Hi all!
New guy here. I’ve undertaken a fairly (for me, anyway!) ambitious project of building a 6’ octagon which houses a center Weber Grill for on-the-fly grilling and imbibing. It’s built 100% out of Cypress which I’ve read to be a great choice for outdoor furniture. I’ve covered it in 5 coats of Epifanes Clear Gloss and then 3 coats of Epifanes Matte. I’ve gone out of my way to not skimp or cut corners. I’ve got a TON of money in this project and even more time. It was completely wrapped and looked amazing in the workshop. I took it out to the back yard and that’s when things went south…quickly.
The weekend I brought it out was a crazy heatwave and further, over the last month it’s been out, it’s splitting all butted board seams AND starting to develop a few internal cracks mid-board. The table top consists of 8/4×8” Cypress and all boards are just looking ugly and I’m starting to worry about overall integrity at this point. Odd thing is that the base is 100% perfect…not even one seam is separating.
This is leading me to believe that the direct sun on the table top is just accelerating the expansion and likely the drying of the wood. The temp I am getting on the table top in sunlight is 160+…not good, I know.
My question for the pros here: What’s my play to get this table top back in shape for the long haul? Do need to wait another month and see if the expansion stops? At that time do I fill seams and cracks with epoxy resin and just sand the hell out of it and refinish? Luckily, I inserted biscuits every 15” or so in all of the butts and I think that may be really helping at this point.
The pics attached show the expanded seams. These do not really illustrate how bad it’s become. Before it found it’s way outside, I had a hard time finding the butt seams…it was that clean…
Please lend some advice and info to the guy who didn’t let the lumber acclimate in the heat before I went crazy with the tools…
Thanks much,
Nick
New guy here. I’ve undertaken a fairly (for me, anyway!) ambitious project of building a 6’ octagon which houses a center Weber Grill for on-the-fly grilling and imbibing. It’s built 100% out of Cypress which I’ve read to be a great choice for outdoor furniture. I’ve covered it in 5 coats of Epifanes Clear Gloss and then 3 coats of Epifanes Matte. I’ve gone out of my way to not skimp or cut corners. I’ve got a TON of money in this project and even more time. It was completely wrapped and looked amazing in the workshop. I took it out to the back yard and that’s when things went south…quickly.
The weekend I brought it out was a crazy heatwave and further, over the last month it’s been out, it’s splitting all butted board seams AND starting to develop a few internal cracks mid-board. The table top consists of 8/4×8” Cypress and all boards are just looking ugly and I’m starting to worry about overall integrity at this point. Odd thing is that the base is 100% perfect…not even one seam is separating.
This is leading me to believe that the direct sun on the table top is just accelerating the expansion and likely the drying of the wood. The temp I am getting on the table top in sunlight is 160+…not good, I know.
My question for the pros here: What’s my play to get this table top back in shape for the long haul? Do need to wait another month and see if the expansion stops? At that time do I fill seams and cracks with epoxy resin and just sand the hell out of it and refinish? Luckily, I inserted biscuits every 15” or so in all of the butts and I think that may be really helping at this point.
The pics attached show the expanded seams. These do not really illustrate how bad it’s become. Before it found it’s way outside, I had a hard time finding the butt seams…it was that clean…
Please lend some advice and info to the guy who didn’t let the lumber acclimate in the heat before I went crazy with the tools…
Thanks much,
Nick
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