Can You Put Spar Varnish on a Floor

If you are finishing woods with a natural or stained appearance today, you're likely using some kind of varnish or polyurethane. Varnishes create a hard cease that protect and beautify everything from wood floors to delicate woodwork, but do you lot know the difference betwixt a spar varnish and regular varnish and when to utilize them?

Wood finished for outdoor utilize is subject to a completely different set of factors that indoor finishes never have to deal with. Huge temperature swings, big changes in humidity, and punishing UV rays are the main effects your stop will have to endure. These elements volition easily intermission down a regular varnish or polyurethane over fourth dimension.

Humidity changes, for i, crusade the wood to swell and shrink much more than wood left indoors, and that backlog movement alone is enough to crevice a regular varnish in curt order. So, for an outside wood finishing solution, we turned to gunkhole makers and their years of experience in caring for wooden elements with the harshest exposures in the world.

What is Spar Varnish?

The term "spar varnish" comes from the boating world, where the long wooden poles that back up the sails are known as spars. A spar varnish is a stop specifically designed withstand the rigorous conditions of seafaring life, which means information technology tin also handle anything your backyard throws at information technology.

The Components

So, what's in it? Well, every varnish or polyurethane is made up of relatively similar ingredients. Just similar with the grocery shop, if you lot tin cutting through all the marketing hype and await at the actual ingredients, you'll be able to make a better decision.

They all contain, in varying amounts, an oil, resin, and solvent. Manufacturers like to play around with the amounts and kinds of each to brand their varnish, but this basic recipe is always followed. Within those three ingredients, y'all besides take a couple options.

Oils

Linseed oil and Tung oil are the most commonly used oils in varnish and they create a deep penetrating end. If your finish were only oil, then y'all'd have a very tedious drying and soft finish that penetrates deep within the wood. Using oils alone is an option, but it takes many coats to build up a thick enough coat to protect the wood. These oils are an important office of a practiced spar varnish, because past adding more than oil to the mix, you get a softer and more than flexible finish that can handle the excess move associated with outdoor wood. Higher oil content is one of the markers of a good spar varnish.

Resins

Resins are the hardeners. Typically, the resin is either alkyd, phenolic, or polyurethane. Alkyd and phenolic are associated with varnish finishes, while the use of a polyurethane resin is what makes a finish a polyurethane. These ingredients give us the hard, shell-like terminate you are accustomed to in most varnish finishes. Interior finishes are relatively high in resin content and low in oil content, which creates a nice hard finish, but leaves little flexibility and penetration. Without the resin, you're left with an extremely soft finish that may not concur upwardly to traffic and wear.

Solvents

These resins and oils need a carrier to be dissolved in, and that is what the solvent provides. In that location are a multitude of solvents, but mineral spirits and paint thinner are the most mutual. At that place are others like naphtha and xylene that are faster drying likewise. The solvent thins the oils and resins and helps blend them together and make them piece of cake to utilize with a brush or wiping cloth.

UV Blockers

Terminal merely not least, every spar varnish needs to protect itself and the underlying forest from the lord's day. Regular polyurethane and varnish contain little, if any, UV blocking additives, and that alone makes them a poor option for exterior application. Without UV protection, varnishes and wood quickly break downwardly and neglect.

Selecting a Varnish

Like almost things in life, you lot become what you pay for. Amend ingredients result in a better product and those improve ingredients cost more. Volition it kill your project to use a cheaper finish? Admittedly not, but considering the amount of work you put into your project, wouldn't a few extra dollars be worth information technology for a longer lasting finish?

For me, in that location are 2 options I normally go to for outside wood finishing. Both are fantabulous choices, though ane does stand up to a higher place the other.

Helmsman Spar Urethane

This spar urethane is probably the nigh readily bachelor spar urethane on the market today. You'll observe it in just nigh every big box and local hardware shop. According to the ingredients nosotros discussed before, Helmsman uses a polyurethane resin, hence the name and the principal solvent is mineral spirits. It is easy to apply and creates a nice warm terminate that stay flexible for years. Y'all can detect it in a variety of gloss levels equally well.

Epifanes Spar Varnish

You won't notice this on your local hardware store shelves, merely that doesn't mean it'southward not incredible stuff. Personally, this is my favorite end for exterior woods. It was designed by boat finishers for boats and the states land lovers tin can do good from their difficult work by using a product that can handle the toughest elements. Information technology uses a phenolic resin, which I call back is ameliorate suited to outdoor utilise, and the solvent is naphtha with a little bit of xylene. You lot can usually just order it online. If I'yard finishing an outside wood project, 9 out of 10 times Epifanes is the stuff I reach for.

The Conclusion

What it all comes down to is protecting woods, and for exterior applications, spar varnish does a meliorate job of it patently and unproblematic. Just like you demand the right tool for the right job you also need the right varnish for the right application. Finding the right varnish is only half the boxing, though. You lot need to know how to employ it properly and we'll be talking about that next week.

The main reason most finishes fail prematurely is not because of an junior product, but considering of user mistake. Poor training and application can't be overcome by a premium product. Then, tune in to learn how to get a great terminate next week.

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Founder & Editor-in-Main

I love old houses, working with my hands, and teaching others the excitment of doing it yourself! Everything is teachable if yous only give information technology the risk.

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Source: https://thecraftsmanblog.com/spar-varnish-vs-regular-varnish/

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