Outdoor Wood Furniture Restoration

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Current plan:

1. pressure wash with water to remove dirt and maybe the outer gray layer of sun-bleached wood. Other guides say to use diluted bleach, or buy some special deck brightener, but pressure sounds easiest.
2. Sand with 100 grit, maybe coarser to start with until it looks like the right color.
3. Put waterproof glue in the most egregiously split parts of the wood and clamp it back together.
3. Apply spar varnish. Apparently deck sealer/finish shouldn't be used on furniture according to a couple of sites.

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Bump, am also curios.

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Ignore the even shittier deck that the table is sitting on, that's a future project.

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I think the flecks of deeper brown are the original paint/sealer on there, but I dunno for sure.

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The (mortise and tenon?) joints on the edge of the table are pretty warped out too. I have a long clamp i'll try, or maybe just whack it into shape with a mallet.

you're wasting your time

build new ones

>>1193783
Way to kill the mood

>>1193785
I said build new ones, not buy new ones

some things are not worth the time/effort/materials to save when making new ones would be the far better option

>>1193789
Noted. The table itself is definitely warped/split to the point of no return, but I figure it's still good practice for sanding/applying varnish which I'd have to do building a new one anyway. I'd rather (further) mess up this shit with bad finish then than a piece I just spent a bunch of time cutting and joining.

Your plan is good.

Pressure wash should get any remaining finish off of the wood.

Don't use bleach. Oxalic Acid is the best wood brightener you can buy.

Use a ratchet strap if you don't have a long enough clamp.

>>1193768

pressure washing wood is generally a really bad idea. The line between "not enough pressure to get off the dirt" and "too much pressure, left grooves in the wood" is way too thin. Plus, because wood's porous, you're driving dirt into the wood as much as you're washing it off.

Wash with a scrub brush & detergent, and plenty of low pressure water. Follow up with oxalic acid scrub / soak / scrub / rinse rinse rinse.

Let dry.

Sand. Sand. Sand.

Then apply a penetrating oil like penofin, and keep up with the constant recoating. Or, just let it go gray again.

>>1194313
>>1195148
Hmm, the rest of the internet is also conflicted on pressure wash vs some sort of deck cleaner. the MSDS of a couple "deck cleaner/brighteners" I saw were ~10% oxalic and ~20% trisodium phosphate. For science, I'll try pressure washing half the table and cleaner on the other half and post results later today.

Re: penetrating oil, that's different from polyurethane "spar" varnish, correct? IIRC some guides said not to use oil on surfaces like tables where you'd be eating food. I might try both again for science if the oil is cheap.

>>1193798
you could take this one apart and see how it's built and practice with it before making a new one, but that's the way to go with something like this.

Other anon, somewhat related question.

Has anyone messed with the "recycled plastic bottle" wood they have out there? I have an old cast iron ended park bench and the slats are gone. What I wonder is the strength of that plastic vs wood. Can't find any loading criteria on it.

>>1195278
And by "it" I mean the home depot/lowes stuff, not the structural wood like fiberforce

>>1195148
>The line between "not enough pressure to get off the dirt" and "too much pressure, left grooves in the wood" is way too thin.

Well, no, it isn't, and your reference to "dirt" shows that you don't know what you are talking about.

I've pressure washed decks for over 20 years. Any imbecile can learn how to do it properly, and it's not with a fucking scrub brush and detergent.

What you want to do is remove the dead weathered wood, and also any mildew, mold, or algae. Which you cannot do with a fucking scrub brush.

Sand? are you fucking kidding me? are we talking about some sort of furniture, or a deck, or the type of things OP asked about.

Guys: if you have a lifetime to waste, get out your scrub brush and 5000 sheets of sandpaper, and go to work. Otherwise, pressure wash it, treat it, and go have a beer.

Goddamn this board is full of morons.

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Bad news on the pressure washer science. The washer I was going to borrow broke somehow, so sand and chemicals it is. After a basic soap wash, I acquired some oxalic acid and spread it around on the tabletop, in an admittedly half-hearted manner. After drying and rinsing, no real change in color. I dunno what I expected though so maybe it's fine ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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After sanding with 60grit though, it's looking nicer, if still pale. Still warped to shit though. And yes, that is a circular saw kerf through the near side of the table. It's lived a hard life. I think I'll try to fill that kerf with wood putty and sawdust before refinishing. My hardware store has both spar varnish and penofin "penetrating oil" shit. Still deciding which or both to try.

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I'm still trying spot treatments of the oxalic acid. This is just the wet with water color though, don't be fooled.

>>1195148
Pressure washing is actually difficult to fuck up.
Keep a good distance and move with the grain.
$10/hr labor with zero incentive can do it. Why can't you?

I've removed good, solid paint from a red oak garage door without damaging a single fiber.
A deck that just needs a rinse? Easiest job in the world.

Also wood is indeed porous, but it's not a fucking sponge that soaks up anything it comes in contact with.
Water lifts up dirt long before it has a chance to soak in.

>>1195281

>I've pressure washed decks for over 20 years.

That's a long time to still be such an ignorant hack.

I started out in boatbuilding, 30 years ago. Maybe it's because of the ridiculous cost involved in replacing that sort of deck... but it's a well known fact in the industry, people who opt for pressurewashing (newbies, always) live to regret it. Even if it's done "perfectly", at best, yopu cut the deck's lifespan by half, compared to the guy in the next berth who put in the time to do it correctly.

>>1195281
>your reference to "dirt" shows that you don't know what you are talking about

Wood left outdoors doesn't get dirty where you live? The air's that pristine?

We get some mold, occasionally, here, but mostly we get diesel soot, ground-in gardening soil, food grease, etc...

If you weren't such a hack, you'd understand the oxidized wood layers come off in the sanding stage. The cleaning is so you don't grind dirt into the wood, when you sand.

>>1195825
>I've removed good, solid paint from a red oak garage door without damaging a single fiber.

try it on teak, or cedar... you like washboards?

>>1193766
Use Schaeffers New Zealand Style Deck Sealant

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6c4Nupnup0

Whitewash it distress it then sell for 2000 dollarydoos to pretentious rich people

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Well, after a week of laziness I finally did it. Off-camera, I did a lot more sanding and some glue and clamp work, as well as mutilated the edges of the boards with a file. Here though, we've got some hardcore penetration action. Man, wood stain really feels like photoshop. Brings even shitty furniture into the realm of mediocrity.

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In its full ``beauty''. Rustic saw kerf included.

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Wood glue. It didn't sand off as easily as I'd hoped, so I was like whatever. If the wood wasn't so rough and grooved maybe.

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>>1193766
And final shot, bringing it back to the OP. I Still Don't Know The Name Of The Wood I Stained That Day, but at least I know it's stained "redwood" now.