Thread: What finish on exterior marine handrail?

No doubt you'll get a few different responses here, but speaking for myself I wouldn't use stain and I wouldn't use varnish. What I would use is Marine Teak Oil -- Norglass' Weatherfast, to be precise. At least three coats (more if you like) applied wet-on-wet to ensure maximum penetration.

Originally Posted by strangerep

Any advice/suggestions? What do people normally use for a long-lived attractive finish on exterior marine handrails?

Stainless Steel.

How long-lived is long-lived?

I understand that most clear finishes on timber outlive the timber substrate, or to be more correct, break down through loss of adhesion because the timber degrades rather than the paint film doing so.

If you use an oil-type finish and re-apply it diligently, you won't have a problem.

If you use a polymerising finish such as the one Mike recommends (and I like it a lot by the way- used to use it on my big boats before I saw the light and stopped using anything!) you'll have to remove it before recoating if you want to achieve the same "oiled" look.

If you use a varnish, it's only as good as the level of UV inhibitor in the product. Generally the more expensive the product the more inhibitor, but not always. You may even get a few years out of it.

If you want a gloss finish with minimum maintenance intervals, give the rail a couple of coats of epoxy using UV retarders in the hardener (like Bote Cote non-yellowing hardener) THEN use three to five coats of good quality spar varnish. You may get five years, and a relatively easy recoat, without the need to resand the lot. (This is how I finish my small boats, which are kept under cover, and basically I think of that as a no maintenance finish. One boat is just about due for a recoat after nearly 12 years)

The timber bits on my patio furniture are different. I let the oil weather away, sand the timber with a fine grain sandpaper occasionally, then wet it and give it a scrub with steel wool (or a green scourer).

It's grey, smooth, and never needs repainting, and I think that's what I'd be doing with the handrail in question! (I'd probably start with it oiled, but in three or four years' time it'd look like it had never been anyway)

Cheers,

P
.