Varnish for exterior

My 42" trawler needs her cabin doors revarnished.

They are a little to light for my taste. Should I take em down to bare wood or use a tinted varnish and go over existing?

Poly, oil based, epoxy .... All work well But exterior work needs the most UV protection you can find.

Bristol Finish - 2 part exterior varnish

Bristol Finish works very well here in the FL sunshine. I’ve gotten as many as 5 to 6 years on my one piece of exterior teak - the cap rail.

Take note though that if the varnished wood moves, Bristol will crack and once water gets under it, it’s wood scraper time. You only need to redo the damaged area - it can be faired in.

I know that all (most?) wood finishes are susceptible to this, but Bristol seems a little bit harder and cracks a little earlier than some of the Interlux exterior varnishes.

Mike

I would take it down to bare wood. Tinting the varnish gives a muddy finish over time. Mind you I don't live in the Florida sun, but I have been satisfied with Cabot Spar in Satin. Nothing lasts forever so I can't be bothered dropping the big dollars on a quart of juice when my boat is in a covered moorage.

Jenny, we have owned two boats now with lots of teak. We have used every type of finish and varnish over the years. We finally settled on Cetol and have not regretted it one bit. You can use different bases to get different looks. We chose the natural with 3 coats and then 3 coats of gloss. Now we only have to do a maintenance coat once a year, even living in south Florida full time. My advise would be to walk the docks and see if a neighbor boat has a finish you like. Then talk to the owner about how maintenance intensive that finish is. Here are a couple of our blog posts, The Trawler Beach House: Another Update and The Trawler Beach House: Refinishing The Hatches . Chuck

Jenny said:

My 42" trawler needs her cabin doors revarnished.

They are a little to light for my taste. Should I take em down to bare wood or use a tinted varnish and go over existing?

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The light color is probably due to bleaching of the wood through the varnish. Heat gun or chemically strip (covering the stripper with saran wrap to increase effectiveness), then sand enough to reveal the darker color.

Thin epoxy with MEK to the thickness of paint thinner, then apply to saturate the wood. This may cause some 'furring', and lightly sand with 80 grit to remove the fur and take out any surface epoxy.

My preference is to use 8 - 10 coats of Flagship varnish, but you'll hear lots of other suggestions from others. However, the preparation above should ensure a very long lasting result.

A definite no on the tinted varnish.

Do you know what varnish is on there now? Additional coats will darken the appearance somewhat with any varnish.

Varnish

I don't know what is on now...

I thinkI've chosen to sand down and start over.

I can highly recommend Honey Teak. I've used it for about 12 years and love it. It's a three part polyurethane. You put on some of the base coat (pigmented) then the clear coat and it's beautiful and durable. If you do it properly, you can go 2 years without touching it, more if it's in the shade. Take a look at Signature Finish and Honey Teak Products - Home It's only available direct from Tom, a great guy!

Jenny:

I have tried them all. I have sanded down first and I have coated over old varnish. If it is colour you are after, recoating without taking the old varnish off will not change it much. New varnish will darken it slightly. If you take it down, the finer you sand after getting all the old varnish and all of the bleached wood off, the better it will look. I wouldn't stop going finer until you are sanding with 320 grit. Then choose the most expensive varnish you can find and you will get a great finish. In varnishes, you definitely get what you pay for.
I stopped switching and trying different varnishes after I discovered Epifanes.

koliver said:

I stopped switching and trying different varnishes after I discovered Epifanes.

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Me too!

Capn Chuck said:

Jenny, we have owned two boats now with lots of teak. We have used every type of finish and varnish over the years. We finally settled on Cetol and have not regretted it one bit. You can use different bases to get different looks. We chose the natural with 3 coats and then 3 coats of gloss. Now we only have to do a maintenance coat once a year, even living in south Florida full time. My advise would be to walk the docks and see if a neighbor boat has a finish you like. Then talk to the owner about how maintenance intensive that finish is. Here are a couple of our blog posts, The Trawler Beach House: Another Update and The Trawler Beach House: Refinishing The Hatches . Chuck

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We just completed refinishing all of our exterior teak using Cetol as Captn Chuck described. It was an easier process than some of the other products we considered because we didn't have to sand between coats. We are very happy with the results.

Steve and Gina Smith
M/V Island Time
Cape Coral, Fl

Sceptic said:

Bristol Finish works very well here in the FL sunshine. I’ve gotten as many as 5 to 6 years on my one piece of exterior teak - the cap rail.

Take note though that if the varnished wood moves, Bristol will crack and once water gets under it, it’s wood scraper time. You only need to redo the damaged area - it can be faired in.

I know that all (most?) wood finishes are susceptible to this, but Bristol seems a little bit harder and cracks a little earlier than some of the Interlux exterior varnishes.

Mike

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Yep, Capt. Mike's post is correct in all respects. We are in the Florida Sun. The last time I refinished with Bristol was August 2007. I will sand it a little and put on a few more coats this year. It is available in clear and a darker teak type color. We use the darker. It will go right over varnish if the varnish is sound. There would be no need to strip the varnish.

Islandtimecruiser,

Cetol is an oil based product and I would think it should require sanding between coats. Not so? How dry does it get before you re-coat?

People very vary rarely apply clear coat finishes to their boats in Alaska but they put Cetol on just about everything else including houses, fences, signs and much else. Many worship the stuff. There is cans of 4, 5 or 6 different kinds of the Cetol stuff in the hardware store in Craig Alaska .... mant different kinds. I've never used it but what is it that's different about Cetol. Just seems like hype to me but I've seen many Cetol finished stuff that looks good (except for the orange color that I hear is now avoidable) in the product line. It does seem to hold up well in the Alaskan weather.

We've been using Bristol since it first came on the market in the very early 2000s as a three-part finish (base, catalyst, and retarder). Found it vastly superior to what we'd tried before and to all the stuff the boaters around us were using which included all manner of varnishes, Cetol, etc.

After a few years they eliminated the retarder and it's been a two- part product since. It can be tricky to apply, particularly to vertical surfaces, because it is very thin. But we learned-- by trial and error--- the right application technique and today would not even consider any other brightwork finish.

We also have been using Bristol, we finished all removal prices today and we are waiting for a window without wind so we can do the door frames and cap rail. After 3 years we found the finish was "peeling" in some areas. We thought we might be able repair and apply up to 78 coats on the repair areas. What actually happened was that we could not find solid adhesion even where the Bristol looked good. We ended up stripping it all and will start over. This time we will apply Smiths CPES before applying the Bristol. Have read several other blogs where Bristol users have experienced same problem. Some think it's do to flexing. The doors jams appear fine but the cap rail really peeled off in small sheets.

Epifanes. I've had good results as well. West Marine's best varnish is Epifanes, a buck or two cheaper.

Flatsflyer said:

The doors jams appear fine but the cap rail really peeled off in small sheets.

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We've never experienced that, either with Bristol on raw wood or over older varnish that was in good shape.

One thing Bristol is absolutely intolerant of is any oil whatsoever in the wood it's being applied to. Even a long-distant oil finish that appears to be gone can prevent Bristol from adhering properly. So if wood has had any kind of oil finish on it in the past it has to be totally removed before applying Bristol. As a matter of course we wipe down any wood we are going to apply Bristol to with acetone prior to the application of the first coat of Bristol.

At least that's what we used to do.

A few years ago we switched to applying a few coats of CPES to raw wood prior to applying Bristol, and we put the first coat of Bristol on while the last coat of CPES is still a bit tacky. This is a technique highly recommended by some of the shipwrights/retired yard owners on the GB owners forum. We resisted it for a number of years because using the CPES first does darken the wood a bit. But we decided that superior finish adhesion was more important than a slightly lighter wood appearance.

If Bristol is going to be put on over a fully-cured (older) varnish finish that is in good condition, there is no value in applying CPES first as it won't gain you anything.

Oil based varnish dosn't last as long if you compare it to perfectly applied high tech stuff but lots and lots of people have trouble w it. Perhaps over 20 years an average job of applying and touching up oil based varnish will produce a finish that will be very acceptable to almost everyone w less effort, time and money spent.

New products are coming on the market all the time and there's more than enough guys that think new things are almost always better. I use AGM batteries and most of my anchors are way different than what I knew as a young man. Dripless propeller shaft seals don't drip but who needs a dripless seal? That's another place where I'm going to go back to the time tested product. Wanting to be looked up to by lesser and average people who use lesser and average things is at least connected to the ego but we're attracted to newer stuff that just plain works better also like Marin's anchor and his Bristol finish. I have far higher tech stuff that works better too but it dosn't look to me like there's any clear best way to go on varnish. I'll stay w oil base.

I bought two Bristol kits in early 01/13. In the process now of applying. Tried to call Bristol tody, phones have been disconnected. Investigated further and was told the compnay is closed and in the process of being sold. Could not find out if the new buyer will keep factory in Melbourne,Fl. or move it someplace else.

Flatsflyer,
One of the downsides to using fast evolving hot new products.

Call the folks at Fisheries Supply. Talk to the resident painting expert and ask him if there is a compatible or equivalent product.

Be a shame if the product leaves the market. We've had wonderful success with it and wouldn't want to have to come up with something else to replace it.

manyboats said:

Flatsflyer,
One of the downsides to using fast evolving hot new products.

Call the folks at Fisheries Supply. Talk to the resident painting expert and ask him if there is a compatible or equivalent product.

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Eric, it seams that Fisheries Supply is a stocking dealer for Bristol.

Bristol Finish High Performance Wood Coatings | Fisheries Supply

Not good at all. The small bottle of catalyst dries out in storage long before the can. On a separate note I watched an owner put it on his 75' that's right 75' Flemming two days ago. I told him I had a problem with bubbling when I used it in the past. He said they had never had such a problem. Went by today and guess what, the same small bubbles I could not avoid. Yes I applied in the shade in the afternoon a the wood was cooling.

I keep the catalyst for my Honey Teak in the refrigerator. Lasts at least a year that way.

Good tip!

Flatsflyer beat me to it. Bristol called us a couple of weeks ago to see if we wanted to buy their remaining stock. We didn't. I got a request for some from a guy in Turks and Caicos yesterday so I tried to call Bristol and like Flatsflyer got the message saying the phones were disconnected.

HopCar said:

Flatsflyer beat me to it. Bristol called us a couple of weeks ago to see if we wanted to buy their remaining stock. We didn't. I got a request for some from a guy in Turks and Caicos yesterday so I tried to call Bristol and like Flatsflyer got the message saying the phones were disconnected.

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This is not good. I sure hope someone takes the company over and continue selling this amazing product. I used to use traditional varnish and had to do an annual 2-coat maintenance. This is with covers. Without the covers I got 9-10 months. Then I switched to Bristol which lasts 2 years uncovered. It is so nice not having to cover brightwork anymore. Add to that I only get a varnishing bill every 2 years instead of annually.

We've never had a problem with bubbling using Bristol. If there is any moisture on the wood it can do this but we never apply it after about 4:00 pm in the summer months and so have never had any problem with moisture.

We store the catalyst after it's been opened in the refrigerator with wax paper over the opening and threads under the cap and electrical tape wrapped tightly around the joint between the cap and the bottle. This keeps the catalyst usable for a long time although not indefinitely.

Bristol's website is still up...but that doesn't mean much....

Psssst..... Just so you know...if you can't get their tropical reducer...you can use Tom Fabula's "Signature Finish Flow Fluid"......same ingredients....and works.