Sealing Wood for Varnish

If you are planning to have your wood exposed to uv and the outdoors, it's recommended provide a solid foundation to work from, and stabilize the wood as much as possible by first applying a sealer coat of epoxy or varnish. Using a thinned varnish, a thinned epoxy like our Penetrating Epoxy, or a specialized sealer like our TotalBoat Wood Sealer will add longevity to the wood, giving it years of added life. By sealing first, you penetrate the soft areas in the wood, stabilizing areas that are most susceptible to rot and ruin from water or weather. Sealers are a great first coat that, once cured, can be easily sanded, wiped and overcoated with top coats of varnish or even paint.

If you plan on thinning varnish, we recommend using specified thinners that go with your specific product. Our TotalBoat Thinner 100 is perfect for thinning Lust and Gleam varnishes, and Wet Edge Topside Paint. Thin by adding small amounts of your thinner, up to about 20% for your first application of straight varnish.

Penetrating Epoxy and TotalBoat Wood Sealer are both products that are already thin enough to use right from the can (or the mixing cup) and won't need additional thinning for great penetration.

In all cases, you would apply 1-2 sealer coats, allow them to cure or dry (Penetrating Epoxy can take 48 hours or more to fully cure), sand and wipe your wood, and then apply coats of paint or varnish on top.

[xenod]

Nice!
Can you make a video all about the sanding sealer? please. Thank you!

[B._Smith]

I can't easily find information on maintinance of epoxy sealed and varnished wood. If I knew I could make my decision easier. Thank you.

[JonnyBlazeTCB]

Does temperature matter when applying?

[svdoinitright]

Question for the TotalBoat gurus. I just tried to do the third method on a pair of 40 year old teak handrails from my cabin deck. They were in terrible condition, so I gave the a cleaning with teak cleaner, a light sanding, and soap and water wash. I used TotalBoat 5:1 epoxy resin on them and the whole surface fisheyed. I wound up sanding it off (I hate sanding teak), cleaned it with acetone, and put another coat on it. Completely fisheyed again. I cleaned it up again and just went with Cetol and it came out perfect.

Question is, the epoxy is only a year or so old, but it could have been exposed to freezing temperatures for a night or two last winter. Is it possible that the epoxy has gone bad?

[karlatkins]

I really dis like videos like this.
So you are to put stain on after wood sealer ? It looks like this person is using fresh wood. This video don’t make any sense.