Treating your wooden gates, garage doors and external joinery
Like all exterior joinery, our wooden gates and garage doors need protecting from the extremes of the British climate, if they are to last for many years. There are many types of treatments available from paints to stains and oils.
If you decide to oil your wooden gates or doors then be aware that you could end up having to regularly apply additional coats of oil every 2-3 months to keep the timber in tip-top condition.
Of paints, steer away from ranch or fence paint as these are quite often made solely for rough sawn timber and will not adequately protect smooth planed timber. Gloss paints used to be the most common choice, but the main drawback with these products is that if water does penetrate the paintwork, then it won’t be able to escape effectively; if you’ve ever gone to repaint a window or similar that was previously coated in a gloss paint and found a paint shell on the exterior with rotten timber beneath it, then this is basically moisture that has gained access to the timber and not been able to be released.
Microporous? Moisture vapour permeable?
Our recommendations are microporous or moisture vapour permeable paints and stains; this basically means the paint or stains will allow the timber to breathe, stopping any moisture from entering the timber, whilst releasing any moisture already present. A good quality microporous paint or stain will also contain a UV (ultra violet) filter, to help protect against damage caused to the timber by sunlight. Amongst the many makes and brands available, our favoured is Sikkens, which we have over thirty years’ experience of using. If used correctly, and according to the manufacturers instructions, you could get up to three years’ usage before having to recoat your wooden gates or garage doors.
So which particuliar Sikkens product do we recommend?
As mentioned, our favorite is Sikkens which is a translucent stain (i.e. you can see the woodgrain underneath but it does have a tint which acts as a UV filter) which comes in a variety of shades.
The Sikkens products that we recommend, after speaking to the very helpful people at Sikkens’ Technical Advice centre, are Sikkens Cetol HLS Plus as the base coat, with Sikkens Filter 7 Plus for the top coats. For more information on both the mentioned products, you can visit Sikkens’ website at the links below, where you can find technical data and information on the various shades available.
Sikkens Cetol HLS Plus
Sikkens Cetol Filter 7 Plus
You want a paint rather than a stain?
If you’re looking to paint your gates or doors rather than stain them, then there are a few paints that are micro-porous/moisture vapour permable. The most notable being International Paints and Johnstone Paints, but having said that with the experience we have of Sikkens, we would always recommend the aforementioned Sikkens over everything else!
Interesting that you use vapor permeable paints and that it stops moisture from entering the timber.
I’m more familiar with using first a sealer and then something like a polyurethane topcoat to basically block out moisture and dirt. I’ve never considered allowing the timber to “breathe.”
http://www.gardenwoodgates.com/category/wood-gate-articles/wooden-gates-applying-a-final-coat/
I wonder if it’s because of the type of wood you are using? I’m using mahogany.
Dan
If you’ve totally sealed the timber and moisture does gain access (through a scrape in the coating of sealer), then the moisture has nowhere to go. Using a micro-porous or moisture vapour permable product any moisture that manages to get into the timber will be released.
We do use Mahogany from time to time and treat it exactly the same way as mentioned in the article above.
hey, nice blog…really like it and added to bookmarks. keep up with good work
as someone who lives in Cumbria where it is very wet, I cannot understand how something that lets water out will not let water in.
we want our doors to be as similar as possible as existing wood work, which is painted a mid blue..
How can we get the best treatment to protect our considerable investment in our climate to go with the rest of our timberwork?
It’s the microscopic make up of the product, the pores on the outside of the paint or stain are smaller than the pores on the inside of the coating thus the product has the ability to release moisture whilst stopping any moisture from gaining access. This is how Sikkens’ very helpful technicnal people explained it to us.
If your’re looking for advice on Sikkens, then they do have a page within their website for contacting them with your questions (theres also a phone number if you prefer to contact them that way). You can get in touch with them at http://sikkens.trade-decorating.co.uk/information/contact/index.jsp
Hope that helps!
I plan to follow your advice with my new untreated redwood garden (side) gates, using Sikkens Cetol HLS Plus as a base coat, followed by Sikkens Cetol Filter 7 Plus as the top coats.
However, I have been unable to find out if one should rub down the doors (sandpaper) between coats.
The Sikkens Technical data sheets and FAQ don’t specify.
Can you please advise?
Many thanks,
Hi Alun,
As long as you don’t leave too long between coats then you shouldn’t usually have to do any sanding down.
Hope that helps!
Jon