[bostonwindows]

Made a nice picnic table out of pt wood came out great, looking to stain it.. What's a good stain to make it look old but dark,??? And when sanding it what should I start with and end with???

 

[Steve Neul]

Well before you really consider staining treated wood you need to let is dry really good. If it felt wet when you were building it, it would be October before it was ready to stain. If it felt dry and light in weight like dimension lumber then you could probably stain it. If it was somewhere inbetween you might be able to stain it in September. Cutting and fabricating treated wood is bad enough but if you are going to sand it I would get a chemical respirator first. The wood contains dangerous chemicals which the sanding dust would be especially bad. Depending on how smooth the wood was to begin with I would probably use an orbital sander with 80x paper to begin with, then 120x, then if you want it to look old you might beat it up with a chain with screws and bolts attached to it to distress it. Then finish the sanding with 180x sandpaper. For a finish I would probably use Woodscapes exterior polyurethane semi-transparent stain from Sherwin Williams. It's a tint base so they would be able to pretty much mix up any color you wish.

 

[bostonwindows]

Awesome thank you..

 

[bostonwindows]

Should I sand it??

 

[Steve Neul]

Should I sand it??

Normally a picnic table isn't done to the same level of craftsmanship inside furniture is and it's not sanded. Having said that though there is no reason it can't. The picnic table I built I sanded it and stained and finished it with a spar varnish. A lot would depend on how smooth the treated wood was to begin with. Some of it is very smooth with only the mill marks and some of it has tear out places where is was roughly surfaced. You will just have to make the call based on the condition of your table.

 

[rossp]

I'm in the same position - my key question is less what to use, but how long to leave the table before finishing. I made it in June from PT wood, some of which was pretty wet then. Should I be trying to finish this before the Fall/winter? realistically, it's going to be outside in the winter, without a cover, if that makes a difference.