When the glue-lam beams for the deck needed to be installed a few weeks ago, Tom Thompson, the painter wanted to use Bona, an oil finish with chemical ingredients, but I wanted to use a more natural finish. So we tried Broda, a water based wood oil available at the local building supply. However, due to the factory-applied oil or wax finish of the glue-lams, the application of Broda resulted in a blotchy finish.
So we ended up sticking with Bona for the deck beams.
In the following weeks I organized some samples of Bioshield #3 oil stain finish and Landark concentrated finishing oil, two natural wood oil finishes available in the area (actually I just got a sample size of Landark from the Building Tree in Nelson, and I still had some Bioshield left over from a project at home that I had obtained from Sunfire Systems in Lumby), some pieces of pine (ceiling) and cedar (siding) T&G and a piece of glue-lam beam cut-off, and applied two coats of both to these wood samples. I also applied a coat of these natural oils to a piece of glue-lam already finished with Bona, to make sure it would be compatible, if another coat was desired on the deck beams.
Bioshield samples
Landark samples
When this was done I had a meeting with my clients and discussed the results. Both products had a very similar finish, but the Bioshield made the glue-lam a little bit darker and duller. This may be due to a different reaction between the oil ingredients and the glue in the glue-lam.
The added benefit of Landark is that the Building Tree offers Nano Zinc Oxide, an additive that adds UV protection to the oil finish.
The next day, my client phoned in the morning, saying that the shipment of glue-lam roof beams had arrived and the painter was ready to stain the beams, and if I could come to the site with the samples for an emergency meeting!
On site I showed the samples to Chris and Tom and we all agreed that Landark had a nice finish and the best results on the gluelam beams. Both Shawn Handley (carpenter) and Christopher Peterson (timberframer) had had good experience using this product themselves, convincing the client of the longevity of the product.
In the meantime Tom was joking he would miss his headache, working with this natural product!
It happened that Shawn had half a pale left from finishing his own house, complete with UV additive so Tom went and got that right away! -If I had known this a few weeks ago!
Samples on the tailgate.
However, when I stopped by the site a few days later, I learned that the Landark did not dry fast enough (after 12 hours it still felt tacky) and it had been decided to use the Bona after all…
In the meantime, the home owner had ordered two 3 foot pieces of steel siding to finalize the colour choices. The grey metallic will be cladding the majority of wall surface and the bright red will be for some accents, together with the cedar.
Steel siding samples
Steel siding with wood siding and beam samples.
