Thursday, September 20, 2007

Summer Fading

I sanded the cap for the railing on the deck last night. Deb and I are both working again, so we didn't get home until after 6. I sanded the railing while she was making dinner, didn't take too long. It wasn't supposed to rain today, so Deb stained the rail after dinner, well it's raining today. Not a surprise, we live in a rain forest, and get more rain than most places in Canada. I think it'll be okay, the instructions say it needs 5 hours until it gets wet, and I don't think it rained until early in the morning. I still need the posts and beams to dry out so I can varnish them. There's the east wall that still isn't primed and painted either. And guess what, forecast calls for rain.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I hope the weather cooperates this weekend. It was pretty dry here today which was nice.
Where are the pictures of the concrete counter?

Derek said...

Pictures should be coming soon of the countertop. I'm waiting for a new backer for the grinding pads. Weather isn't bad so far this weekend, unfortunatly, the posts and beams are too wet to varnish.

panmail said...

Did you use pressure treated lumber for your posts and beams?

If you have shouldn't you wait 6-8 months for it the weather away the chemical treatment first before applying paint? Or is varnish done differently?

The reason I say this is because I just finished my cedar fence with mixed PT and cedar and was about to paint when the sales at General Paint advise me to wait 6-8 months. In fact their 10 year warranty stipulated it. Am I getting mis-information or does someone out there know from experience whether painting can occur right after installation.

I was eager to have the painting done in September but I guess with the rain coming I will have to wait until next Spring.

Derek said...

The posts and beams are fir, and they aren't pressure treated, which is why we're using a marine varnish. Only time will tell if they will last. We did our fence with pressure treated posts. We waited a few weeks, then bleached and pressure washed it, as per the sikkens instructions. That's for a stain though, a paint would be different. Stain is usually recommended over paint, because it doesn't bubble, and you can get solid stains that look like paint. If the wood is really wet, it's probably best to wait until spring.