Best way to refinish a weathered outdoor table.

[anythingbutpine]

Every time we vist the inlaws i cringe when i see their large outdoor table and chairs weathering away in the rain, hail, sun ...
It is a solid timber setting with 8 timber chairs. Not sure what type of wood. Its about 10 Years old and rather heavy. It's not Cedar or pine. I'm guessing Gum or Jarrah ?
The original finish was a reddish brown that appeared to be in between a paint and a stain, as some grain was visible. It is now a very grey brown and desperately needs some work.
First of all what would be your tool of choice to tackle the job ? I was tossing up between belt sander and electric planer. Finally went with a 76mm Makita sander, a 9910-SP mainly because it was the only tool i could see that was made in Japan.Anyone used one of those ?. Had enough of the Chinese stuff.
Would a decent planer set on minimal depth have been suitable or too aggressive ?
So the current plan is to just sand it back from coarse to fine.
Finally, it then needs about 10 coats of something on it so it stays nice in the weather for at least a few years. Whats best for full sun and rain while showing off the timber better than before ?
Cheers and Thanks. First thread here so don't flame me LOL.

[StuartMcC]

Got some time on your hands then? I reckon you might be swatting a fly with a cannon. Too much prep & too many coats for me.

If it were my in-laws table... No, that's not helpful.

I've salvaged an old grey setting by firstly scrubbing it with blend of oxyalic / hydrochloric acid wood cleaner and then hitting it with a high pressure water cleaner. I was amazed how this gets rid of the grey and restores a fresh milled colour to timber without sanding or planing. Give this a go before you sand. If you still want to sand at the end you've only killed an hour.

I coated mine with 3 coats of feast watson outdoor furniture oil. I couldnt get the timber to soak any more coats in. 10 coats of anything will hide the natural features. Only use a penetrating oil or exterior stain for your project because you don't need to sand when you go to recoat it. Youll find a few outdoor furniture oils on the market - or you could even use a decking oil which is a bit more cost effective for big settings.

[anythingbutpine]

I reckon you might be swatting a fly with a cannon. .

I guess that sums me up. I like to Dowel, Glue, AND screw things together just to make sure they are never getting loose...

That acid etch sounds interesting. I have plenty of HCl acid for the pool but haven't come across Oxalic around the house before. Oh dear, another trip to Bunnings.

I have a small section of the table to practise on so maybe i'll just give the samder a go on that first. Whats an hour really ? I've done a few smaller projects with an orbital sander ( horrible things ) before and they took a lot longer.

[dr4g0nfly]

Not saying this is your answer but it worked for me a few years back. At the time I was working at a place with a canteen and outside picnic benches that had seen better days.

We tried to belt sand one back, it took forever and used too many belts. Then for some reason I took a (seriously big trailer mounter) Karcher Power Washer to one of them. The dirt and grime did not stand a chance. Back to bare wood in 20 to 30 minutes, we could get to all the nooks and crannies without dismantling anything.

A couple of days in the sun followed by a quick belt sand to remove any raised grain and we were able to refinish with a decking stain.

Fast, cheap, efficient.

[anythingbutpine]

Awesome! The inlaws could even pressure clean it themselves, perfect !!

[dr4g0nfly]

I did say it was a seriously big pressure washer, I'm not sure a normal home sized one would achieve the same result but certainly worth a try.

We used the narrow fan spray attachment, if that helps.

[anythingbutpine]

Should be fine, a small one should still do the job. It might just take a while longer.
I tried out the belt sandier on the Lazy Susan ( about 800mm diameter ) and it came up quite well in about 20 minutes with medium grit. With a coarser grit the table should be no trouble, but will try the Karcher first to get the gunk off and save my Makita for last.

[D700Doug]

I have cleaned outdoor furniture with a pressure cleaner and it works well for getting off the worst of the grunge.

If you have somewhere that can contain the runoff you can also try painting the furniture with liquid laundry detergent first and leaving it to stand for an hour or so to break up the greases etc.

it does become the bubble bath from hell though


Once the furniture is clean and completely dry I make an outdoor timber finish by mixing beeswax natural turpentine and linseed oil.

This mix needs to be warmed so the beeswax melts so be careful if you use it but slathering it onto wood allows it to soak in and the wax is great at protecting the timber.

you may need to re coat in a year or so but after that the timber should be saturated and last for ages without any further treatment.

I have found it cheaper and longer lasting than commercial preparations.

( Do during HOT weather and polish off before sitting down with an expensive white suit of course )

[anythingbutpine]

Well they tried the pressure cleaner on the table top. I think it might have removed some of the tree sap and junk off it but its still very black and needs a good sanding to reveal the nice red timber underneath. I sanded the spinning wheel and after an hour or 2 it looks pretty good. The difficult part is the outer rim which is similar to a wagon wheel, so the grain of adjoining pieces doesn't line up, its at about 30 degrees to the piece on either end, so the belt sander has to be used with great care.

[ajames7410]

I'm about to tackle a couple of outdoor benches that are old and grey... Reading this may have saved me some time, thanks