Woodwork Maintenance: Get your Woodwork Summer Ready!
With spring around the corner, we are starting to see the sun a little more each day and beginning to smell the spring flowers. It’s the perfect time to sit outside on our wooden decks, soaking up the sun. It’s also a good time to touch up our woodwork and give it that much-needed attention so that it is ready for the hotter months.
Woodwork as a whole can have such a beautiful effect on a property, especially when it is well looked after. Regular maintenance of your wooden decks, doors, windows and other wooden elements is essential, as over time they become damaged from the sun and weather conditions.
Be consistent with the product you use.
It is advisable to stick to one product for all future woodwork maintenance, so ensure that you keep an old tin or slip from previous purchases to know what product to use in future. The reason for this is that if you use two different products that are not compatible, you may start to see blistering on your woodwork. If you have used an outside contractor for your wood maintenance, ask them to leave you with details of the product and colour that was used, so that you have that for your records in future.
Choosing the right product.
When it comes to choosing the right product for your wood finish, it can be difficult to know which product is right. There are various products on the market to choose from, but most people prefer to use a preservative because it absorbs into the wood and feeds it. It has a low sheen appearance, which works well with direct sunlight areas. Most varnishes have a high gloss finish and are best used in more sheltered areas.
Having to strip your woodwork.
Unfortunately, it’s not always possible to simply paint a new coat of wood finish to your woodwork – often there are issues that would require you to strip the woodwork back down to the original wood in order to achieve the best possible finish. We have listed some of these instances below:
- The woodwork has not been properly maintained over the years, so the coating has become patchy and may be peeling.
- At the other end of the scale, the woodwork has been maintained correctly but has accumulated too many layers of wood finish, resulting in an uneven finish.
- As we mentioned previously, the use of incompatible products on the woodwork may cause blistering.
The stripping of woodwork can be extremely labour intensive, and it needs to be done in the correct manner. Once stripping is complete, a thorough sanding needs to be done as well as correct cleaning of the woodwork, to get it ready for coating. This is not an easy process, so you may want to consider hiring a contractor to do this for you. Give us a call to chat more about your woodwork and how we can help.