Varnishing or Sealing your Wood

A great tip for a good first impression by a visitor is to Varnish your wooden doors. ESPECIALLY your garage doors if your visitors will see them when they arrive. (My guests have to park outside my garage doors).

Of course, Varnishing is not always what needs to be done. A better option is Sealing the wood. I used something called an “Exterior Gloss Sealer” by Woodoc. Here are the properties for the Sealer I used (from www.woodoc.com):

• Excellent wind, water, pollution and salt spray protection.
• Incorporates a special alkyd base that remains flexible, preventing surface cracking associated with temperature variation.
• Superior Ultra-violet radiation protection in extreme conditions.
• High build characteristic for a smooth gloss surface.
• Deep penetrates to nourish wood and combat fungus growth.
• Biodegrades at the end of its life cycle.
• No need for scraping or sanding. Clean the old surface with Woodoc SteelWool and mineral turpentine before re-applying Woodoc 55.

As the last point mentions, I used Fine Grain steelwool to smooth the surface of the wood before applying the sealer. Here are some before and after photos:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

This is after applying the first coat. It is recommended that you apply 3 coats to your wood for the proper effect. As you can see, the colour is already a lot richer…