Exterior wood sealer

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Firstram

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I'm building a park bench for the backyard, cast iron ends with purple heart slats. I am not trying to maintain the color, going grey is fine with me. I would like to seal the wood for longevity without using an oil based sealer, they all seem to promote mold growth. Anyone have experience with water or silicone based wood sealers?

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Wow, purple heart:cool:

I built a bass guitar with that stuff, don't breathe the dust....

My bass has several coats of linseed oil followed by johnson paste wax. Definitely not an outdoor finish but it's held up for 40 years. Have you considered some kind of spar varnish? needs to be maintained but at least you won't have to sand it completely off like some of the polyurethane finishes when it needs redone.

John
 
I don't want to ever do anything after I finish it! If there's something that helps repel water for a minute without turning black I'm down to try it. I have used Mesmers in the past and love it but it is an annual thing, I'll hose it down with tire shine before I go down that road again.
 
Ravens . You could sell that for $1000s in Baltimore ! Course , someone would steal it out of the yard .
 
Can't let my wife see that bench , she'll need one . :)
 
I use Duck Back Penetrating sealer on the cedar on my house. Don't know about forever, but its been 15 years, and is probably due again. Mike
 
Why not use a product with UV protectant? I think it's pretty common, I have used something from Minwax that made it last in the sun.

I'm phobic or allergic to woodwork, so I make no claims about knowing what's what. But I have been under the impression that the point of using purpleheart is to show the color. Otherwise it's just expensive maple, no?

And don't breathe the dust. Nasal cancer.
 
pontiac428 said:
Why not use a product with UV protectant? I think it's pretty common, I have used something from Minwax that made it last in the sun.

I'm phobic or allergic to woodwork, so I make no claims about knowing what's what. But I have been under the impression that the point of using purpleheart is to show the color. Otherwise it's just expensive maple, no?

And don't breathe the dust. Nasal cancer.
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I used the purple because I had a slab laying around that was big enough to do the job, not to mention, it's a durable exterior lumber! I'm good with a UV product for now, I'm not going to keep up with it. The plan is to only hose the bird droppings as needed!

This all started because I had some leftover stone from another project. Now we need a 4" compacted base, more stone, inserts and a bench. Never leave leftover stone around where the wife can see it!
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Purple Heart is known to be pretty rot resistant, I would put nothing on it. IMHO with decades of experience with wood, you either protect all the way or not at all. That is, paint or varnish completely and maintain regularly or leave it bare. In my experience, the effects of those "sealers" are short lived and also require periodic reapplication. They don't really seal the wood either, water still gets in, thus are unnecessary. Retained moisture is what causes wood to rot so if is allowed to dry after exposure to water is will last a very longtime. In the case of the bench that shouldn't be an issue.
 
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