# re-treating weathered garden furniture



## prawnking (13 Jun 2006)

my mother inlaw has an out door table and chair set that hasnt been treated for a few years, it looks to me like hardwood sorry dont know what type i am only an amateur,
what i want to ask is it with cleaning with a pressure washer or should i take it all aprt sand reassemble?
next question is what would be the best treatment and finish.

cheers shaun


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## PowerTool (13 Jun 2006)

Don't think it would be worth taking it apart - doubt it will go back together the same.
Just sand it down,brush it clean,then leave it somewhere covered to dry out fully.Then give it a coat or two of garden furniture oil.

Andrew


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## Paul Chapman (13 Jun 2006)

I agree that taking it apart might be a mistake. As for a finish, I've often used Sadolin Classic wood preservative and found that very successful. It might be more successful than oil if the furniture hasn't been treated for a few years and is not in very good condition.

Paul


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## prawnking (13 Jun 2006)

thanks for the replies i took it apart as far as when it was flat pack ie undid bolts etc upon starting to sand the slats of the back of a chair i noticed they where moving, it looked like they where glued into the rails with mortice and tenon joints, the more i lightly rubbed the more they moved so i took a closer look at the joint and noticed it was coming apart when i held up to the light u could c it was held together with dowels
i gave one a slight tug and it came away in my hand
7-8 hundred pounds worth of hardwood table and chairs where fixed together with a few dowels which r rotted now i pulled a dowel out and it just crumbled in my hand.]

pity realy because after a bit of elbow grease with sanding the wood although treated 1 time about 2 years ago came up almost like new
going to try to c if i can drill out old dowels then renew. can u get hardwood dowels or can anyone suggest a better way of re-fixing the slats in the rails as all the chairs have the same prob

cheers 

shaun


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## Scrit (13 Jun 2006)

prawnking":2bvtq16u said:


> Can u get hardwood dowels or can anyone suggest a better way of re-fixing the slats in the rails as all the chairs have the same prob


You can get beech dowels, which is hardwood - problem is it's not durable so it will just end up rotting out. What you need is something like teak or iroko dowels - but other than turning then I don't know how you come by any. Pity the manufacturers didn't use mortise and tenon joints instead of dowels.

Scrit


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## Colin C (13 Jun 2006)

If you get a think peice of metal, you can make your own but make sure that you drill a few holes that are close together in in size to what you want to get a better finish on them


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