I have a couple of hardwood doors and frames on the West side of my house, it is a coastal area and they catch the afternoon sun.
They were fitted about 8 years ago, before fitting I treated doors and frames with plenty of Cuprinol, and several coats of Dulux ?Woodsheen? translucent stain and I have treated them a couple of times since. This may have been a bit optimistic for such an exposed position, I use the same system on my similar front door which is sheltered by an open porch and it has lasted well.
The finish on the door sills lasts particularly badly. Being an idle slug I do not re-treat it often enough, it erodes and the wood develops small cracks along the grain while the frames and doors are still fairly glossy. I do not know what the timber is; the frames and doors are in a common mahogany substitute, very pale, slightly pink when cut. The sills are in a heavier timber, orange-brown in colour, and darker. Appears typical for these hardwood frames.
It seems to me that if I sand it down thoroughly every couple of years to smooth timber and recoat, I will in time sand away the whole sill.
Is there another finish that would last better? If necessary I would move to a gloss paint system, although as the doors are part glazed and panelled (Alicante) it would be a real drag to sand them back to clean wood.
Incidentally, I have some softwood shiplap cladding adjacent to the doors, which I treat with a water based "shed and fence" stain, I find this very quick and easy to do, and would not mind finding a treatment I could use on both cladding and doors to match colour and treatment.
They were fitted about 8 years ago, before fitting I treated doors and frames with plenty of Cuprinol, and several coats of Dulux ?Woodsheen? translucent stain and I have treated them a couple of times since. This may have been a bit optimistic for such an exposed position, I use the same system on my similar front door which is sheltered by an open porch and it has lasted well.
The finish on the door sills lasts particularly badly. Being an idle slug I do not re-treat it often enough, it erodes and the wood develops small cracks along the grain while the frames and doors are still fairly glossy. I do not know what the timber is; the frames and doors are in a common mahogany substitute, very pale, slightly pink when cut. The sills are in a heavier timber, orange-brown in colour, and darker. Appears typical for these hardwood frames.
It seems to me that if I sand it down thoroughly every couple of years to smooth timber and recoat, I will in time sand away the whole sill.
Is there another finish that would last better? If necessary I would move to a gloss paint system, although as the doors are part glazed and panelled (Alicante) it would be a real drag to sand them back to clean wood.
Incidentally, I have some softwood shiplap cladding adjacent to the doors, which I treat with a water based "shed and fence" stain, I find this very quick and easy to do, and would not mind finding a treatment I could use on both cladding and doors to match colour and treatment.