favorite Exterior Top Coat for Wood Entry Doors
DoRight
| Posted in Construction Techniques on
What do you guys like for exterior top coats for wood entry doors?
I am interested in what people think is best. However, in my particular case I have an eastern exposure with even more shade so the sun is not likely to hit the door ever and the door is in an area with about eight feet of roof over hang (ie porch).
Thoughts
Thanks as always.
Replies
For exterior applications i tend to gravitate to Epifanes clear varnish, have had good results with it.
Paint, exterior grade, your choice of color.
If it's stain grade, then
you might want to review an excellent article written by Sean Clarke in Fine Homebuilding issue #225 (pp. 42-46). He gives a step by step process for achieving one of the best looking and longest lasting stain grade finishes you'll ever see. There's much more to it than specifying one particular product.
You think paint is a top coat?
Paint? Was that my question? Huh I will have to reread it. If I asked about a top coat and you think paint is a top coat in the well know professional industry fashion of the word you might want to do a little homework.
As for paint, sure it typically stands up well, if you like that everybody-does-it-boring-city look, or have a colonial style home. But as you might know from previous posts, I like the beauty of wood. To each their own.
Thanks anyway.
Paint is considered to be a top coat. Whether you have a personal preference for it (or not) is irrelevant.
If you say so.
99% of other people seem to know differently, but hey.
Idle chatter (and in this case unsubstantiated opinion) is cheap. All together another matter to be able to prove it.
So go for it.
relax
You are a little high strung and sensitive don't you think? Roll dude roll. LOL
As a side note it is interesting that the first poster and perhaps even more interesting is that you yourself, yes you yourself, had no trouble immediately determining the nature of the question as to a TOP COAT for a door to be one of STAIN GRADE DOOR AND A CLEAR COAT. Then you got your undies in a bundy. Odd.
hardly
Actually, I didn't determine that you were talking about clear top coats because it wasn't specific enough in your O.P. My response was qualified as applicable if it happend, by chance, to be a clear coat you were after. You very well could have been talking about paint for all I (or anyone) knew. However, I was willing to take that chance with my suggestion because of your stellar track record on Breaktime. You are well worth it.
BTW, I don't consider my responses to be high strung or sensitive*. I merely do my best to learn, inform, and stick to relevant points. You may want to consider the same tact sometime.
*Yet you are always entitled to express your opinion; however misaligned with reality it may be.
Ok, whatever you say
The fact of the matter you immediately comment about a clear coat if you prefer. Plain and simple. Your immediate react was to think clear coat. I rest my case. Spin away spin away, it iwhat is expected. One gets snarky and then has to spin or back peddle, spin is the weak man's arguement.
I am bored now.
Aren't you the guy ...
Aren't you the guy who thinks PVC is a type of wood? or at least teh same difference? LOL
Cetol Door and Window
I really like Cetol.
Renewal is easy, TSP wash, light scuff if needed, dry, then a single recoat. No need to sand to bare wood.
I used it on my front entry door as well as balcony handrails. All mahogany. The handrails get beat on by the sun and are covered with snow/ice in the winter. The front door is undercover and shielded from sun and rain. It all looks good after several years. I'll probably recoat next year.
Coating with door panels with Cetol during fabrication:
View Image
Door Installed:
View Image
Balcony handrails:
View Image
Okay, ready set .... go
hey Mongo, I have my doors. now I need to stain and top with a clear coat. Several people, you included, have recommended Cetol. If I google Sikkens Cetol I get 857 different products. Ok, I don't know if it is actually 857, but a pile. Can you be more specific in your recommendation? Is it a marine version? what is the actual name on teh can, if you please. Thank you much
Okay, ready set .... go
hey Mongo, I have my doors. now I need to stain and top with a clear coat. Several people, you included, have recommended Cetol. If I google Sikkens Cetol I get 857 different products. Ok, I don't know if it is actually 857, but a pile. Can you be more specific in your recommendation? Is it a marine version? what is the actual name on teh can, if you please. Thank you much
I used to use Cetol123 way back when. Not sure if there are regional variations due to VOC restrictions, but 123 is no longer available around here (CT). The previous photos, all that work was done with Cetol Door and Window.
I used a mahogany wash to even out the color of the door as a whole, then finished with several coats of clear.
I really like the product.
Mongo
Can't get the solvent based here either anymore (Ohio). I can understand why, the vapors irritated the eyes something fierce.
used the water based on one side of the house and oddly, woodpeckers laid in on that side way more than ever in our 25 yrs here. While cedar fascia pecking is common here, siding had seen only minimal attack up till now. Could just be a coincidence I guess.
Now it's time to redo the garage and I'm at a loss on what to use. Has your experience included use of the water based cetol and if so, did you get the same length of time protection from it?
thanks.
Nope
Big Cal, nope, I've never used water-based Cetol. Just the older 123 and the newer Door and Window, both solvent based.
Get a pellet gun!