had to resand and finnish on a regular basis, real pain in the neck.
Last year I agreed to the wife, Sadolin wood shades,redid them this year, although not really bad, done in a hour, like brand new, dry a few hours later ready for our glass of wine!


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## Phil Pascoe (24 Apr 2020)

I treated my tanalised garden table three or four times in fifteen years with a good clear preservative - when we moved fifteen years later it was still perfect. Sod varnish.


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## MikeG. (24 Apr 2020)

Tantalised........typo of the day! :lol:


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