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Gardening & Landscaping

Advice sought on summerhouse treatments!

Anonymous user 23/02/2024 - 3.30 PM

Hi there. We need to treat a summerhouse that has yet to have been built, and would appreciate any suggestions or input. The plan had been to treat all of the wood before building it, and to then paint it after. The complication we have though is that two sides of the summerhouse will be inaccessible for painting once constructed. My plan had therefore been to treat everything before erection, and then paint just the two visible sides after. However I can't seem to find a treatment that is good enough to protect the summerhouse without paint (for the inaccessible sides) but then also allows me to paint the other sides. For example I had narrowed it down to Sadolin wood preserver or Barrettine - Sadolin though needs painting or further treatment after, which is impossible for us to do after it's built for two sides. Barrettine premier wood preserver looks the better option, but I've just realised that it has wax in it, which means we can't use water-based paint on it after.... (which most wood paints seem to be). They do have a different product that doesn't contain wax, but this isn't waterproof enough to be left unpainted for the two inaccessible sides........ Ultimately we are looking for a treatment that is top quality and ideally solvent-based, which can then be painted (with water-based paints) but is also good enough as a stand-alone treatment for the two sides that can't be painted! Does such a thing exist? Alternatively if anyone has any better suggestions as to what we should do then they'd be very welcome! My only other question/thought is whether you can use an oil-based paint on a wax-containing treatment - I've found an Osmo paint which is oil based, but it gives no indication as to whether this would work with the wax-containing barrettine wood preserver...... Many thanks in advance. Dave

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4 Answers

c a decor

Rating: 5 out of 5

Wigan

To be honest i wouldnt treat anything until it it erected because the wood may swell and then you wont be able to put it together For the underneath and sides if you had to do them just use some really thin varnish or some thin ronseal colour then at least it has something on it rather than nothing

Answered30 March 2020

Laker Locks & Maintenance

Rating: 4.7 out of 5

Lincoln

Treating it prior to erection wont cause it to swell or prevent it from being assembled. You would need to soak it for a long period of time for that to happen!! A simple weather seal by Sadolin or Romseal will do the job and allow paint to be applied if you pick up a non oil based.

Answered30 March 2020

Jb turf and Landscapes ltd

Rating: 5 out of 5

Ipswich

I would always treat the timber before erecting the summerhouse. After having one myself for years. I have not had to treat it again. The tounge and groove built summer houses need to be treated before erected. If you paint them before hand you may have a problem with fitting. But a good oil based treatment will last for years

Answered1 April 2020

Anonymous user

Best to use nothing less in quality than Sadolin, but was also thinking that if you have a surface that is going to tight up against a fence I do recommend using grey aluminium primer on that surface, two or even three coats will adequately protect the timber on that plane albeit grey in colour but would that be an issue if it's tight to another structure.

Answered2 April 2020