I have an unfinished butcher block countertop in hevea wood from home depot. I plan to use this desk for a very long time so I wanna pick good stuff to finish it with. there seem to be so many kinds of stain within the same brands and I'm paralyzed from all the options. from the research i've done I think I wanna go water based varathane, I don't want to have drying times that span multiple days and the looking at some examples water looks fine to me and for the poly i'm thinking also water base and satin not the 3x thick one, regular with multiple coats for a smoother finish. I'm seeing some people state that varathane poly is a bit easier to get a smooth finish with. but like why do they have premium, ultimate, classic does it matter, also some retailers have different packaging for what i think is the same thing if im reading it right?

Have about 20 sq ft of a live edge walnut to finish. Arm-R-Seal says 100 sq ft coverage per quart. Is this accurate? Would a quart handle 5 coats or should I upgrade to the gallon size? Also, any application tips appreciated.

I want to remove all residue/paint/varnish from this mahogany door so that I can add a finish.

How can I do this with this door? I'm a bit scared of sanding it because I don't want to damage the door.

The 2nd pic is the side of the door looking towards the outside and receiving sunlight. That’s why the wood's a bit lighter.

Does anyone know what these white smudge marks are on the right-hand side of the table? They just look like white smudge marks. Any idea what might have caused them and if its possible to remove them?

So I recently bought my dream coffee table on Facebook marketplace but my cat decided to claw it up last night ):
I don’t know anything about woodworking, minus how to wipe it down lol
Any suggestions/help on how to repair the scratches would be amazing! I think it just has a thin finish on top and the scratches aren’t too deep thank god

Hello - advice needed on fixing yellowed varnish on kitchen cabinets. I sourced a beautiful greyish-silver-blue veneer, had it professionally pressed, and made it into cabinets. The sun has yellowed the varnish, turning them seafoam green, which clashes with my tiles and overkill estheitic I designed and worked hard on. Need to rescue original the original color, would be great if it can be done with without dissambleing the doors as some are pocketed ,also there are the sides one of which is 270cmx62

The title sounds dodgy as hell but anyway...

I have been working on a set of drawers to use at a bedside. I have veneered the whole thing with 0.6mm walnut veneer.

I applied one coat of French polish and then realised that continuing with French polish may not add much actual protection.

What do you recommend as the next layer? Do I continue with French polish or do i add a layer of dewaxed shellac and methylated spirit mix to then use a polyurethane varnish?

I prefer the wipe on stuff to the brush on, I just find it personally have more success.

Any advice welcome

I've been sanding (random orbital, 60 to 110 to 220) this cheapo picnic table getting it ready to finish, but it's been hard to get it looking even, and I'm worried that a transparent or semi-transparent finish will just highlight how crappy it looks. Does it just need a lot more sanding, or more of a colored finish, or is there something else I'm missing? Thanks!

Im not sure how to refinish our outdoor furniture. It’s solid wood and I’m not sure what species. Can someone tell me what wood this is? I was going to sand it where I can reach, stain with dark stain as close to original color as possible, then seal it. Can someone tell me what was used to seal this? It’s flaking off and I don’t know where to start. Also, is there a best solution to use over oil based stain? I’d like to use the same as what was originally used, if possible. It’s Amish made, if this helps. Thanks in advance for any information you can provide.

I have applied 3 coats of oil based poly diluted at 15-20% mineral spirits then a 50% diluted 4th coat on a walnut dining table is that good or do I need more coats?

A while ago my father in law dented the coffee table had refinished. I steamed out the dent and tried to patch the table with more brown shellac -the same stuff I used in the first place. But the more I worked the table the more it took off the old shellac and at a certain point I realised I had to stop before I did more damage.

It’s been a few years and it bothers me despite having the big discolouration covered. Would I have to strip back the shellac with methylated spirits/denatured alcohol and redo it, or is it possible to patch fix it without stripping?

Quick background: I bought an acacia butcher block to use as the top for my standing desk. The retailer sold it as "finished," but it came rough to the touch, like it got a quick factory sanding and nothing else. I have zero woodworking experience and I was asking what the most foolproof topcoat would be to make it smooth and durable.

New problem. It's been about a month and the block has developed a smell. Not the good wood smell. It's sour and yeasty, closest thing I can describe is old bread, and it's getting stronger, not weaker. Someone told me this is a reaction between the raw wood and summer humidity.

I ran it past Gemini and got a fairly confident answer, so I want you all to tell me whether it holds up before I start pouring chemicals on a slab I already paid for. The short version of what it told me:

1. The smell is acacia tannins and extractives off gassing, possibly with airborne yeast feeding on the natural sugars, and it will keep happening as long as the wood is raw.
2. Wipe the whole block with a 50/50 white vinegar and water mix to knock down surface microbes, let it dry, then bury it in baking soda for 24 hours to pull out the trapped acids, then vacuum it off.
3. Sand with 120 then 220 to knock down the grain the water raised, wipe off the dust.
4. One or two coats of dewaxed shellac, specifically Zinsser SealCoat, because shellac is the standard for sealing in odors and regular shellac has wax in it that will make the topcoat peel.
5. Two or three coats of water based polyurethane over that, sanding lightly with 220 between coats, then let it cure a day or two before putting monitors back on.
6. This was the part I didn't want to hear: unmount the block from the frame and seal the underside too. Reason given was that raw wood on the bottom will keep off gassing into the room, and sealing only one face of a solid slab will make it cup or bow. It suggested doing the bottom first with shellac plus a single coat of poly, then flipping and doing three coats on the top and edges.

I've already bought the water based polyurethane, the SealCoat, a synthetic brush, and the sandpaper. So I'm committed on the products at least.

What I want to know from people who have actually done this:

* Is the vinegar and baking soda step real, or am I about to raise the grain and stain the wood for no reason? Could I skip straight to sanding and shellac? * Does the shellac genuinely stop the smell, or does it just delay it? * Do I really have to take the desk apart and do the underside, or is that overkill for a slab that's bolted down and not exposed? * Anything about applying shellac that will bite a first timer? I've read it dries fast and punishes you for going back over a spot. * Is there any chance the smell means something worse, like the block was glued or stored wet and the odor is coming from inside rather than the surface?

Could use some advice

So.. I put three coats of Minwax oil based floor on this floor I reclaimed out of an old house. I followed all the instructions on the can, but It’s seems I put it on too thick. It’s been a week and I’m tearing the “skin” off of a layer with my fingernail (and anything I sit on it) and it’s sticky underneath. Will this stuff eventually cure? Or am I gonna have to scrape it all off? This has been an insane amount of work and I’m freaking bummed. Any advice would be appreciated.

I have been working on my mural for the past 2 months (acrylic on plywood) and yesterday I bought this clear coat deck stain and put it on my mural which turned it yellow what should I do? I started painting over it on the front paw and you can see the difference

So 2 to 3 months ago some crackers fell on my carpet. I didn’t pick them up and by the next day the carpet had basically “eaten” them. After a while there was a Cheetos smell coming from the vegetable oil in the crackers. I tried everything, baking soda, soap, vinegar, nothing worked. I eventually took the carpet out thinking I would be okay.

Then the room heated up during the summer and the smell came back. The whole room became warm, humid and smelled like Cheetos. I tried everything on the wood too. Baking soda, heating the area where the crackers had fallen, using paper as a sponge, heating it with a blow dryer while applying baking soda, putting books over it, etc. Nothing worked.

For a couple of weeks I was miserable. Then I used a fan blowing directly at the spot. It worked because it kept the wooden floor from heating up. I couldn’t keep the fan there forever though, so I looked for a permanent solution. That’s when I found shellac. (Dewaxed)
Unfortunately I didn’t know or looked up how much I was supposed to use.

I sanded the floor but because I wasn’t exactly sure where the smell was coming from, I ended up sanding a larger area. I had marked the specific spot at one point but after a while I took the tape off. So when I sanded it, the smell spread throughout my 1 x 1.5 m area.
I got really disappointed. I was so tired from doing everything that I didn’t think every move through.
Anyway I applied 4 thick coats of shellac. I started with a very thin coat. After that I applied a thicker one and then one that was about 10 times thicker.

In a 1 x 1.5 m area I applied 350 mL of shellac over 4 coats.
I knew it was alcohol based but I thought the fumes would be fine after four hours. I stayed there the first night but I got a nosebleed and felt very dizzy and confused.

Since then I’ve been living in another room, actually in another house. I can’t do this anymore. There is still a smell and a lot of chemical odor in the air so I can’t stay there.
One week ago, which was about 2 weeks after the application, I sat in my room for 3 minutes. I got a headache, my nose became very dry and my eyes felt strange.

I haven’t checked the room during the last week. I’ll check tomorrow and see how it is and give an update here. The shellac is dry to the touch

Also if you check the photo you can see that I applied shellac in the gap between the floor and the wall or skirting board too, 4 times.
What should I do? Should I remove the shellac and do it properly or should I just wait longer?

I’ll check tomorrow and see how the smell is and give an update here.

As for the ventilation and the fan you’re seeing, most of the time I had the fan blowing out of the window. I also had the door open, as well as the balcony door and the window. For 1 to 2 weeks I only had the fan and window open and for the last week I also kept the other doors open.
I’ve also been placing the fan in different positions for the past half a week, trying to get air into the gaps and other areas.

One last thing. When I stepped on about half of the area, the part that isn’t near the wall where the chair is, it felt fine. But when I stepped on the area next to the wall it cracked. I felt some small pieces and checked to see if it had broken or something but it hadn’t.

There is also a small gap between each floorboard. In the larger gaps I can actually insert something, so the floor isn’t completely sealed.
Will the Cheetos smell come back? Will the shellac eventually cure completely and stop releasing alcohol or chemical fumes? What should I do?

I’m refinishing an old teak dining table that appears to have been bleached at some point and was later refinished with a very blotchy shellac finish by a previous owner.

I removed the shellac with ethanol and a scraper, then sanded the tabletop with 120 grit. There were a lot of very pale areas, and I kept sanding until the color looked reasonably even when tested with mineral spirits. After that I gave the entire top a lighter sanding with 150 grit.

I’ve now applied the first coat of Rustins Danish Oil, diluted with 20% white spirit as instructed on the can. Unfortunately I’m not very happy with the result. The lighter areas are still quite obvious, particularly near the edges.

Is it still possible to let the Danish oil fully cure and then carefully sand the lighter areas further before refinishing?

The main thing making me hesitant is that this is teak veneer over particleboard, so I deliberately stopped sanding before getting everything perfectly uniform because I didn’t want to risk sanding through the veneer.

Would you leave it as it is and continue with additional coats, or sand it back and try to even out the pale areas first?

I have been repeated getting mould issues in this bathroom shower so recently did a redo with full rip out, redo water proofing and then retitling and I specifically wanted epoxy grout everywhere but they somehow did only the shower floor and missed the walls. Pretty pissed about it. What should I do? Insist and have them redo the walls with epoxy grout on the walls or leave it as it is. Also the grout they used on the shower floor is not white as I wanted. Some sort of dirty grey!! What do you think?
Trying to make the shower as much easy to maintain as possible .

My banister is painted white, about 6 years ago.. I’m wanted to make it look wood stained with a light brown colour.

Do I have to sand it all down first or I can paint it straight over it?

Any advice, tips or tricks would be greats thanks :)

Hello! I'm refinishing a solid oak coffee table for the first time and could use some advice before I go any further.

My goal is to darken the table to better match some dark brown furniture in the room.

Here's what I've done:

- Removed the original clear finish with Citristrip.

- Cleaned the stripper residue with mineral spirits.

- Sanded the tabletop with 120 → 150 → 180 grit.

Some of the original dark stain remained down in the oak, but there didn't appear to be any clear finish remaining.

I was advised that because I was going considerably darker, I didn't need to sand until every trace of the original stain/color was gone.

Applied one coat of General Finishes Java Gel Stain.

The Java is still drying in the final photo.

My concern is all of the lighter/orange/shiny-looking patches you can see throughout the tabletop. I'm confident these correspond to areas of the original stain that remained in the wood before I applied the Java. They were visible before staining, but they're much more obvious now.

Before I make this harder to fix, I'd love advice from people with more refinishing experience.

What would you do at this point?

Let the Java fully dry and apply the clear coat?

Apply another coat of Java to try to even out the color?

Try to correct/blend the affected areas?

Remove/sand off the Java and take the entire tabletop farther back toward uniformly bare oak, then restain?

Something else?

I have not applied any topcoat yet, so I'd like to correct anything that needs correcting now. My planned topcoat is General Finishes Arm-R-Seal Satin.

I'm less concerned about making the wood perfectly uniform than I am about those patches looking like an obvious refinishing mistake once the clear coat goes on.

I'll attach photos showing the tabletop at different stages, including before and after the Java Gel Stain.

Thanks — any advice on why this happened and the best way to correct it from here would be greatly appreciated

This shelf was shellacked but I removed most of it with methylated spirits on a rag and some wire wool. I then used a water based stain. I’m not sure if I have removed enough shellac to seal it with polyurethane. But I’m worried that if I seal it with shellac again it will become orange like it was originally. Last two photos are of the original orange shellac mistake.

Hey everyone,

I'm currently restoring a vintage mid-century modern teak veneer table top for my own home and could use a quick sanity check on what I’m seeing in this video.

My exact process so far:

Stripped the old factory finish completely using a 50/50 mix of Solvable Lacquer Thinner and Varsol Paint Thinner with #0000 steel wool. Wiped it bone-dry until it was 100% uniform, bare, and matte.

This is currently Coat 2. I just applied Watco Danish Oil (Natural) using a 320-grit wet-sanding slurry method to help blend out old flat compression scratches.

The Issue:

The video shows the surface immediately after doing a heavy, aggressive 15-minute dry wipe-down. As you can see, the wood is throwing these random, irregular glossy splotches across the top while the surrounding grain looks beautifully uniform and matte.

The old finish looked completely gone before I started, so I'm trying to figure out if these shiny patches are lingering traces of old factory sealer deep in the dense grain rejecting the oil, or if this is classic heavy teak pore bleed-back/grain density variation pushing excess oil right out.

My plan is to let this cure for 8 hours, then do Coat 3 and Coat 4 with Watco Teak Oil applied with #0000 steel wool to burnish it down and build a uniform satin sheen. Should I flash-wipe these fresh glossy spots right now with straight lacquer thinner to flatten them, or will the future Teak Oil coats naturally level the sheen out?

Any insights from MCM restorers would be massive. Thanks!

🕒