First of all, I am a builder, second, I don’t a damn thing about finishes.
So clue me in here, I bought a house here in Hawaii built damn near completely out of old growth redwood T/G even the outside storage closets! ! ! (on site carpenter joinery, nice, rare to see nowadays)
If the house wasn’t worth anything, the wood sure is (priced at HD was31$ a foot)
I have a 45 and coffered ceiling attached to the underside of the colar ties, it seems to be an old white wash finish or a stain of some kind. Any guesses?
I have tried sanding on some shelves that have the same stain (Yeah right!)
only thing that seems to do the trick is running it through my brand new hitach P12RA! planer
(just bought it and uncrated, set up and tested today, nice machine, big tag though)
Looking for an interior finish to preserve the wood and not darken too much, brighter would actually be better….
low shine, satin lusterish, not too keen on the high gloss thing
surface prep, method, material suggestions would be really helpful
Replies
Oops! forgot to attach pics....
I believe the first problem is to get a uniform color. A church in my area used Deft Danish wood finish to finish the inside of a wood beam church. This can be sprayed or brushed depending. For furniture I recommend Sutherland Welles tung oil at http://www.sutherlandwelles.com as it is the best and easiest tung oil finish on the market. Deft and Sutherland Welles can be tinted to help achieve a more unifrom look, but the white wash area will present problems to remove. Could it be power washed?
Edited 6/1/2005 5:38 pm ET by swannyww
Old redwood that was mostly heartwood is a dark red to maroon color that will most likely not lighten up for you. If you look at most plantation grown redwood to day the color is much lighter than the old growth boards from years ago. From your pictures if the finish effect was not deliberate it may have been a simple one coat paint job years ago. Green redwood will bleed tannin for sometime through the paint. In one corner of your cieling its much darker. Did you try and strip this area . If you didn't there may have been a water leak at one time causing extra bleeding of the tannin in that area.
Some Blotches in the finish are from previous owners attempt to strip it, and in one area you are quite correct about the leak..... reroofing sucks by the way.( cedar shakes) As for the finish it is definately not paint, it is either a commercially available stain or white wash or homemade elmers glue and water white wash finish.(opinions from three diferent painters, go figure)New planer's got a work out ahead of it
Thanks for the input will post results before too longI cut the board twice and its still too short ! ! !
Thanks for the info, I am experimenting with danish oil/spar varnish/mineral spirit with good results, a finish guy gave me a hand and even tried spraying with an HVLP gun, and its looking very promising.havent tried tung oil although may still do so, seem to recall it is pretty pricey and can be hard to find....I'd like to keep it as light to natural if possible (not a big fan of the dark and cavey look)
so a light tint would probably work too
Thanks againI cut the board twice and its still too short ! ! !
Just me... I could be and usually wrong...
BUT if it was my house.. I'll take it!..
I would get a REALLY GOOD QUALITY breathing mask and REALLY good sander up there.. ALOT of work but you could test in a small area to see how deep the stain goes.. Maybe even try a Carbide hand scraper.. The ones with a big blade work really nice...
For old growth Redwood I'd bust my butt doing it... And have a stiff neck for about 12 years after I was finished...
Test a area with a citrus stripper?? Could work and pretty safe on you...
I know how you feel about the redwood, real estate agent had no idea and the appraiser didn't seem to think much of it (probably because if the ugly finish) needless to say I got a good deal, I could hardly contain myself on the walk through, appraisal, escrow period. I was certain someone would catch it, but nope...nice huh?Final plan-Pull down sections at a time, plane, clean up V groove edge on the shaper, and finish all the same way, danish oil/spirts/spar varnish combo looks nice, grain shows nice, not too shiny, simplest method of all consideredSanding is not an option, takes about 20-40 min per 4' x12" board x how many boards.....
nope! planer works great about 3-5 min a board clean smooth ready to finish, just gotta watch out for the nails.I cut the board twice and its still too short ! ! !
That finish on your redwood is common in Hawaii. Citrus stripper will work but sanding is a no-no on redwood. If you can get the oil based stain coat off use oxalic acid sold as Dekswood Cleaner (Flood Company product) mixed with water as directed will turn your redwood to its brand new bright color in as little as 20 minutes. Follow up with CWF (Flood Company again) which I think stands for Clear wood Finish. Awesome easy to use product. Hope your Hawaiian house adventure is fun. Aloha, Mike.....Maui here.....
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